New details have surfaced on Intel's next-generation NUC systems - built with the intention to carry the highest performance density per available chassis capacity in the computer market (the aim is a 1.35 L case). We already knew Intel's Panther Canyon NUC would bring about their Tiger Lake-U designs would be carrying the company's Tiger Lake-U CPUs, which should combine next-generation "Willow Cove" CPU cores with an iGPU based on Intel's new Xe graphics architecture. A new piece of data here, as has been reported, is that Intel is also working on an enthusiast-class NUC under the "Phantom Canyon" moniker, which should bring about increased graphics performance.

Even if Intel's graphics architecture is a mindblowing performance improvement over their current graphics technologies, there's only so much an integrated graphics solution can do. Now, we seemingly have confirmation, via a 3D Max Benchmark, that Intel's Panther Canyon will be paired with an NVIDIA GeForce 1660 Ti graphics card (scoring 5,355 points). The 3D Mark TimeSpy test system uses a TigerLake-U engineering sample clocked at 2.3 GHz base and 4.4 GHz boost, alongside an 80 W NVIDIA GTX 1660 Ti (Notebook) and 8 GB of RAM.Expect those ES clocks to increase in final silicon; however, those are already some respectable numbers for such a small enclosure - especially if the CPU model really a 28 W one, as is being speculated. Further speculation places the Intel "Phantom Canyon" NUC, with its "Enthusiast" Performance, as making use of an NVIDIA RTX 2070 Max-Q, which has the same 80 W TDP as the GTX 1660 Ti notebook version.