



Intel first announced its Hades Canon NUC back at CES , and it packs quite a lot of power into a pint-sized package. While Intel NUCs don't generally get as much attention as they deserve, Hades Canyon is partially special given that it is powered by Intel's latest 8generation Kaby Lake-G processors with on-package Radeon RX Vega M GPUs

Korean hardware site Playwares has posted the first benchmarks of Hades Canyon, which in this case is powered by a Core i7-8809G processor. This particular chip comes integrated with the most powerful version of AMD's Radeon RX Vega M, the "GH" SKU. With that in mind, take a look at the benchmarks below to get a feel for what kind of gaming performance to expect.





Taken at face value, these numbers are looking quite good for those seeking a small, integrated PC gaming solution. The Core i7-8809G is packing a lot more GPU muscle than AMD's Ryzen 5 2400G "Raven Ridge” APUs -- as you would expect given its more premium pricing -- and that shows with the benchmark numbers. Benchmarks were performed at both default clocks and when overclocked.





Things are looking especially good for the Core i7-8809G in the Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Division benchmarks at 1080p/Ultra presets. Overall, performance is about where we expected to see, and falls in line with the guidance that Intel provided. That means performance that should slot in between an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti and the GeForce GTX 1060.

All of this sounds good, but we really need to see pricing to determine how viable a solution Hades Canyon will be for enthusiasts and gamers. Given that cryptocurrency miners have pretty much raided supplies of current generation GPUs from the low-end to the high-end, it will be interesting to see how Intel prices Hades Canyon (and Kaby Lake-G in general). With a relatively potent GPU under the hood, it could be an attractive proposition for gamers and crypto-miners alike, that otherwise might not be able to secure a GPU to further their mining obsessions, if the price is right.