With it becoming increasingly difficult to find a new graphics card at acceptable prices, one of the best methods to get your game on in 2018 might be to opt for one of Intel's new AMD combo chips, that combines an eighth-generation Core CPU with an AMD Vega graphics chip on the same die. These chips are now being bundled into micro-form-factor Intel NUC PCs and they are absolutely minuscule, but surprisingly powerful.
The Hades Canyon NUC Mini PC was spotted by Korean hardware site, Playwares (via PCGamesN) and it combines an Intel Core i7-8809 CPU (four cores, eight threads, boost clock of 4.2GHz), with a 24 compute unit Vega core paired up with 4GB of HBM 2 memory.
To give you some context there, the Intel CPU should perform comparably to a last-generation Core i7 CPU, while the Vega chip should be about 1/3 as powerful as an AMD Vega 56. It's a decent gaming chip in that it could likely handle VR gaming, or AAA games at medium settings at 1080P resolutions and that's more than enough for most gamers.
However, this NUC doesn't stop there. It's been overlocked on the CPU, memory and graphics core, which makes it possible to play games like Rise of the Tomb Raider at Ultra presets. For more mid-tier games like Battlegrounds, this NUC can put out average frame rates in excess of 60 while on maximum settings. That's seriously impressive for such a small system.
All in all, this NUC shows that the future of gaming can be small, compact and powerful. It will be pricey though. We don't know what the cost will be just yet, but we'd expect it to be north of $1,000.
Image source: PlayWares
