The Asus NUC 14 Professional AI is the newest mini PC from the Taiwanese model. This explicit mannequin was introduced in December of final yr and was the primary mini PC to function Intel’s new Core Extremely processors (Sequence 2) together with Microsoft Copilot+.
The mannequin we have now right here at present is the flagship variant with the Intel Core Extremely 9 288V with 32GB of LPDDR5X reminiscence. Asus sells this system as a barebones PC, that means it doesn’t embrace storage out of the field however our unit did include 1TB SSD included for testing.
Earlier than going additional into the testing, it is value noting the worth. It’s kind of difficult to get the pricing for Asus’ NUC fashions and even if you’re a buyer it’s essential request a quote from the corporate to buy it. We have been knowledgeable that the mannequin we have been despatched prices round $1100 however there is no affirmation on the precise MSRP in addition to what the opposite variants are priced at.
With that out of the way in which, let’s get on with the evaluate.
Design
The Asus NUC 14 Professional AI has a well-recognized design. It might be honest to say that it has been impressed by the brand new Mac mini to some extent, contemplating Asus’ earlier NUC fashions all had a boxy form.
The form is the place the similarities finish because the NUC 14 Professional AI is nowhere close to as enticing or well-built because the Mac mini. As an alternative, the design is extra utilitarian with a concentrate on a lot of simply accessible ports and uncovered air vents on the aspect. The physique is generally plastic aside from the detachable metallic lid on the underside. Asus claims the NUC 14 Professional AI is constructed to final with its military-grade MIL-STD-810H ranking for sturdiness.
The highest of the physique options the Asus NUC brand with a delicate print round it. Within the reverse nook is a fingerprint sensor that works with Home windows Hey.
The entrance of the system is sort of busy with a number of ports, an influence button, and a devoted Copilot key, which could be configured to do different issues in Home windows settings. On the appropriate aspect of the unit is the consumption vent, from which the air is pulled into the unit after which exhausted out the vent on the again. The left aspect additionally has a dummy vent together with a Kensington lock slot. Then on the again are a number of extra ports together with the aforementioned exhaust.
The underside of the unit is a single detachable panel, which comes undone with a easy locking mechanism. This gives entry to the SSD slot, which as talked about to start with, ought to come empty and needs to be populated by the consumer. You even have entry to the pre-installed Intel wi-fi adapter however that is just about the extent of what is consumer accessible. Issues like reminiscence are built-in throughout the CPU die.
Whereas the NUC 14 Professional AI is not profitable the wonder contest subsequent to the Mac mini, it actually wins within the total port choice division. It additionally gives a lot simpler entry to the insides and whereas upgradability is restricted, it could nonetheless be helpful for upkeep causes. Lastly, the built-in fingerprint sensor can be a pleasant contact and doesn’t require investing in costly aftermarket equipment.
{Hardware}
The Asus NUC 14 Professional AI runs on Intel’s newest era Intel Core Extremely 200V sequence of chips based mostly on the corporate’s Lunar Lake structure. These new chips use a unified design, with built-in CPU, GPU, NPU, and reminiscence inside a single bundle. Asus provides a selection of 5 totally different CPU fashions, which embrace the Core Extremely 5 226V and 228V, Core Extremely 7 256V and 258V, and eventually, the Core Extremely 9 288V that we have now in our unit.
The entire chips have 4x P-cores and 4x E-cores with no HyperThreading however the primary distinction is within the clock velocity and built-in reminiscence. The 226V and 228V, for instance, have the identical 2.1GHz base clock and 4.5GHz enhance clock however the 226V has 16GB reminiscence whereas the 288V has 32GB reminiscence. Equally, the 256V and 258V have the identical 2.2GHz base clock and 4.8GHz enhance clock however totally different reminiscences. In the meantime, the flagship 288V will get a 3.3GHz base and 5.1GHz enhance clock with 32GB reminiscence. In every case, the reminiscence is 8533MHz LPDDR5x shared throughout the CPU, GPU, and NPU.
All chips have the newest era Intel Arc graphics based mostly on the corporate’s Battlemage structure, with the Core Extremely 5 fashions getting 7 Xe Cores and decrease clocks whereas the Core Extremely 7 and 9 fashions get 8 Xe Cores and better clocks. Equally, the 5 sequence chips get 8MB Good Cache whereas the 7 and 9 sequence chips get 12MB. Lastly, the 5, 7, and 9 sequence chips get 40, 47, and 48 TOPS NPU, respectively.
As has been said quite a few occasions already, the storage needs to be provided by the consumer. It has been a factor with Intel NUCs because the starting as they’re primarily barebones PCs. The one SSD slot helps PCIe Gen4x4 drives in the usual M.2 2280 measurement. Our evaluate unit got here with a 1TB WD SN5000S NVMe SSD, which matches the required specs. The SSD doesn’t have a heatsink connected however Asus does use a thermal pad on the underside of the metallic base cowl, which then makes the quilt act as a heatsink for the drive.
Much like the Mac mini, the NUC 14 Professional AI has a single inside speaker, which sounds nowhere close to pretty much as good nor wherever as loud. Nevertheless, the NUC 14 Professional AI additionally features a microphone, which the Mac mini lacks, and makes utilizing options like Copilot doable even when you do not have a headset plugged in.
Connectivity
The NUC 14 Professional AI comes with a superb variety of connectivity choices for plugging in wired equipment. On the entrance are two USB-A ports rated at 5Gbps bandwidth, together with a Thunderbolt 4 port, and a headphone jack.
On the again are two extra USB-A ports, this time rated at 10Gbps bandwidth, one other Thunderbolt 4 port, HDMI 2.1, and a couple of.5G Ethernet. Apart from the HDMI, each the Thunderbolt 4 ports additionally help DisplayPort 2.1 so you may join as much as three shows without delay.
On the wi-fi entrance, you get Wi-Fi 7 together with Bluetooth 5.4.
Asus actually will get factors for having a sturdy set of connectors, each on the back and front. Nevertheless, there are some caveats. The structure of the ports on the entrance could make one thing large like a card reader rendering the opposite ports unusable. Just like the Mac mini, the NUC 14 Professional AI doesn’t have an audio jack on the again, which is inconvenient if you happen to use audio system in addition to headphones. And in contrast to the Mac mini, the NUC 14 Professional AI has an exterior energy brick, which takes up fairly a little bit of area and might be greater than half the amount of the NUC itself.
Efficiency
The Intel Core Extremely 9 288V in our unit was configured for a most bundle energy of 37W. Relying on the ability profile chosen within the MyAsus app, the chip can throttle all the way down to 23W within the Whisper mode or 34W within the Commonplace mode as soon as the PL2 window expires. Or it could simply follow the 37W restrict when set to the Efficiency mode.
Beginning with the benchmarks, the CPU efficiency was a little bit of a blended bag. The one-core efficiency was good; it is a notable enchancment over the earlier era Intel chips whereas additionally being quicker than the Snapdragon X Elite X1E 78 100 chip we examined final yr regardless of the latter having a bigger energy finances. Nevertheless, when it got here to multi-core, the 288V wasn’t as spectacular, which is basically all the way down to the 4x P-core and 4x E-core design with no HyperThreading. The Qualcomm chip right here is considerably forward with its 12-core design, all of that are equally highly effective.
Nevertheless, when you can and will argue that this is not stunning contemplating the Snapdragon chip can hit 50W below load, the 288V runs out of excuses when pitted towards the M4 inside the brand new Mac mini. The M4 outperformed the 288V in each certainly one of our benchmarks, being 36% quicker within the Cinebench 2024 single-core take a look at and 43% quicker within the multi-core take a look at. Within the Blender CPU take a look at, the M4 was a brutal 64% quicker whereas the GPU render was an absolute beatdown, with the M4 being 145% quicker. And thru all of this, the M4 chip is pulling 10-15W lower than the 288V.
Benchmark
Check
Outcome
Cinebench R23
Single
1990
Multi
11032
Cinebench 2024
Single
126
Multi
674
Geekbench 6
Single
2868
Multi
11227
Geekbench AI (NPU)
Single precision
3048
Half precision
16620
Quantized
23346
Blender (Classroom)
CPU
617 seconds
GPU
145 seconds
7-Zip
Compression
62.349GIPS
Decompression
55.164GIPS
Corona 10
Rays/s
3,304,431
PCMark 10
Whole
7038
Necessities
9994
Productiveness
9520
Digital content material creation
9941
3DMark
Time Spy
4654
Metal Nomad
577
Photo voltaic Bay
17128
Asus places lots of concentrate on the AI capabilities of the machine (they even added it to the identify) however we at the moment do not have nice strategies outlined for testing AI efficiency except for the Geekbench outcome. Additionally, if that is one thing you have an interest in, then a mini PC may not essentially be the play for you.
Gaming
The built-in Arc GPU on the 288V is surprisingly succesful. Intel has labored arduous on its built-in graphics over time and it reveals. Because of that, the NUC 14 Professional AI is a surprisingly succesful gaming machine.
Having tried dozens of titles on the little machine, I used to be impressed with the way in which it was in a position to deal with most of them. This was additionally a possibility for me to strive Intel’s newest era Battlemage structure, which has seen fairly just a few enhancements over the first-generation Alchemist.
Recreation
Setting
1080p
720p
Alan Wake 2
Low
18.9fps
26.9fps
Cyberpunk 2077
Low
49.2fps
75.5fps
Dying Stranding Director’s Reduce
Medium
60fps
78.6fps
Elden Ring
Low
52.6fps
54.7fps
God of Conflict Ragnarök
Low
55.4fps
68fps
Hogwarts Legacy
Low
42.4fps
61.6fps
Marvel Rivals
Low
57.6fps
97.2fps
Metro Exodus
Low
93.4fps
123.5fps
Resident Evil 4
Prioritize Efficiency
57.3fps
83fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Low
75.8fps
105.4fps
The primary take a look at was to see if the video games ran in any respect on this new structure and each single one of many video games I attempted did launch and run with none main technical points. Solely two video games had points post-launch, the primary being Counter-Strike 2, which stuttered so much in-game, rendering it largely unplayable attributable to poor frame-time efficiency. The opposite was God of Conflict Ragnarök, which had some flashing artifacts on display at occasions however was in any other case fully playable.
The general efficiency of the machine was just a few proportion factors higher than the Ryzen Z1 Excessive inside units just like the ROG Ally, which additionally meant it was higher than the Steam Deck. This places the efficiency of the NUC 14 Professional AI someplace between the PS4 and the PS4 Professional, which isn’t dangerous for a low-power mini PC. With a mix of optimized settings and picture upscaling, I used to be in a position to get playable efficiency in almost each recreation I attempted.
In terms of gaming, there isn’t any comparability to the Mac mini. Whereas the Mac has come a good distance, Home windows nonetheless will get all of the video games first and the NUC 14 Professional AI additionally runs them significantly better than the M4 Mac mini.
Thermals and Noise
The Asus NUC 14 Professional AI has good thermal efficiency. Because of the comparatively low-power nature of the chip and ample cooling, the system by no means thermal throttles.
Within the Efficiency profile, the temperatures peak at about 78°C with the fan blasting at excessive velocity and the chip sustaining its peak 37W goal indefinitely. Sadly, the fan is sort of loud on this setting, so it isn’t beneficial for on a regular basis use.
The Commonplace mode is the default and for good motive. On this mode, the chip boosts as much as 37W and stays there for some time till ultimately dropping all the way down to 34W as soon as PL2 expires. On this mode, the temperatures peak at about 82°C, which is not a lot because the fan is so much quieter and barely audible at occasions. You do not lose a lot efficiency on this mode; solely about 3% within the prolonged Blender render take a look at, which makes this the mode you have to be utilizing on a regular basis.
Blender (Classroom)
Efficiency
617 seconds
Commonplace
640 seconds
Whisper
745 seconds
The Whisper mode is true to its identify and is rarely audible, even below load. Right here, the chip settles all the way down to about 23W as soon as PL2 expires, which implies you lose about 17% efficiency in prolonged multi-core utilization however continues to be high-quality for on a regular basis use.
In comparison with the Mac mini, the NUC 14 Professional AI is actually louder and extra audible. Nevertheless, it does strike a greater stability between noise and temperature when contemplating the 100°C temperatures the M4 routinely hits contained in the Mac mini.
Conclusion
The Asus NUC 14 Professional AI is a compact, well-designed little PC with good connectivity choices that runs cool and quiet. The efficiency is sort of enough for on a regular basis dwelling and workplace duties, and you’ll even get some good gaming efficiency out of it.
Sadly, the machine is focused extra at enterprise and industrial customers and thus comes with an inflated price ticket that is not even remotely justified. In markets like India, the place our unit was sourced from, the NUC 14 Professional AI prices roughly the identical because the M4 Professional Mac whereas being slower than the bottom M4 Mac mini. And you do not even get an SSD.
So whereas it was enjoyable to check this machine, until Asus comes up with a smart pricing for it sooner or later, it isn’t value contemplating for the typical dwelling consumer.
