Intel Ghost Canyon NUC9i9QNX Review: NUC 9 Extreme Realizes the SFF Dream

HTPC Credentials - Display Outputs Capabilities

The NUC9i9QNX comes with three native display outputs from the Compute Element, and their characteristics are summarized in the table below. From a HTPC use-case perspective, the entries of interest include the ability to support UHD (3840 x 2160) or higher resolutions, along with HDCP 2.2. The latter enables the display output to be used for viewing protected content such as 4K Netflix streams and play back UltraHD Blu-rays.

The BIOS of the NUC9i9QNX also allows for switchable graphics. The ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 2070 MINI 8GB GDDR6 in our review configuration supports a maximum of four displays using three additional display outputs (the DisplayPort output supports multi-stream transport and can drive additional displays down the chain). The end implication is the ability of the system to simultaneously drive a total of 7 independent displays. The table below lists the display outputs of the RTX 2070 card in our review sample.

Supporting the display of high-resolution protected video content is a requirement for even a casual HTPC user. In addition, HTPC enthusiasts also want their systems to support refresh rates that either match or be an integral multiple of the frame rate of the video being displayed. Most displays / AVRs are able to transmit the supported refresh rates to the PC using the EDID metadata. In some cases, the desired refresh rate might be missing in the list of supported modes.

Display Refresh Rates - NUC9i9QNB

Our evaluation of the NUC9i9QNX as a HTPC was first done using the native HDMI output of the Compute Element (NUC9i9QNB) connected to a TCL 55P607 4K HDR TV via a Denon AVR-X3400H AV receiver. We tested out various display refresh rates ranging from 23.976 Hz to 59.94 Hz. Of particular interest is the 23.976 Hz (23p) setting, which Intel used to have trouble with in the pre-Broadwell days.

The gallery below presents screenshots from the other refresh rates that were tested. The system has no trouble maintaining a fairly accurate refresh rate throughout the duration of the video playback.

Display Refresh Rates - ASUS Dual GeForce RTX 2070 MINI

Our initial HTPC evaluation was followed up by using the native HDMI output of the RTX 2070 connected to a TCL 55P607 4K HDR TV via a Denon AVR-X3400H AV receiver. We tested out various display refresh rates ranging from 23.976 Hz to 59.94 Hz.

The gallery below presents screenshots from the other refresh rates that were tested. Similar to the Intel HDMI output case, the system has no trouble maintaining a fairly accurate refresh rate throughout the duration of the video playback.

UHD Blu-ray Playback Support

UHD Blu-ray playback is currently supported when using the HDMI port driven by select Intel GPUs. It also needs SGX support. The NUC9i9QNX ticks all required items, as shown by the CyberLink Ultra HD Blu-ray Advisor tool in the screenshot below.

Using CyberLink's latest PowerDVD 20, we were able to successfully play back a UHD Blu-ray, as shown above.