Intel Readies NUC Extreme "Raptor Canyon" Based on 13th Gen Core Processors

Intel is readying its next-generation NUC Extreme desktop, codenamed "Raptor Canyon," based on the company’s 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake" processors. Leaked roadmap slides point to the "Raptor Canyon" kit being significantly larger than its predecessor, "Dragon Canyon," with a volume of 13.9 liters, as opposed to 8 liters. This could indicate that "Raptor Canyon" is being designed as a workstation or performance gaming machine, and could pack the company’s in-house Arc "Alchemist" discrete GPUs going all the way up to the A770. The company is also developing professional variants of Arc with certifications of content creator software, so the possibility of pro-vis GPUs is also there. At 13.9 L volume, "Raptor Canyon" could be as big as some Micro-ATX cube cases.

The slide mentions that "Raptor Canyon" will come with "next-gen" (read: 13th Gen Core "Raptor Lake") processors across all brand extensions, including Core i9, and also pack overclocking capabilities, as they feature "K" SKUs. The NUC will feature a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 slot. Launching alongside "Raptor Canyon" is the "Shrike Bay" Compute Element. For the past several generations of NUC Extreme, Intel has been adopting a variation of the ISA Backplane for PCIe, where the processor, chipset, and memory sit on an add-on card (now referred to as the "Compute Element." The "Shrike Bay" Compute Elements will come with a variety of 13th Gen Core processor options. Intel plans a Q4-2022 launch for "Raptor Canyon" and "Shrike Bay."