We challenge each reviewed system’s graphics with a quintet of animations or gaming simulations from UL’s 3DMark test suite. Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Extreme (4K) use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds. Steel Nomad’s regular (4K) and Light (1440p) subtests focus on APIs more commonly used for game development to assess gaming geometry and particle effects. A fifth test, Solar Bay, emphasizes ray-tracing performance. Note that Apple’s Mac mini is compatible with only some of these tests.
The NUC 15 Pro+ benefited from its faster Intel Arc 140T integrated graphics, turning in significantly quicker results than the other Windows mini-PCs. Again, however, the Mac mini took the overall lead, thanks to numerous advanced GPU cores in Apple’s M4 Pro.
Based on these performances, this NUC will handle all multimedia just fine (at up to 4K) and even the odd casual game (at up to 1080p). However, this system will likely bottleneck anything beyond that and moderate content creation tasks. As for the Mac mini with M4 Pro comparison, the chip inside this NUC outpaced the basic M4 inside a 14-inch MacBook Pro in all but a few tests. However, the M4 model is considered an entry-level system starting at $600, and the M4 Pro midrange at $1,400 to start.
Meanwhile, the Core Ultra 9 255H is Intel’s second most potent mobile processor available right now. This reveals a power ceiling for the NUC 15 Pro+ that the Mac mini can clear for another few hundred dollars, assuming you can tolerate macOS.
