Intel’s powerful new NUC to feature at Intel Africa Masters

Intel South Africa has announced that players competing for the inaugural Intel Africa Masters CS:GO tournament will be using Intel Next Unit of Compute (NUC) devices at the Grand Finals which will be hosted at rAge Expo 2022.

Only recently announced the Intel® NUC 12 Enthusiast Mini PC and Kit (code-named Serpent Canyon) is a compact mini-PC, built to include Intel® Arc™ graphics in the smallest form factor, and designed for gamers and content creators. The NUC 12 Enthusiast features the latest 12th Gen Intel® Core™ processors and is the first Intel NUC to include Intel® Arc™ A-series graphics in the form of the Intel® Arc™ A770M graphics processing unit (GPU).

“We are delighted to provide the best gamers in Africa with the powerful Intel NUC so they may compete at their very best for the title of Intel Africa Masters and show the rest of the world just how good they are at gaming,” said Intel South Africa Country Manager, Nitesh Doolabh.

While it is already a global phenomenon the Intel Africa Masters CS:GO tournament is a first for Africa, and will allow African players the opportunity to compete on an equal footing on a global stage. This is why the powerful new NUC was an essential component of the tournament and one that will give players the best chance of stamping their name into the CS:GO history books.

Brian McCarson, Intel vice president and general manager of the NUC Group broke down just why this machine has become the centre of discussion in gaming circles.

“The Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit is one of the most exciting NUCs to launch because it’s the first to pair an Intel processor with discrete Intel graphics. The system provides a strong combination of high performance in content creation and gaming usages, and wide array of I/O – typically found in larger systems – all in a small form-factor design. More importantly, this NUC features helpful technologies like Intel® Thread Director and Intel® Deep Link that make it perfect for anyone trying to create and game in the convenience of a truly compact design,” said McCarson.

Specifically, the Intel® NUC 12 Enthusiast Mini PC and Kit features an Intel Arc A770M GPU with 16GB GDDR6 VRAM, while Intel Arc graphics elevates gaming performance with a new microarchitecture optimized for gaming and the latest visual technologies, including AI-enhanced upscaling, real-time ray tracing and full support for DirectX 12 Ultimate.

By combining Intel Arc graphics with up to a 12th Gen Intel® Core™ i7-12700H mobile processor with Intel’s performance hybrid architecture, the Intel NUC 12 Enthusiast Kit delivers all the performance and innovative capabilities users need in an ultra-compact, 2.5L form factor.

The NUC 12 Enthusiast also brings Intel Deep Link to the desktop for the first time, enabling both the CPU and GPU to seamlessly work together to boost performance across a variety of workloads.

This powerful little machine also offers support for up to 64GB dual-channel DDR4 memory, three M.2 PCIe slots, including two Gen4 NVMe slots, two Thunderbolt™ 4 ports and six USB 3.2 Gen2 ports (Type-A), fast connection with Intel i225-LM 2.5Gbps Ethernet, Intel® Killer™ Wi-Fi 6E AX1690i and Bluetooth®5.2, HDMI 2.1 TMDS-compatible port (up to 4K60) andtwo DisplayPort 2.0 (1.4-certified) ports.

Currently available at select South African retailers, these kits will allow users to customize memory, storage and operating system to suit their needs. Fully equipped desktop systems will also be available through retailers and system integrators at a later date.

Gamers who are keen to see them in action should definitely head to the rAge Expo at Gallagher Convention Centre from the 9^th to the 11^th of December.

Tickets are available to buy online now via the official ticketing partner, Howler.

#rAgeExpo2022: