HDas0, Thank you for posting in the Intel® Communities Support.
In reference to your question, yes, normally you will be able to use a gaming board without a graphics card, if the processor being used contains a graphics controller, it should also run without Intel® Optane memory. However, for this scenario, we recommend to contact the manufacturer of the board to confirm those details.
Just to let you know, Intel® does not manufacture motherboards anymore, however, we recommend to verify the Intel® NUCs, those units already include the processor and they work pretty good, in the following link you will be able to check the specifications of them for you to choose and also verify all the Intel® products, including processors:
https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark.html
The newer the product the better, same thing with the drivers, in the link below you will be able to download all the Intel® drivers needed depeding on the Intel® NUC model that you prefer:
https://downloadcenter.intel.com/
In this link you will find the system requirements to use Intel® Optane memory:
https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000023994/memory-and-storage/intel-optane-m...
Regards,
Alberto R.
Intel Customer Support Technician
Under Contract to Intel Corporation
