Final Words & Conclusion
Final Words & Conclusion
Colour me impressed, the Minisforum HX90G (Ryzen 9 5900HX) mini PC delivers everything you'd expect from a high-end PC, and then adding the Radeon RX 6600M into the mix, it makes gaming very possible as well. The beauty of all this is that the product remains exceptionally silent. In a typical operation, you can't heat it, and we close in at 31 DBa values. During hefty CPU and gaming load, we maced out at 37 DBa, which is still very silent. You receive a lot of PC for such a 2.4-liter product. It wasn;t all perfect though. The USB ports are;t the fastest, and there aren't many of them. WIFI6E is present, but that 6 GHz band we cannot seem to activate at this time. However 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands performed admirably. Perhaps with a driver update that's solved anytime soon enough. This tiny box offers spectacular features and performance. 2.5 GigE ethernet, AX WIFI sits at ~600 Mbit/sec and the 8-core processor tied to 16GB Dual channel 3200 Mhz DRAM and then an NVMe SSD, it's all just really nice. Being a mobile processor, you reap the benefits of energy consumption as well. In idle states we'd see 20~25 Watts, under normal operation 50 Watts and while gaming we'd sit i at 100~150 Watts. Being on a mobile platform (which honestly you can hardly notice as it is fast) the single-threaded performance is a notch slower than what you get on a desktop processor. The number of cores available, however, will give loads of flexibility to your applications. Overall when working with and from the HX90G , we did not feel the experience was slower. Perhaps browser responsive time flew a notch slower, but that's it. The NVMe M2 SSD is a little so-so for today's standards, but reads are where it needs to be with 2500 MB/sec metrics; we noticed slower writes, but that is still above the 1.5 Gb/s markers. We like that you can mount extra NVMe SSDs in there; this will bring loads of extra functionality to the unit.Connectivity-wise, you have it all covered with USB 3.1 Gen 2; of course, the added flexibility with two HDMI and two Displayport ports are golden as well. So yeah, it is a pleasing product, but all these specs make this an expensive product, as it is priced (in our 16GB/512GB configuration) at $909 (USD) at the time of writing. You could pickup the $799 barebone unit and add DRAM and an SSD yourself though.
Performance
The HX90G is among the fastest mobile products available within its target product stack; it runs Windows 11 Pro completely fine and secure, and it's fast as it doesn't use many resources; the 16GB system memory helps here. Also lovely is the option for additional storage; you can have an extra NVMe SSD. The 512GB M2 NVMe SSD is already preinstalled with a registered version of Windows 11 Pro for you. This unit has two sticks of SODIMM memory, and which means dual-channel DDR4. Combined with Windows 11 Pro, the overall experience is swift. The OS doesn't feel slow, actually fast even, and you are talking to the guy who runs a PC performance enthusiast website. In retrospect, speed and performance are comparable to that of a very high-end laptop. The processor is powerful enough. The inbuilt GPU has an excellent video processor that can accelerate high-definition videos on its own; 1080P and Ultra HD are no problem. The embedded Radeon RX 6600M delivers and upgrades the unit towards a mainstream gaming PC. We also need to discuss acoustics because the product is silent. Despite being actively cooled, its fan is quiet and unobtrusive, with no bearing whine or rattling in any noise it could create. Only when the 8-core processor is substantially loaded can you hear some gentle airflow coming from the box; otherwise, the product is quite quiet.
Game performance
Outstanding. Really. The embedded 7nm Radeon RX 6600M is barely slower than the regular desktop variant. The GPU is based on NAVI23 and comes with 1792 Shader cores. The AMD Radeon RX 6600M is a mobile graphics chip released on May 31, 2021. The chip, which is built on the 7 nm process and is based on the Navi 23 graphics processor, supports DirectX 12 Ultimate and also offers a bit of hardware-raytracing, variable-rate shading, and other features in upcoming video games.
The GPU operates at a frequency of 2068 MHz, which can be increased to 2416 MHz, while the memory operates at 1750 MHz (14 Gbps effective). It has a maximum power draw of 100 W. As stated, paired with a proper 8GB 128-bit GDDR6 memory, you can play your regular games really well up to 2560x1440 and perfectly at 1920x1080. We ran some games from our benchmark suite, all graphics options are maximized aside from Raytracing.
Concluding
As far as little mini-PCs go, this is the best we've ever tested. Minisforum uses AMD's ZEN3 power and features, built on the 8-core ZEN3 platform, its IO chipset interconnects, and the added Radeon RX 6600M to make magic happen. They added 2.5 GigE Ethernet from Intel and wireless WIFI6, the 6 GHz band we have been unable to get going, but AX wifi was blazingly fast. The inclusion of a 512GB M2 NVMe SSD is quite impressive and significantly improves overall OS performance; though that unit is not the fastest, the market offers it's plenty fast. It is also nice to notice that a licenced Windows 11 Pro is preinstalled; all you have to do is finish the setup. And hey, if you need extra storage capacity, you can install an extra NVMe M.2 SSD of your choice, as it is upgradeable. The Minisforum HX90G is excellent for many workflows, and when you're done working, you can play games on it really well in 1920x1080, but also WQHD 2560x1440 works well. From a feature and performance point of view, this also is a very energy-efficient product. Having stated that, straining all cores resulted in 50~60 Watts. The HX90G is highly recommended for performance on the road or as a PC for work in the living room with strong gaming options. You can easily tuck the HX90G behind your monitor, and if you are on the road, connect it to your hotel's HDTV HDMI, and you will have brought your fully functional PC with you. We're impressed; it's compact, strong, and offers excellent performance on both CPU and GPU workloads.
Should you be interested in the EU, the German warehouse has stock, and they're shipping throughout Europe duty free.
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