I can see in my UA-cam analytics that these mini-PCs are incredibly popular right now with viewers. My first video got over 300K views and my 2nd got over 230K...so a lot of people are considering buying these small computers. Have YOU considered buying a mini-PC?
They are very cool to look at. I'm not sure I'd give up the expandability/configurability of my full size PC for one, but if I had serious space constraints or was a light gamer, yeah.. these would be a solid choice. It'd be cool if they experimented a bit with the case design more for more eye candy. If something really looks cool often that's enough for me.
I was considered one but I got the series x, that can emulate up to GameCube and ps2 so I'm happy, after that I have the consoles to play physical games.
4k isn't that big of a deal for me. I'm happy with good frame rates at 1080p. I would much prefer this over an xbox because of steam, mods, etc. It's crazy how powerful these little boxes have become.
this is better then xbox because you can play way more games epic gives away free games no need to pay for xbox live to play online and you can do way more then just gaming on this
This still can't even be compared to consoles because it's even more tinier , way tinier! So it's even more niche and cool due to how small this thing is
The amount of power this tiny device has is INSANE... It's mind-blowing! So many gaming generations run soooo well on this thing. Makes me wanna chuck my Nvidia Shield TV into the effin garbage haha! I'm pretty broke right now but I do plan on buying this awesome system later down the road.
Computers really have come a long way. I did a work term with an engineering firm last year and pretty much all of their in-house employees use mini pcs for their engineering work. It makes moving them so much easier. They replaced all the old 20 lb pcs with minis weighing maybe 2 lbs at most. And they were doing heavy work loads at that. Really impressive. Expensive for those versions, but impressive.
I think with how good upscaling is getting these are going to get more and more popular.... I have a gaming PC I built not long ago and I was checking out FSR 2 "Ultra Performance" at 4k which is just 720p upscaled to 4k last night and I was honestly shocked with how good it looks.... Obviously it's not perfect but it's getting better and better.
I think why Cyberpunk runs so well at 4K is because Medium settings defaults FSR 2.0 "Auto", which lowers the internal rendering resolution what is probably 1080p and then reconstructs the image temporally to get a 4K-like image, this is possible to do in a lot of games, you could probably get a pretty god RE2 experience if you choose FSR Performance in 4K. :)
There is no reason to go above 1260p as that is the resolution at which if you view your screen at the optimal viewing distance you can't see pixels anymore, but since that is not a common resolution, either take 1080p which is a bit under it, or 1440p which is a bit of an overkill and I personally go for 1080p every time. The panel technology is much more important to me than the resolution. Give me clean, realistic, beautiful colors. Opitmal Viewing Distance for a monitor = Screen Size x 1.6 (to get a 30 degree viewing angle) Optimal Viewing Distance for a TV = Screen Size x 1.3 (to get a 40 degree viewing angle)
This is me exactly. My PC is ancient and upgrading a PC is expensive. But I have a 1080ti. That GPU still mops the floor with this minisforums. I have heard the miniforum's integrated gpu to be described as on par with a 1050ti.
Nice video, thanks. Regarding the performance improvements from the model you had from last year - I thought the percentage increase numbers you quoted in the video seemed a bit low, and so I checked the numbers and unless I'm missing something it looks like the increases are a bit more than you quoted. Multi core CPU was 13285 and increases to 16698, meaning an increase of 3413 above the original 13285, which represents a 26% increase (3413/13285) rather than 22%. Single core CPU was 1394 and increases to 1806, meaning an increase of 412 above the original 1394, which represents a 30% increase (412/1394) rather than 25%. Graphics score was 23458 and increases to 31553, meaning an increase of 8095 above the original 23458, which represents a 35% increase (8095/23458) rather than 29%. All the best.
like 5 years ago we had APU like 2400g in desktops that could run so many games at 60fps 720p now we have tiny pc like this running games at 1080p is amazing
Great review! I also think the mini-pc form factor, low noise, low power usage (relative to desktops) option is great as a simple dual-use device (pc & reasonable gaming). It's so small that you can easily bring it with you while traveling.
Even better than a laptop if you only game in the hotel because you don't have to worry about the screen getting too much pressure in the bag or suitcase nor worry about hard hits as much.
I definitely could use one of these to be able to fit two screens on my computer desk as I have very limited space the way I have my setup now with a full-tower PC.
Great video as usual! I find these mini PCs right now as an interesting option if you're looking for an emulation machine but I wonder what the future models will be capable of in the next few years.
Yeah but emulation can be done by pretty much any modern computer from a cheap Raspberry Pi to a Laptop or Tower PC. Even PS2 games dont req that much power to emulate.
@@SecretOfMonkeyIsland784 yeah for older systems but ps3 emulation actually needs quite a powerful cpu to run decently. But yeah ps2 runs on about anything.
@appolospbvxr back in like 09 maybe 10 I had a mytouch 3g with the keyboard when you slide it up😂phone and had N64 games on it. I loved the pressing of buttons because it made it feel like a REAL game🎉
@@Joe-vi3wt I recommend getting a cheap second hand PS3 Slim for 50$ and hacking it for the best experience, the PS3 emulator is horrible and unaccurate so far.
I want one of these -- with 2x NICs, and 6-8x SATA, 2-3x m.2.. preferably the possibility of adding in some more SATA controllers. Would make an excellent little server, especially with those mobile processors.
These mobile APU’s have come such a long way from where they used to be. If you get one of these mini PC’s, make sure you get it with dual channel memory (both ram slots are being used instead of a single slot) this can heavily affect the graphics performance because it can hinder the bandwidth of the GPU. I generally recommend getting these with 32gb of ram because since there is no dedicated graphics memory, it shares the system ram and these newer games with their hi fidelity textures can really eat up the graphics memory or with this mini PC, it’s ram. I would also be curious to see how metal Jesus thinks it looks and performs when using AMD’s RSR (Radeon Super Resolution), its like FSR and dlss but it’s built into the AMD adrenaline software and is a driver based AI upscaler that you can use on any game. You just have to go into the AMD adrenaline software to enable it, then set the in game resolution to a lower resolution than your monitor and it will upscale it to the monitors native resolution.
This is so cool to see. Thanks! I was seriously thinking of buying this system for its compactness, but the advancement since last year makes me think how much better next year it will be. When it can do 4K with steady with high fps that is when these systems can take over the gaming system.
4k 60 fps reddit just feinted 🤣 All joking aside this looks pretty flippin sweet. I mostly game on Steam Deck/Switch but had thought about something like this in the past. Super cool, thanks for sharing it!
I recently purchased a beelink 8 core mini PC strictly for emulation of older games at the suggestion of RGT 85 and I was throughly impressed with its power. Glad I I got one of these powerful little machines.
and like 5 years ago we had APU like 2400g in desktops that could run so many games at 60fps 720p now we have tiny pc like this running games at 1080p is amazing
@MetalJesusRocks so cool that you showed Nanotek Warrior! When we got our ps1 That was our first game and we bought it at blockbuster. To this day I still love playing it.
Doom Eternal at 60 fps? If you want to be able to do quick 180 degree turns (in the blink of an eye) and still feel like butter then you'll want 90+ fps for that. I run it at 120 fps or higher and it's very smooth.
These mini PC's are great and they are only going to get better and better!! Having a full sized gaming PC is sometimes just a PITA, if you know what I mean. 1440jp-1080p gaming is more than fine for me at this price point, plus can run all the emulators.
Yeah, those iGPUs that are Radeon 680M or 780M are a huge leap over prior iGPUs. They do encroach into dGPU space, if toward the lower end. SUPER impressive though. Anyone looking for small, quiet, or power thrifty... These things rule!
@@mrchico2621 Oh not at all. It's amazing to see an iGPU perform in that GF1050Ti/GF1060 kind of area. I long for more of this! I want a day where I dont need a dGPU.
11:30 you can get 60 fps in NFS The Run if you turn off v-sync 👍. There is a catch: there’s a dust/snow bug in Vegas and Colorado that makes the game a bit more challenging.
This looks like exactly what I’m after. I don’t play many pc games. But want to dabble where I can. Also, I’d love something like this that was more dedicated to old dos games, as that is what I’m really interested in. Though I’m assuming dosbox etc would work fine.
I've been playing on mini PC like this one for a year now. It's amazing. I mostly play old games anyway so it's perfect. It runs newer titles on low or medium too. Can't complain really and I'm not going back to those massive cases again
Mini PCs are not gaming PCs. You need a mid size or larger case with full size graphics card to play games at their native and best resolutions. It's stupid to limit games and their proper capabilities. Also these mini PCs get hot, and can never be cooled properly, such as in a mid size or larger case with liquid CPU cooling and multiple fans.
@kuarentakilla863 It runs emulation up to the PS3 and Switch quite well. I don't have any PC games to test, but it seems like it can run most at 1080p. You can game on this if you don't max out the settings. I have an Xbox for more demanding games, but this is great for emulation. Maybe in 2-3yrs the next AMD chip will handle PS4 graphics. But it's not there yet.
I love these mini pc reviews. I would love to see this run steam os, turn it into a modern day steam machine. Id also like to see how this would run with an external gpu.
Mobile gaming chipsets and graphics are finally getting to that sweet spot , waiting for the day when we can somehow use our phones as external graphics cards for our laptops
It looks great. I love my gaming pc and maybe next year I'll look into upgrading my gaming pc. I will look forward to see maybe next year you cover the next more upgraded models for gaming pc's. Cool video. ^_^
Hey thanks for the review MJ. I am thinking about getting one of these to replace my 2019 surface pro 6 that I occasionally use for streaming and video editing. It just doesn't hold up well anymore, and these new mini PCs seem like they might be perfect
I have the Beelink version, but if you were waiting to buy....now is a great time. It'll take a few years for PS4/PS5 emulation but the others below work great.
I picked up the Eglobal Cheap Portable Mini PC i7 from Ali-Express and a Dell Latitude i7 from Ebay used. I paid less for both of these PC'S put together than the cost of that one. I am happy with performance. One is Windows 10 and one is Windows 11. I personally am very interested in the Orange Pi 800 with its VGA beside the HDMI. I would probably run Android 12 on it and put different Emulators on it. I love Keyboard Computers. PSSP and ReDream are definitely possible on the system. VGA is great for retro games.
I just got a laptop with the 7940h/780m and a rtx 4070 and I'm really suprised how often it just keeps using the 780m for 1080p gaming and performs well especially with emulation. With PS1/PS2 and Gamecube emulation the 4070 just sleeps no matter what improvements I enable at 1080p and it runs so quiet with the 780m doing the work. I'm so impressed that I'm not even using or missing my rtx 3090 desktop and 1440p for gaming, I'm definitely realising 4K isn't affecting the enjoyment of gaming.
I have a moderate mid tower build running at 1080 on my TV. To be honest 1080 is great. The weird thing is when you compare it to a Series S. For example Plague Tale Requiem, you can turn everything on high, set it to1080 and it looks more like a lower resolution version of the Series X game than the Series S game because it doesn't have all the fog and limited draw distances and stuff. 4k is great if you're staring at something but in the middle of gameplay it, at least to me is barely noticeable even more so sitting 8 - 10ft away on a TV. I think most people would be hard pressed to tell the difference unless they were sitting side by side. This little PC is incredible, it's amazing how far we've gone!
Bought one of these puppies last week, will use it for a bit of gaming, but mainly for containerisation projects. Got the 64GB one, so going to run a ton of containers on this thing.
Spec Ops lowering to 30fps was because you had vertical sync enabled. It limits to the displays refresh rate of 60, except if it dips too far between it goes down to 30.
if anyone is interested or wants to know. The 780M GPU built into this APU is just 200 points shy of an rx6400 or a GTX 980 Mobile video card! thats pretty impressive (Passmark benchmark website has the details)
Thanks for this video. Had mine ordered as soon as they were available. Sadly shipping to germany will only start in the next couple of weeks. I'm upgrading my current Lenovo Mini PC in my living room because that already struggles with the emulation of 6th Gen. consoles.
the 16gb ram definitely limits these things, since the iGPU shares system memory. Daniel Owens demonstrated that doubling the memory gives about another 25% performance bump. For your benchmarks, what were the settings? You were running Cyberpunk at "4k" - was that with FSR2?
these things seem to be a no brainer for folks looking for an htpc with a little extra grunt and a negligible physical footprint. could even slap it behind the tv itself, downscale the resolution to 1080p (most people who've brought a TV in the last five years will have a 4k one), and do some cozy couch gaming with nearly no additional living room clutter, at a comfortable framerate. gotta love it.
I think a good reason for having one would be for games that you enjoy on consoles and play a lot but have modded realms which can only be accessed with a PC. That’s the reason I’m thinking of getting one at the moment.
Use it for PS3 and below, wait a few years for the better model. You can always put this in a spare room for older games and buy a newer one. It's always gonna get better but for me this hit the spot. I'll be busy with Switch 2 next year so I can skip 2024 model. Maybe until 2026 to get the best bang for my buck. But this was a no brainer for me.
Awesome coincidence. My HD is just about fried in my laptop so I'm playing around with the idea of getting one of these. I want something that can run Adobe and if it can game too, even better. Thank you for the review, think I might be getting one of these next.
Yup, this is my next computer. I only play in 1080p, and I live off grid where power is a huge deal for me with limited battery capacity on my current solar setup. This fits the bill and costs so little it’s a no brainer. I sold all my high end crap before I bought my property.
my 10 year old pc died about 2 months ago and ive been using my i7 gpd win 3 with rx 580 in an egpu. it runs everything i play on it great. mostly league of legends in 4k. i bet that mini pc with a decent egpu set up would be phenomenal.
Hi Metaljesus, I wonder if you have ever heared of the Summer homebrew Showcase from Matt Hughson. Would love to see you reaction or if you saw it allready know your opinion. I watched it and it blew my mind, it is crazy what is going on in that scene in the showcase were the amazing amount of 140 titles.
I am considering buying one of these mini PCs to use as an encoding box, as I've seen tests where a 5950X will render a 1 hour episode in AV1 in about an hour and 52 minutes, and the Beelink GTR7 will render it in about 2 hours 33 minutes, which isn't much longer, while using barely any power and freeing up my m ain machine. I just can't decide between this one at the GTR7 [Pro]. I like that the UM790 Pro has WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 and comes as a Barebones option so I could pick my own SSD(s) and RAM, but I like the IO better on the GTR7 [Pro].
I will also add another huge problem that cannot be overlooked: Mini PCs are not gaming PCs. Also, these mini PCs get hot, and can never be cooled properly, such as in a mid size or larger case with liquid CPU cooling and multiple fans. Desktop cases will never die, and very much necessary, just like a cell phone can, and will NEVER replace an actual true computer.
4:35 If I take 34,553 divided by 23,458, I get a 34.5% increase in graphical performance, not 29%. The CPU was only about 17%, making the overall "Night Raid" score a 30% increase.
To think that thing is smaller than a GameCube and only 20 years apart. 🤯🤯🤯 I remember being 8-9 and seeing my older brothers friends play Halo 1 on the Xbox and becoming ungovernable 😂😂 tech is gonna be so frikn cool in 50 years
Since it can handle 4k at nearly 30fps, it should be great at 1440p which is about twice the resolution of 1080p. I'm getting mine in a couple of days to replace my old Dell XPS 8300 that just broke down after 12 years. I picked the UM790 with 1 TB SSD and 64 GB DDR5
These 780M powered APUs are finally giving people a taste of power of the Subor Z+'s APU had it released officially. I don't think it's a coincidence that the U-series and Z1-series are codenamed "Phoenix Point" nor that AMD is branding an entire line of APUs as "custom for the use of console PCs" APUs for the first time. Especially since they are given the name "Z1", almost like a reference to the Z+ that they now mstch the gaming performance of.
I have the Beelink GTR7 Pro. Same specs. Greati pc for the price. It runs Switch emulation well. I tried Wii U games and it runs good, but it hiccups when I was playing Donkey Kong. Zelda Took ran fine. Give it 2 more years and the next AMD processor will be almost perfect for games made 2022 and below. I'll upgrade when that happens, but for now it does what I want and even exceeds that. Also, it plays PS3 games very well. I actually own the games, but my PS3 broke and I wanted to use a save file for Zelda. Support the developer if you like their game.
I can see in my UA-cam analytics that these mini-PCs are incredibly popular right now with viewers. My first video got over 300K views and my 2nd got over 230K...so a lot of people are considering buying these small computers. Have YOU considered buying a mini-PC?
I got one as a plexserver last week. So far its amazing
What worries me is the warranty and life span of mini PC. A desktop PC easily last for 3-8 years with 3 year warranty.
They are very cool to look at. I'm not sure I'd give up the expandability/configurability of my full size PC for one, but if I had serious space constraints or was a light gamer, yeah.. these would be a solid choice. It'd be cool if they experimented a bit with the case design more for more eye candy. If something really looks cool often that's enough for me.
Yes, I have especially for emulation as older game prices soar!
I was considered one but I got the series x, that can emulate up to GameCube and ps2 so I'm happy, after that I have the consoles to play physical games.
4k isn't that big of a deal for me. I'm happy with good frame rates at 1080p. I would much prefer this over an xbox because of steam, mods, etc. It's crazy how powerful these little boxes have become.
I wonder who he'll give his old one to haha
this is better then xbox because you can play way more games
epic gives away free games
no need to pay for xbox live to play online
and you can do way more then just gaming on this
@@MrJ0mmy this is 700 usd though or more, depends on configuration. You can get a cheap series s for 249 usd.
@@aynrandom3004 this part lol imagine.....in 2 years ppl will be giving Xboxs and PS5s away lol they will age like any console does , trippy
This still can't even be compared to consoles because it's even more tinier , way tinier! So it's even more niche and cool due to how small this thing is
Great video, great to see footage of the System Shock remake in the video!
I LOVE Friday because that means there’s a NEW MJR Vid ‼️🙌
BIG love from WA Coast
The amount of power this tiny device has is INSANE... It's mind-blowing! So many gaming generations run soooo well on this thing. Makes me wanna chuck my Nvidia Shield TV into the effin garbage haha! I'm pretty broke right now but I do plan on buying this awesome system later down the road.
Computers really have come a long way. I did a work term with an engineering firm last year and pretty much all of their in-house employees use mini pcs for their engineering work. It makes moving them so much easier. They replaced all the old 20 lb pcs with minis weighing maybe 2 lbs at most. And they were doing heavy work loads at that. Really impressive. Expensive for those versions, but impressive.
Gaming wise It’s actually only a tiny bit faster than a smaller 7840u handheld.
May I know what monitor size you used for the review? Thanks! 😊
I think with how good upscaling is getting these are going to get more and more popular.... I have a gaming PC I built not long ago and I was checking out FSR 2 "Ultra Performance" at 4k which is just 720p upscaled to 4k last night and I was honestly shocked with how good it looks.... Obviously it's not perfect but it's getting better and better.
I think why Cyberpunk runs so well at 4K is because Medium settings defaults FSR 2.0 "Auto", which lowers the internal rendering resolution what is probably 1080p and then reconstructs the image temporally to get a 4K-like image, this is possible to do in a lot of games, you could probably get a pretty god RE2 experience if you choose FSR Performance in 4K. :)
Even on a lot of gaming PC's people still run 1080p mostly, so this is actually a good cheaper PC for a lot of people
A laptop using this CPU would be nice for light gaming without a dedicated GPU
There is no reason to go above 1260p as that is the resolution at which if you view your screen at the optimal viewing distance you can't see pixels anymore, but since that is not a common resolution, either take 1080p which is a bit under it, or 1440p which is a bit of an overkill and I personally go for 1080p every time. The panel technology is much more important to me than the resolution. Give me clean, realistic, beautiful colors.
Opitmal Viewing Distance for a monitor = Screen Size x 1.6 (to get a 30 degree viewing angle)
Optimal Viewing Distance for a TV = Screen Size x 1.3 (to get a 40 degree viewing angle)
This is me exactly. My PC is ancient and upgrading a PC is expensive. But I have a 1080ti. That GPU still mops the floor with this minisforums. I have heard the miniforum's integrated gpu to be described as on par with a 1050ti.
Nice video, thanks. Regarding the performance improvements from the model you had from last year - I thought the percentage increase numbers you quoted in the video seemed a bit low, and so I checked the numbers and unless I'm missing something it looks like the increases are a bit more than you quoted.
Multi core CPU was 13285 and increases to 16698, meaning an increase of 3413 above the original 13285, which represents a 26% increase (3413/13285) rather than 22%.
Single core CPU was 1394 and increases to 1806, meaning an increase of 412 above the original 1394, which represents a 30% increase (412/1394) rather than 25%.
Graphics score was 23458 and increases to 31553, meaning an increase of 8095 above the original 23458, which represents a 35% increase (8095/23458) rather than 29%.
All the best.
Im really surprised of the Performance of this Mini PC, didnt expect that. Very impressiv
like 5 years ago we had APU like 2400g in desktops that could run so many games at 60fps 720p
now we have tiny pc like this running games at 1080p is amazing
Well damn, something like this sounds awesome for a future setup!
Great review! I also think the mini-pc form factor, low noise, low power usage (relative to desktops) option is great as a simple dual-use device (pc & reasonable gaming). It's so small that you can easily bring it with you while traveling.
Totally agree
Even better than a laptop if you only game in the hotel because you don't have to worry about the screen getting too much pressure in the bag or suitcase nor worry about hard hits as much.
I definitely could use one of these to be able to fit two screens on my computer desk as I have very limited space the way I have my setup now with a full-tower PC.
Maybe you should shrink the screens too.
Awesome video to start the long weekend!!
Oh yeah!
For 5 Playstation games you can now play over 1300 PS1 games and more, what a time we live in.
Well that's still PS1 games and not PS5 games...
Wow speed punks is such a hidden gem and a great racer
I know right?
Great video as usual! I find these mini PCs right now as an interesting option if you're looking for an emulation machine but I wonder what the future models will be capable of in the next few years.
Totally agree!
How much is this
@@gymleaderdj9102I believe $520.00
@MetalJesusRocks mjr no Switch ps3 Xbox wiiu Nintendo wii emulation shown?????? of course the older systems work
I've been hearing great things about it! I ended up buying one myself, and I love it!
These things are amazing for emulation alone. Playing newer games on them is just a bonus
Yeah but emulation can be done by pretty much any modern computer from a cheap Raspberry Pi to a Laptop or Tower PC. Even PS2 games dont req that much power to emulate.
@@SecretOfMonkeyIsland784 yeah for older systems but ps3 emulation actually needs quite a powerful cpu to run decently. But yeah ps2 runs on about anything.
@@Joe-vi3wt I didnt know they now did PS3 emulation, now ill have to check that out :)
@appolospbvxr back in like 09 maybe 10 I had a mytouch 3g with the keyboard when you slide it up😂phone and had N64 games on it. I loved the pressing of buttons because it made it feel like a REAL game🎉
@@Joe-vi3wt I recommend getting a cheap second hand PS3 Slim for 50$ and hacking it for the best experience, the PS3 emulator is horrible and unaccurate so far.
Next beer on me! Long overdue. Thanks MJR
Hey man!! That's very kind of you. Thank you so much! Cheers! 🍻
PS1 measurement unit was nice one! Looks like good Mini-PC with Pack & Go feature!
I want one of these -- with 2x NICs, and 6-8x SATA, 2-3x m.2.. preferably the possibility of adding in some more SATA controllers.
Would make an excellent little server, especially with those mobile processors.
I would prefer to trade the 6-8 SATA for 6-8 USB-C!
This is the completely wrong product for your requirements and usage case.
This is very awesome for a size this small. Saves space too
Spec Ops flicking between 30 and 60 FPS is a vsync thing, it's locking to even intervals of 60 hz to prevent tearing.
Oh really>!? That's good to know, thanks!
These mobile APU’s have come such a long way from where they used to be. If you get one of these mini PC’s, make sure you get it with dual channel memory (both ram slots are being used instead of a single slot) this can heavily affect the graphics performance because it can hinder the bandwidth of the GPU. I generally recommend getting these with 32gb of ram because since there is no dedicated graphics memory, it shares the system ram and these newer games with their hi fidelity textures can really eat up the graphics memory or with this mini PC, it’s ram. I would also be curious to see how metal Jesus thinks it looks and performs when using AMD’s RSR (Radeon Super Resolution), its like FSR and dlss but it’s built into the AMD adrenaline software and is a driver based AI upscaler that you can use on any game. You just have to go into the AMD adrenaline software to enable it, then set the in game resolution to a lower resolution than your monitor and it will upscale it to the monitors native resolution.
This is so cool to see. Thanks! I was seriously thinking of buying this system for its compactness, but the advancement since last year makes me think how much better next year it will be. When it can do 4K with steady with high fps that is when these systems can take over the gaming system.
4k 60 fps reddit just feinted 🤣 All joking aside this looks pretty flippin sweet. I mostly game on Steam Deck/Switch but had thought about something like this in the past. Super cool, thanks for sharing it!
I recently purchased a beelink 8 core mini PC strictly for emulation of older games at the suggestion of RGT 85 and I was throughly impressed with its power. Glad I I got one of these powerful little machines.
and like 5 years ago we had APU like 2400g in desktops that could run so many games at 60fps 720p
now we have tiny pc like this running games at 1080p is amazing
@MetalJesusRocks so cool that you showed Nanotek Warrior! When we got our ps1 That was our first game and we bought it at blockbuster. To this day I still love playing it.
Doom Eternal at 60 fps? If you want to be able to do quick 180 degree turns (in the blink of an eye) and still feel like butter then you'll want 90+ fps for that. I run it at 120 fps or higher and it's very smooth.
I love mine! Just bought it a month ago. Powerful and runs up to PS3/Xbox 360 flawlessly. Will run pretty much any PC game out there.
These mini PC's are great and they are only going to get better and better!! Having a full sized gaming PC is sometimes just a PITA, if you know what I mean. 1440jp-1080p gaming is more than fine for me at this price point, plus can run all the emulators.
This mini pc is really good, and I really appreciate how MJR does the benchmarks with a decent variety of games.
Yeah, those iGPUs that are Radeon 680M or 780M are a huge leap over prior iGPUs. They do encroach into dGPU space, if toward the lower end. SUPER impressive though. Anyone looking for small, quiet, or power thrifty... These things rule!
Encroaching the dGPU space.....is that really a bad thing though?
@@mrchico2621 Oh not at all. It's amazing to see an iGPU perform in that GF1050Ti/GF1060 kind of area. I long for more of this! I want a day where I dont need a dGPU.
Metal Jesus doing PC game testing and benchmarks is awesome 🤟
11:30 you can get 60 fps in NFS The Run if you turn off v-sync 👍. There is a catch: there’s a dust/snow bug in Vegas and Colorado that makes the game a bit more challenging.
Oh really?!> Good to know thanks!
Great to see some racing games benchmarked! Thanks!
yo appreciate the straight forward review.
This looks like exactly what I’m after. I don’t play many pc games. But want to dabble where I can. Also, I’d love something like this that was more dedicated to old dos games, as that is what I’m really interested in. Though I’m assuming dosbox etc would work fine.
I've been playing on mini PC like this one for a year now. It's amazing. I mostly play old games anyway so it's perfect. It runs newer titles on low or medium too.
Can't complain really and I'm not going back to those massive cases again
Get the Asus Ally
@kuarentakilla863 by playing mostly older games and new on low
Mini PCs are not gaming PCs. You need a mid size or larger case with full size graphics card to play games at their native and best resolutions. It's stupid to limit games and their proper capabilities. Also these mini PCs get hot, and can never be cooled properly, such as in a mid size or larger case with liquid CPU cooling and multiple fans.
@kuarentakilla863 It runs emulation up to the PS3 and Switch quite well. I don't have any PC games to test, but it seems like it can run most at 1080p. You can game on this if you don't max out the settings. I have an Xbox for more demanding games, but this is great for emulation. Maybe in 2-3yrs the next AMD chip will handle PS4 graphics. But it's not there yet.
@@Foodstamp9162 Presume you meant PS5? They've already surpassed the PS4 imo.
I love these mini pc reviews. I would love to see this run steam os, turn it into a modern day steam machine. Id also like to see how this would run with an external gpu.
I'll install Steam OS next time I review one of these. Good idea!
Mobile gaming chipsets and graphics are finally getting to that sweet spot , waiting for the day when we can somehow use our phones as external graphics cards for our laptops
It looks great. I love my gaming pc and maybe next year I'll look into upgrading my gaming pc. I will look forward to see maybe next year you cover the next more upgraded models for gaming pc's. Cool video. ^_^
This would make for a great arcade emulation machine for sure 😊 maybe the guts to a diy arcade cab or something
I have their UM580 model and very happy with it. Take to game nights all the time.
Hey thanks for the review MJ. I am thinking about getting one of these to replace my 2019 surface pro 6 that I occasionally use for streaming and video editing. It just doesn't hold up well anymore, and these new mini PCs seem like they might be perfect
Glad I could help
These mini computers are pretty freaking cool!
I love how small this thing is and the fact you can connect to a tv is a no braineer for me this will be my new emulation machine/steam box for me
I have the Beelink version, but if you were waiting to buy....now is a great time. It'll take a few years for PS4/PS5 emulation but the others below work great.
I picked up the Eglobal Cheap Portable Mini PC i7 from Ali-Express and a Dell Latitude i7 from Ebay used. I paid less for both of these PC'S put together than the cost of that one. I am happy with performance. One is Windows 10 and one is Windows 11. I personally am very interested in the Orange Pi 800 with its VGA beside the HDMI. I would probably run Android 12 on it and put different Emulators on it. I love Keyboard Computers. PSSP and ReDream are definitely possible on the system. VGA is great for retro games.
Dang, I really want this :(
I might settle on the Beelink SER5 just for cost though.
Beelink SER5 Pro with Ryzen 5800HS is very value for money, assuming the price hasn't risen since few weeks back.
I want a mini pc to play big box pc games from the 80's and 90's on a modern tv.
Very interesting. Thanks Jason.
Glad you enjoyed it
I just got a laptop with the 7940h/780m and a rtx 4070 and I'm really suprised how often it just keeps using the 780m for 1080p gaming and performs well especially with emulation. With PS1/PS2 and Gamecube emulation the 4070 just sleeps no matter what improvements I enable at 1080p and it runs so quiet with the 780m doing the work.
I'm so impressed that I'm not even using or missing my rtx 3090 desktop and 1440p for gaming, I'm definitely realising 4K isn't affecting the enjoyment of gaming.
I have a moderate mid tower build running at 1080 on my TV. To be honest 1080 is great. The weird thing is when you compare it to a Series S. For example Plague Tale Requiem, you can turn everything on high, set it to1080 and it looks more like a lower resolution version of the Series X game than the Series S game because it doesn't have all the fog and limited draw distances and stuff. 4k is great if you're staring at something but in the middle of gameplay it, at least to me is barely noticeable even more so sitting 8 - 10ft away on a TV. I think most people would be hard pressed to tell the difference unless they were sitting side by side. This little PC is incredible, it's amazing how far we've gone!
Bought one of these puppies last week, will use it for a bit of gaming, but mainly for containerisation projects. Got the 64GB one, so going to run a ton of containers on this thing.
Those PCs are fantastic
Spec Ops lowering to 30fps was because you had vertical sync enabled. It limits to the displays refresh rate of 60, except if it dips too far between it goes down to 30.
if anyone is interested or wants to know. The 780M GPU built into this APU is just 200 points shy of an rx6400 or a GTX 980 Mobile video card! thats pretty impressive (Passmark benchmark website has the details)
I'm tempted to get one. The CPU ipc uplift over my aging 2600X is enough by itself. But, to also include 1080p capable graphics... I'm damn near sold.
RE2 is too scary. METAL JESUS ROCKS!
Thanks for this video. Had mine ordered as soon as they were available. Sadly shipping to germany will only start in the next couple of weeks. I'm upgrading my current Lenovo Mini PC in my living room because that already struggles with the emulation of 6th Gen. consoles.
That looks like a hot piece...I imagine many fans of the channel came across this one at the...local sports bar they would be taking it HOME
the 16gb ram definitely limits these things, since the iGPU shares system memory. Daniel Owens demonstrated that doubling the memory gives about another 25% performance bump. For your benchmarks, what were the settings? You were running Cyberpunk at "4k" - was that with FSR2?
these things seem to be a no brainer for folks looking for an htpc with a little extra grunt and a negligible physical footprint. could even slap it behind the tv itself, downscale the resolution to 1080p (most people who've brought a TV in the last five years will have a 4k one), and do some cozy couch gaming with nearly no additional living room clutter, at a comfortable framerate. gotta love it.
I think a good reason for having one would be for games that you enjoy on consoles and play a lot but have modded realms which can only be accessed with a PC. That’s the reason I’m thinking of getting one at the moment.
Use it for PS3 and below, wait a few years for the better model. You can always put this in a spare room for older games and buy a newer one. It's always gonna get better but for me this hit the spot. I'll be busy with Switch 2 next year so I can skip 2024 model. Maybe until 2026 to get the best bang for my buck. But this was a no brainer for me.
Somewhere Jobby is filming a transformation.
Those Cinebench scores !!! My 10600K hits 1300 single 9705 multi.
I kind of want to make myself a mini pc of sorts to check if games work, maybe I can use it as a base?
Absolutely gonna cram 8TB of nvme storage and be the nas/TV for my next build! 🎉
great review!
I need one of these for SC2, It will shoot that old game for sure
I am pretty happy with 1080p so this feels perfect for my level of gaming. And amount of space (tiny living space).
Awesome coincidence. My HD is just about fried in my laptop so I'm playing around with the idea of getting one of these. I want something that can run Adobe and if it can game too, even better. Thank you for the review, think I might be getting one of these next.
Yup, this is my next computer. I only play in 1080p, and I live off grid where power is a huge deal for me with limited battery capacity on my current solar setup. This fits the bill and costs so little it’s a no brainer. I sold all my high end crap before I bought my property.
Very happy to see Twisted Metal 2 ❤️😁🔥
Yay I'm getting notifications for your videos again!
Yay! Thank you!
my 10 year old pc died about 2 months ago and ive been using my i7 gpd win 3 with rx 580 in an egpu. it runs everything i play on it great. mostly league of legends in 4k. i bet that mini pc with a decent egpu set up would be phenomenal.
Hi Metaljesus,
I wonder if you have ever heared of the Summer homebrew Showcase from Matt Hughson. Would love to see you reaction or if you saw it allready know your opinion.
I watched it and it blew my mind, it is crazy what is going on in that scene in the showcase were the amazing amount of 140 titles.
I am considering buying one of these mini PCs to use as an encoding box, as I've seen tests where a 5950X will render a 1 hour episode in AV1 in about an hour and 52 minutes, and the Beelink GTR7 will render it in about 2 hours 33 minutes, which isn't much longer, while using barely any power and freeing up my m ain machine. I just can't decide between this one at the GTR7 [Pro].
I like that the UM790 Pro has WiFi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3 and comes as a Barebones option so I could pick my own SSD(s) and RAM, but I like the IO better on the GTR7 [Pro].
I will also add another huge problem that cannot be overlooked: Mini PCs are not gaming PCs. Also, these mini PCs get hot, and can never be cooled properly, such as in a mid size or larger case with liquid CPU cooling and multiple fans. Desktop cases will never die, and very much necessary, just like a cell phone can, and will NEVER replace an actual true computer.
Once the price comes down I'm gonna pick one of these up for an emulation machine as I sold my entire collection about a month and a half ago.
4:35 If I take 34,553 divided by 23,458, I get a 34.5% increase in graphical performance, not 29%. The CPU was only about 17%, making the overall "Night Raid" score a 30% increase.
This is great for building a custom arcade machine
I would buy one for a tv setup but not for a dedicated gaming pc
This was a great comparison and analysis video!
Glad you liked it!
To think that thing is smaller than a GameCube and only 20 years apart. 🤯🤯🤯 I remember being 8-9 and seeing my older brothers friends play Halo 1 on the Xbox and becoming ungovernable 😂😂 tech is gonna be so frikn cool in 50 years
Nice review.
Since it can handle 4k at nearly 30fps, it should be great at 1440p which is about twice the resolution of 1080p. I'm getting mine in a couple of days to replace my old Dell XPS 8300 that just broke down after 12 years. I picked the UM790 with 1 TB SSD and 64 GB DDR5
Great video !
Glad you enjoyed it
I have an idea for a future video on the channel: A ROG Ally review + maybe a comparison with the Steam Deck sort of like the PSVR2 vs Meta Quest 2.
These 780M powered APUs are finally giving people a taste of power of the Subor Z+'s APU had it released officially. I don't think it's a coincidence that the U-series and Z1-series are codenamed "Phoenix Point" nor that AMD is branding an entire line of APUs as "custom for the use of console PCs" APUs for the first time. Especially since they are given the name "Z1", almost like a reference to the Z+ that they now mstch the gaming performance of.
Hey MetalJesus, have you ever thought of reviewing controllers? Apparently there's some really strong 3rd party options
*Important to note that this model requires DDR5 RAM modules.
Mmmm I think I’m gonna save for a streaming rig. But I love your vids metaljesus, it’s great to know about these mini pc’s
I have the Beelink GTR7 Pro. Same specs. Greati pc for the price. It runs Switch emulation well. I tried Wii U games and it runs good, but it hiccups when I was playing Donkey Kong. Zelda Took ran fine. Give it 2 more years and the next AMD processor will be almost perfect for games made 2022 and below. I'll upgrade when that happens, but for now it does what I want and even exceeds that. Also, it plays PS3 games very well. I actually own the games, but my PS3 broke and I wanted to use a save file for Zelda. Support the developer if you like their game.
wow this pc is a beast just wish it was a bit cheaper
The 7940HS is not sold in retail stores because it's too easy to shoplift, then run like hell.
Imagine taking that back through time
Good video
I just bought this!