As I hefted the AX8 Professional from its packaging, my first impression was of a satisfying weight and density. My second was: “Holy CRAP this factor is small!”
I am not kidding, the AX8 Professional is an absolute marvel of miniaturisation. Measuring simply 11.1cm x 11.7cm x 3.8cm, it is essentially the most compact mini-PC we have examined by some margin, And inside this tiny body is housed one of many newest and greatest AMD APUs.
That includes eight cores and sixteen threads, the Ryzen 9 8945HS is a superb little chip. In stress-testing, we noticed it draw a peak of 65 W, boosting from its base clock velocity of 4 GHz to a wholesome 5.2 GHz, with a peak working temperature of 92 °C underneath sustained masses. Which may really feel a bit on the balmy facet, but it surely’s nonetheless eight levels in need of the CPU’s 100 °C TJMax ranking, the purpose at which throttling kicks in.
Paired with this effective silicon is the Radeon 780M iGPU, aka RDNA 3, and that is most likely the final era of chips we’ll see it in. AMD’s upcoming, AI-branded Zen 5 cell APUs will characteristic a Radeon 890M GPU with RDNA 3.5, and our Zen 5 laptop computer testing to date reveals how robust that’s. However till they hit the mainstream, the Radeon 780M continues to be essentially the most reliably performant iGPU round, bettered solely by the leap in efficiency—and commensurate value—of including a discrete cell GPU into the combo, which we see within the likes of the ASUS ROG NUC.
AX8 Professional specs
APU: AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS
iGPU: Radeon 780M
Reminiscence: 32GB DDR5 5600Mhz SODIMM
Storage: 2TB M.2 PCIe Gen4
Wi-fi: WiFi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
I/O: entrance: 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-A, 3.5mm Headset jack
I/O rear: 2x HDMI 2.0, 1x USB4 Sort-C, 1USB 3.2 Sort-C, 1x 2.5G LAN, 1x USB 3.2 Sort-A, 1x USB 2.0 Sort-A
Worth: $899 | £949
What this all provides as much as is a strong, do-it-all mini-PC, a machine you should utilize equally for work and pleasure, with desktop-chasing productiveness chops and muscle sufficient to run most video games effectively at 1080p. A number of its gaming efficiency hinges on that Radeon 780M, so it is no shock to seek out it trades blows with previous-gen APUs geared up with the identical iGPU, such because the Ryzen 7 7840HS and Ryzen 9 7940HS, and on the Intel facet, the Arc-wielding Core 9 Extremely 185H.
Indie and older video games are the place the 780M shines and there is oodles of enjoyable available at 1080p with medium graphics settings. In our testing we discovered Subnautica operating good and easy at 55-75 fps, Stray at a equally svelte 52-75 fps, Soulstone Survivors between 80 and 120 fps, and Doom Everlasting at a gore-slick 70-80 fps.
Shifting to extra trendy and demanding AAA titles at 1080p, utilizing medium element settings and FSR set to auto the place the engine proffers it, the AX8 Professional holds its personal towards these aforementioned friends, and generally exceeds them, however by no means pulls forward by greater than a nostril. It places in a stable exhibiting with Complete Struggle: WARHAMMER 3’s battle and marketing campaign benchmarks, reaching 42 fps and 33 fps respectively. Forza will get you an unflinching 46 fps. Homeworld 3’s powerful benchmark sees a mean of 39 fps, whereas Cyberpunk 2077 enjoys a wholesome 51 fps.
There are quieter mini PCs on the market, however this factor is so compact, I am genuinely staggered that it does not sound like a Lilliputian Airbus.
Underneath heavy masses, the AX8 Professional’s cooling answer will get a bit blowy, but it surely’s the sound of air being pressed by means of fan-grills; there’s not one of the whistling whine so frequent with small, high-RPM followers. You are listening to the airflow generated by the mechanism, not the mechanism itself, and whereas it is initially fairly noticeable, it is a sound you’ll be able to principally zone out. There are quieter mini PCs on the market, however this factor is so compact, I am genuinely staggered that it does not sound like a Lilliputian Airbus.
Some furtive noodling across the BIOS reveals three fan modes which you’ll be able to swap between to change the cooling and sound profiles. Shifting between Quiet, Regular, and Efficiency modes does certainly alter the max fan velocity and related quantity, however in testing we found that it additionally alters the TDP, with the fan curve shifting to match lesser or better wattage limits and their adjuvant warmth era, so the label ‘fan mode’ does not fairly paint the complete image.
Operating Prime95 to emphasize the chip and utilizing HWInfo64 to measure the adjustments, Silent mode noticed the CPU draw 51 W to hit a max turbo velocity of 5.1 GHz and a max temp of 83 Celsius. Regular mode attracts 59 W, which will get you 5.1 GHz at 89°C, and Efficiency mode pulls 65 W to hit the CPU’s max clock velocity of 5.2 GHz and pushes the temperature to 92 °C. Our shrink-wrapped AX8 Professional retail pattern was set to Efficiency out of the field, so all of the benchmarks above have been carried out on this mode.
Operating Prime95 to emphasize the chip and utilizing HWInfo64 to measure the adjustments, Silent mode noticed the CPU draw 51 W to hit a max turbo velocity of 5.1 GHz and a max temp of 83 Celsius. Regular mode attracts 59 W, which will get you 5.1 GHz at 89 °C, and Efficiency mode pulls 65 W to hit the CPU’s max clock velocity of 5.2 GHz and pushes the temperature to 92 °C. Our shrink-wrapped AX8 Professional retail pattern was set to Efficiency out of the field, so all of the benchmarks above have been carried out on this mode.
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TDP adjustments can have an effect on efficiency in fact, so our remaining take a look at was to rerun Cyberpunk however noticeably mountaineering the fan-noise to a outstanding degree. Different video games might or might not profit extra from the bounce as much as 65 W, but when so, it is onerous to think about a big degree of uptick. Our advice can be to drop the fan mode to Regular and go away it there.
In efficiency phrases, the common body charges achieved by the AX8 Professional are what we have come to count on from mini-PCs operating video games on the Radeon 780M at 1080p. Assuming any Ryzen APU paired with the 780M is not run at an undercooked wattage, it makes for a reasonably degree enjoying discipline between such chips and units when it comes to video games efficiency. There is no denying that the AX8 Professional’s Ryzen 9 8945HS allows it to realize greater body charges than its friends in some titles, however incrementally so. And that is no shock as, on paper, AMD’s Seventh-gen and Eighth-gen Ryzen 9 cell APUs seem an identical.
Each the 7940HS and 8945HS boast eight cores, obtain a turbo clock velocity of 5.2 GHz, they each have the identical L1, L2 and L3 cache sizes, they’re rated by AMD to run on the identical 45-54 W TDP, they usually each lean on the Radeon 780M for gaming. Identical transistor rely, identical every part, so far as I can glean from AMD’s spec-sheets, which learn like a cut-and-paste job. Geekom’s implementation right here, which pushes the CPU to function above its said TDP-rating of 54 W, is almost definitely what offers it that minimal efficiency edge. However the truth stays, you are paying an enormous premium right here for a barely newer CPU which is successfully a rebadge of the earlier era, and in most titles there is no efficiency distinction in any respect.
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Purchase if…
✅ You demand the dinkiest: It is tiny. You possibly can actually slip this factor within the again pocket of your denims.
✅ You need nice efficiency at 1080p: A wonderful all-rounder with energy sufficient for gaming at 1920×1080
Do not buy if…
❌ You are on a funds: The value tag is simply shy of a grand, and there is no barebones choice.
❌ You desire a silent performer: With a strong APU in a tiny case, the fan must hustle
One of many points of interest of mini-PCs is the truth that they grant snappy general-computing and 1080p gaming energy on a funds, and the AX8 Professional is objectively not a discount in comparison with the costs of its competing stablemates. Plus, Zen 5 APUs which wield the brand new RDNA3.5 iGPU, aka the Radeon 890M, are starting to trickle into units. The gifted Mr. Ridley discovered that even in a lower-wattage pocket book state of affairs, the Radeon 890M grants a tangible efficiency uplift over the 780M. It may be attention-grabbing to see if that efficiency is additional improved on the sort of TDP ranges provided by packing containers just like the AX8 Professional. So in the event you’re considering of dropping this sum of money on a top-end mini-PC, it’d pay to attend just a bit longer.
If you need the smallest PC on the planet with a extremely performant APU, the Geekom AX8 Professional is simply that. However remember that you could spend significantly much less and obtain near-identical outcomes.
