This JBL PartyBox Encore Essential portable Bluetooth speaker has been the heart of nearly all my friend and family gatherings in the past year. The best news for you, though, is that it’s on sale right now! Act fast and you can get it for 39% off on Amazon, an incredible discount that brings it down to one of its best prices ever: $200 (was $330). View this Amazon deal The JBL PartyBox Encore Essential is one of the best portable Bluetooth speakers for parties and events. It’s large, fairly heavy, and loud. Seriously, it gets really loud. To set the mood, it even features a dynamic light show feature that’ll dazzle your guests, but you can turn it off and ignore it if that’s not really the vibe you want to put out. It comes with a built-in handle, too, so it’s easy to move around. That said, although it’s a “portable” Bluetooth speaker, don’t expect it to be small or light enough that you can carry it with you when you go, say, hiking—it’s definitely not for that. It’s more for indoor venues or your backyard patio. You could take it to the pool, though, and you won’t have to worry about water damage because it’s IPX4 splash-proof. Measurement-wise, it’s 12.9 inches tall, 10.9 inches wide, and 11.5 inches deep. It ain’t massive, but it’s pretty hefty. If you want to take things to the next level, you can wirelessly pair it with two other speakers using JBL’s True Wireless Stereo technology. But for the most part, it’s an incredible speaker on its own—and this is a fantastic deal, so get it now for just $200 before this deal expires! Save $130 on the JBL Partybox Encore Essential while you canBuy now at Amazon Read...

Imagine it’s the year 2030 and Nvidia has just announced its newest RTX 7000-series graphics cards. But the cheapest of the cards is priced over $2,000 and the top model is nearly double that. The series offer minimal uplift on rendering performance, but they’re incredibly good at accelerated upscaling and frame generation. Plus, memory bandwidth is almost double over the last-gen models. Let’s continue the hypothetical: Nvidia’s new xx60-series cards aren’t expected for months while Nvidia stockpiles enough defective GPUs. But don’t worry if you can’t afford these new cards or don’t want to wait. Why? Because GeForce Now offers the full upgrade right now for an “affordable” monthly fee, especially with an annual sub locked in. I wrote the above as a nightmare scenario, but it’s odd how close it sounds to the launch of the RTX 50-series. It’s a history that seems likely to repeat and accelerate as Nvidia’s gaming division becomes an ever-more-minor side hustle to its AI initiatives. Nvidia could effectively give up on gaming in the near future, and that might be the most financially sensible thing to do if the AI bubble doesn’t burst. But what would happen if they did? Just follow the money The numbers behind my pessimistic prognosis paint a stark picture. Nvidia’s Q3 2025 revenue topped $57 billion. Guess how much of that money came from data centers? A whopping $51.2 billion. That’s just shy of 90% of its total revenue and represents a 25% increase over the previous quarter and a 66% increase year on year. How much revenue do you think Nvidia pulled in from gaming? A measly $4.3 billion by comparison. That’s down 1% on the previous quarter, and that’s despite having the most powerful graphics cards available and with stock and prices being far more favorable than they were earlier in the year. It’s still up 30% on last year, but the difference in potential between data centers and gaming is staggering. Nvidia Indeed, gaming makes up less than 8% of Nvidia’s total revenue as of now, and although the overall income from gaming continues to increase, it’s miniscule in comparison to its data center take. Bullfincher highlights how quickly that’s changed, too: just a few years ago, gaming represented over 33% of Nvidia’s total revenue. Where do you think it’s going to be in another five years? Assuming the AI bubble doesn’t pop as catastrophically as it could, gaming is going to become a tiny footnote on Nvidia’s balance sheet. Will Jensen Huang even bother doing gaming hardware keynotes at that point? Mark Hachman / IDG Nvidia might be the biggest megacorp in this space, but its contemporaries show similar gaming red flags on their balance sheets. AMD made just over $9 billion this past quarter, but $4.3 billion was from data center sales while only $1.3 billion came from gaming. That’s much better than last year—when data centers brought in $3.5 billion and gaming just $462 million—but data centers are still a far bigger portion of AMD’s revenue than gaming. These numbers make a compelling case for giving up some interest and investment in gaming hardware development. It doesn’t mean they’re going to stop make gaming GPUs entirely. (Or does it?) But if you’re Jensen Huang facing off against shareholders who are demanding the revenue numbers go up as much as possible as fast as possible, what are you going to sell them on: a new gaming GPU that has historically low margins, or a new generation of data center hardware to feed into the accelerating AI bubble with untold potential? You could even argue that Nvidia’s increasing focus over the past few years on DLSS and ray tracing over pure rasterization performance is an early sign of it putting its eggs in the data center basket. A canary in the RAM mines The biggest side effect of all these new data center builds hasn’t been GPU scarcity, surprisingly. (At least, not to the degree we saw during the cryptocurrency craze.) Rather, it’s skyrocketing memory prices. RAM kits have increased in price by over 200 percent in some cases, making large capacity kits more costly than top-tier GPUs. Some modest RAM options are even more expensive than gaming consoles. Consumer RAM is shooting up in price because all the major memory manufacturers are inundated with orders for data center memory, like HBM and LPDDR. Some have begun pivoting their fabrication lines to these higher-margin memory types, leading to shortages of NAND chips—and, consequently, shortages of consumer memory and SSDs. Nor Gal / Shutterstock.com Those shortages are making RAM and SSDs far more expensive. And yet, despite the increased margins and diminishing supply versus demand, Micron just closed its Crucial brand of consumer RAM and SSDs. It was profitable, it was popular, it had a distinct market niche that served consumers and gamers for decades. But even Micron didn’t see the point of keeping it going when it could instead make heaps more cash from selling Micron NAND chips and server memory. And if Micron is so willing to pull out of the consumer space due to AI-driven demand, how much more will Nvidia be tempted to do the same? What’s stopping Nvidia from reaching the same conclusion? For further proof of this future, Nvidia is rumored to be cutting its gaming GPU supply in 2026 due to memory shortages. It’s especially notable how Nvidia appears to be cutting the more affordable mid-range graphics cards first, leaving ultra-budget and ultra-high-end lines intact for now. Is this just the first step in Nvidia leaving gamers behind? Where things could go from here There are some intriguing comparisons to make between Nvidia and other big businesses that found growth and revenue in avenues that weren’t where they started. IBM went from being the name in computing hardware to one that largely runs in the background. It sold off its core hardware businesses and became a software and services company that’s still worth tens of billions of dollars. It recently spun off again, creating a separate company to handle IT services while the core business refocused on cloud computing and AI. Nvidia could do that: spin or sell off its gaming divisions and license its GPU technology to that spun-or-sold-off subsidiary. Notice the lack of graphics cards in this Nvidia promo image.Nvidia Perhaps Nvidia could even end up like Adobe. In the mid-2010s, the developer of Photoshop launched Creative Cloud and slowly pushed all its once-in-perpetuity software licenses into a subscription model that’s still going on today. Could that apply to Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service? It had 25 million subscribers as of 2023 and ran on GPUs designed for data center server racks. Nvidia could leave dedicated desktop and laptop GPUs behind entirely and pivot its gaming divisions into software/hardware-as-a-service firms. If gaming goes a similar way to TV and movie streaming, it’s possible Nvidia could even pull a Netflix and slowly de-emphasize its DVD-like hardware business in favor of powering it all from the cloud. Gaming won’t die, but it will change As much as this article is heavy on the doom, Nvidia is unlikely to exit gaming entirely. People want to play games and there’s money to be made there, so someone will keep tapping that market. But how that revenue is extracted may change—dramatically so. Microsoft is already talking about making the next Xbox more of a PC/console hybrid. And with the latest Xbox consoles being the third wheel of this generation, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the future of Xbox focus more on streaming games than buying/owning them. Xbox Game Pass already has over 37 million subscribers—that’s more than the number of Xbox Series X/S consoles sold this generation. Nvidia could do something similar. Or it could spin off. Or it could stop making gaming GPUs entirely. The only thing we know for sure is this: when a gaming company starts making astronomical amounts of money due to AI-driven demand, it’s hard to imagine it wouldn’t be tempted to dive head-first into an AI-first strategy at the expense of gaming. Further reading: PC vs. consoles? Gaming’s future is blurrier than ever Read...

Imagine it’s the year 2030 and Nvidia has just announced its newest RTX 7000-series graphics cards. But the cheapest of the cards is priced over $2,000 and the top model is nearly double that. The series offer minimal uplift on rendering performance, but they’re incredibly good at accelerated upscaling and frame generation. Plus, memory bandwidth is almost double over the last-gen models. Let’s continue the hypothetical: Nvidia’s new xx60-series cards aren’t expected for months while Nvidia stockpiles enough defective GPUs. But don’t worry if you can’t afford these new cards or don’t want to wait. Why? Because GeForce Now offers the full upgrade right now for an “affordable” monthly fee, especially with an annual sub locked in. I wrote the above as a nightmare scenario, but it’s odd how close it sounds to the launch of the RTX 50-series. It’s a history that seems likely to repeat and accelerate as Nvidia’s gaming division becomes an ever-more-minor side hustle to its AI initiatives. Nvidia could effectively give up on gaming in the near future, and that might be the most financially sensible thing to do if the AI bubble doesn’t burst. But what would happen if they did? Just follow the money The numbers behind my pessimistic prognosis paint a stark picture. Nvidia’s Q3 2025 revenue topped $57 billion. Guess how much of that money came from data centers? A whopping $51.2 billion. That’s just shy of 90% of its total revenue and represents a 25% increase over the previous quarter and a 66% increase year on year. How much revenue do you think Nvidia pulled in from gaming? A measly $4.3 billion by comparison. That’s down 1% on the previous quarter, and that’s despite having the most powerful graphics cards available and with stock and prices being far more favorable than they were earlier in the year. It’s still up 30% on last year, but the difference in potential between data centers and gaming is staggering. Nvidia Indeed, gaming makes up less than 8% of Nvidia’s total revenue as of now, and although the overall income from gaming continues to increase, it’s miniscule in comparison to its data center take. Bullfincher highlights how quickly that’s changed, too: just a few years ago, gaming represented over 33% of Nvidia’s total revenue. Where do you think it’s going to be in another five years? Assuming the AI bubble doesn’t pop as catastrophically as it could, gaming is going to become a tiny footnote on Nvidia’s balance sheet. Will Jensen Huang even bother doing gaming hardware keynotes at that point? Mark Hachman / IDG Nvidia might be the biggest megacorp in this space, but its contemporaries show similar gaming red flags on their balance sheets. AMD made just over $9 billion this past quarter, but $4.3 billion was from data center sales while only $1.3 billion came from gaming. That’s much better than last year—when data centers brought in $3.5 billion and gaming just $462 million—but data centers are still a far bigger portion of AMD’s revenue than gaming. These numbers make a compelling case for giving up some interest and investment in gaming hardware development. It doesn’t mean they’re going to stop make gaming GPUs entirely. (Or does it?) But if you’re Jensen Huang facing off against shareholders who are demanding the revenue numbers go up as much as possible as fast as possible, what are you going to sell them on: a new gaming GPU that has historically low margins, or a new generation of data center hardware to feed into the accelerating AI bubble with untold potential? You could even argue that Nvidia’s increasing focus over the past few years on DLSS and ray tracing over pure rasterization performance is an early sign of it putting its eggs in the data center basket. A canary in the RAM mines The biggest side effect of all these new data center builds hasn’t been GPU scarcity, surprisingly. (At least, not to the degree we saw during the cryptocurrency craze.) Rather, it’s skyrocketing memory prices. RAM kits have increased in price by over 200 percent in some cases, making large capacity kits more costly than top-tier GPUs. Some modest RAM options are even more expensive than gaming consoles. Consumer RAM is shooting up in price because all the major memory manufacturers are inundated with orders for data center memory, like HBM and LPDDR. Some have begun pivoting their fabrication lines to these higher-margin memory types, leading to shortages of NAND chips—and, consequently, shortages of consumer memory and SSDs. Nor Gal / Shutterstock.com Those shortages are making RAM and SSDs far more expensive. And yet, despite the increased margins and diminishing supply versus demand, Micron just closed its Crucial brand of consumer RAM and SSDs. It was profitable, it was popular, it had a distinct market niche that served consumers and gamers for decades. But even Micron didn’t see the point of keeping it going when it could instead make heaps more cash from selling Micron NAND chips and server memory. And if Micron is so willing to pull out of the consumer space due to AI-driven demand, how much more will Nvidia be tempted to do the same? What’s stopping Nvidia from reaching the same conclusion? For further proof of this future, Nvidia is rumored to be cutting its gaming GPU supply in 2026 due to memory shortages. It’s especially notable how Nvidia appears to be cutting the more affordable mid-range graphics cards first, leaving ultra-budget and ultra-high-end lines intact for now. Is this just the first step in Nvidia leaving gamers behind? Where things could go from here There are some intriguing comparisons to make between Nvidia and other big businesses that found growth and revenue in avenues that weren’t where they started. IBM went from being the name in computing hardware to one that largely runs in the background. It sold off its core hardware businesses and became a software and services company that’s still worth tens of billions of dollars. It recently spun off again, creating a separate company to handle IT services while the core business refocused on cloud computing and AI. Nvidia could do that: spin or sell off its gaming divisions and license its GPU technology to that spun-or-sold-off subsidiary. Notice the lack of graphics cards in this Nvidia promo image.Nvidia Perhaps Nvidia could even end up like Adobe. In the mid-2010s, the developer of Photoshop launched Creative Cloud and slowly pushed all its once-in-perpetuity software licenses into a subscription model that’s still going on today. Could that apply to Nvidia’s GeForce Now streaming service? It had 25 million subscribers as of 2023 and ran on GPUs designed for data center server racks. Nvidia could leave dedicated desktop and laptop GPUs behind entirely and pivot its gaming divisions into software/hardware-as-a-service firms. If gaming goes a similar way to TV and movie streaming, it’s possible Nvidia could even pull a Netflix and slowly de-emphasize its DVD-like hardware business in favor of powering it all from the cloud. Gaming won’t die, but it will change As much as this article is heavy on the doom, Nvidia is unlikely to exit gaming entirely. People want to play games and there’s money to be made there, so someone will keep tapping that market. But how that revenue is extracted may change—dramatically so. Microsoft is already talking about making the next Xbox more of a PC/console hybrid. And with the latest Xbox consoles being the third wheel of this generation, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the future of Xbox focus more on streaming games than buying/owning them. Xbox Game Pass already has over 37 million subscribers—that’s more than the number of Xbox Series X/S consoles sold this generation. Nvidia could do something similar. Or it could spin off. Or it could stop making gaming GPUs entirely. The only thing we know for sure is this: when a gaming company starts making astronomical amounts of money due to AI-driven demand, it’s hard to imagine it wouldn’t be tempted to dive head-first into an AI-first strategy at the expense of gaming. Further reading: PC vs. consoles? Gaming’s future is blurrier than ever Read...

Data is one of the most important possessions we have these days. Whether it’s crucial documents for work or those irreplaceable photos and videos of the kids, these digital files are precious and need to be protected. But, with so many threats now targeted at us every day, how can we keep our data safe from corruption, theft or even being held to ransom by online hackers? ESET Cybersecurity software has the answers. Keeping your data safe from thieves and hackers It seems like hardly a week goes by without some cyber-attack being reported on the news. These range from raids on government departments, to online retailers or banks being targeted by hackers, all of which can leave us feeling vulnerable. After all, if the security on those companies couldn’t protect it, what can we do? Well, the truth is it can be easier to secure one device or user than it is to cover a complicated organisation, but you need the right tools. ESET HOME Security software provides exactly that, without needing a business-sized budget. Save 30% on ESET HOME Security Its 24/7 real-time protection means your PC or mobile device is constantly monitored to ward off malware, viruses, or other potential hazards. There are also security restrictions in place so no outside party can copy your data to an external device. ESET’s detections rates have been shown to be higher than that of its main rivals, while also delivering less false positives, meaning you’re getting top-class levels of protection.   Of course, one of the most alarming threats in recent years is that of ransomware. This is software that takes over your machine, encrypts everything and return it until you pay a ransom. Essentially, your data becomes a hostage on your own device. ESET Cybersecurity software works to prevent this by employing a Ransomware Shield that blocks the delivery methods of attacks, plus its Ransomware Remediation technology uses backup of files and restoration tools to quickly get you up and running if you do suffer an attack. This isn’t restricted to just internal drives though, as you can also encrypt and protect external USB drives, something many alternative software packages can’t offer. ESET Secure online banking and identity protection A common vulnerability for many users is when logging onto their bank accounts or crypto-wallets. Cybercriminals can target keystrokes or intercept data as it passes across the web, making it easy for them to hack accounts. ESET Cybersecurity protects against this by offering plug-ins for the most popular browsers, which then encrypt any data traffic so that it’s unreadable to anyone but the intended recipient. On the Premium and Ultimate packages, you also get an unlimited VPN that encrypts and protects all your online activities from prying eyes. Web monitoring ensures no unseen dangers on pages and will instantly warn against unsafe search results that might take you to fake sites. There’s also dark web monitoring that looks for any data breaches or illegal selling of your personal data, preventing the risk of identity theft. With all these protections in place, you might worry that it will have a large impact on the performance of your device. Again, ESET has you covered, as its software has won multiple awards for its speed, beating out several of its main rivals in a recent AV Comparatives benchmark test. So, not only are you staying safe, but you’re also not slowing down. Peace of mind without worrying your wallet Premium protection doesn’t need to come at premium prices, which is something ESET proves. In fact, until January 5th, PCWorld readers can take advantage of a fantastic offer that reduces the cost of a yearly subscription by a massive 30%. This means you can sign up today to the ESET HOME Security Essential (1 device) tier for only $34.99 (usually $49.99), ESET HOME Security Premium (1 device) for $55.99 (usually $79.99), or ESET HOME Security Ultimate (5 devices) for $125.99 (usually $179.99). Protecting your data is one of the most sensible investments you can ever make, getting 30% off the cost only makes it better. Save 30% on ESET HOME Security View Deal Read...

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Texas has officially filed a lawsuit against Sony, Samsung, LG, Hisense, and TCL, BleepingComputer reports. The reason for the lawsuit is that these five companies allegedly used Automated Content Recognition (ACR), a technology that takes periodic screenshots of what users are watching (twice per second) and sends that information to servers in Japan, South Korea, and China. In the official press release, the lawsuit is summarized as a “suit against five major television companies for spying on Texans by secretly recording what consumers watch in their own homes.” Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton writes: “Companies, especially those connected to the Chinese Communist Party, have no business illegally recording Americans’ devices inside their own homes.” He goes on: “This conduct is invasive, deceptive, and unlawful. The fundamental right to privacy will be protected in Texas because owning a television does not mean surrendering your personal information to Big Tech or foreign adversaries.” If the allegations are true, this will be one of the biggest breaches of user privacy in smart TVs, and it’s not like smart TVs are exactly bastions of privacy to begin with. While it’s hard to avoid smart TVs these days—TVs without internet connections are getting rarer and rarer—it’s another notch in favor of not making everything we own online 24/7. You can read the actual lawsuits filed against each company with these links: Sony (PDF), Samsung (PDF), LG (PDF), Hisense (PDF), TCL (PDF). Read...

At a glanceExpert`s Rating Pros Excellent combination of CPU, GPU, and NPU Performance at desktop workstation level Versatile use: from AI workloads to content creation and gaming Buttons for fan control and performance Very fast LPDDR5X RAM—128GB! Significantly smaller footprint than classic towers Cons Relatively high price Possibly oversized for many usage scenarios Only one Ethernet port Our Verdict The GMKtec EVO-X2 is no ordinary mini PC, but an impressive all-rounder – a compact workstation with desktop power, including a powerful integrated GPU and a dedicated NPU. It’s currently one of the best options for users who demand performance and still want to save space. If you’re looking for graphics, AI, or multitasking performance in a small case, you’ll get almost everything a large PC can – with a much more space-saving design. Its high price is the only real downer. Price When Reviewed This value will show the geolocated pricing text for product undefined Best Pricing Today Best Prices Today: GMKtec EVO-X2 Retailer Price $1,529.99 View Deal $1,699.99 View Deal Price comparison from over 24,000 stores worldwide Product Price Price comparison from Backmarket Best Prices Today: Check today’s prices GMKtec EVO-X2: The specs Processor: AMD Ryzen AI Max 395 (16 cores, 32 threads, up to 5.1 GHz), 16 MB L2 cache, 64 MB L3, 120 watts TDP in continuous operation, up to 140 watts for a short time Graphics: Radeon 8060S (RDNA 3.5, 40 cores), maximum supported resolution: 7,680 × 4,320 pixels @ 60Hz NPU: XDNA 2, 50 TOPS (up to 126 TOPS in total) Memory: 128 GB LPDDR5X 8,000 MHz from Samsung, hard-soldered Internal storage: 2 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD, Crucial P3 CT2000 PCIe M.2 2280 (second M.2 2280 slot, expandable to 2 x 8 TB) Front connections: 2 × USB-A 3.2 Gen2, 1 × USB Type-C (USB 4.0), 1 × audio combo jack (3.5 mm jack), 1 × SD card reader (SD 4.0, supports SDXC) Rear connections: 1 × DisplayPort 1.4 HBR3, 1 × HDMI 2.1, 1 × USB-A 3.2 Gen2, 2 × USB-A 2.0, 1 × USB Type-C (USB 4.0), 1 × audio (3.5mm CTIA), 1 × DC-in, 1 × RJ45 LAN Connectivity: Wi-Fi 7 (MT7925), LAN 2.5 Gbit/s (8125BG), Bluetooth 5.4 Dimensions: 193 × 186 × 77 mm (W × D × H) Weight: 3.6lbs With the EVO-X2, the Chinese manufacturer GMKtec is once again launching a mini PC that is clearly positioned in the high-end segment and claims to push the boundaries of compact desktop systems even further. While many mini PCs are primarily designed for space saving, energy efficiency, or office tasks, GMKtec takes a different approach: maximum performance in the smallest of spaces. The EVO-X2 should not only master classic workloads with ease, but also handle demanding AI processes, content creation, and even gaming thanks to modern Ryzen AI technology. For a mini PC, the EVO-X2’s proximity to the classic desktop performance class is remarkable and shows how efficiently AMD’s current APU architecture works in combination with fast RAM and optimized power management. GMKtec EVO-X2: Design The fact that the GMKtec EVO-X2 is not a typical mini PC is evident from the size of its packaging, which is more than twice the size of standard mini PCs. And yes, at around 3.6lbs, the EVO-X2 is a real brick, as the comparison with the Sapphire Edge AI 370, the most compact mini in the test so far, shows. Christoph Hoffmann With dimensions of 7.6 inches in width, 7.3 inches in depth, and a height of 3.03 inches, the EVO-X2 is a large, flat mini PC in a kind of sandwich construction. The size and weight convey stability and value—this alone makes the computer look like a serious desktop replacement in miniature form. Christoph Hoffmann The metal housing with CNC jet-oxidized surface has a black center section and all-round ventilation slots. The design allows the PC to be used horizontally or vertically, although the arrangement of the rubber feet and cooling openings are more in favor of upright use. The screws for opening the housing are also located under the glued rubber. This complicates upgrading a bit. Christoph Hoffmann The design provides sufficient volume for cooling the Ryzen AI Max 395, but the EVO-X2 can still be easily placed on the desk or hidden under a monitor stand. The EVO-X2 does without obvious visual gimmicks such as RGB LEDs, but still glows a subtle blue from the ventilation slots. In addition to the usual connections on the front and rear (see below), the “Fan Mode” button on the bevelled edge stands out. Behind this is a switchable fan control, which can be used to adjust the volume and cooling performance to your own requirements. With other mini PCs, the corresponding setting has to be activated in the BIOS. Christoph Hoffmann Depending on the mode, the cooling system either works particularly quietly for simple tasks or significantly more powerfully when maximum performance is required—for example when gaming, rendering, or handling AI workloads. This allows the user to decide for themselves whether the mini PC should run as quietly as possible or utilize its cooling to the max in order to maintain higher clock rates for longer. The P-Mode (Performance Mode) is also available. A performance profile of the GMKtec EVO-X2 is activated at the touch of a button, which sets the Mini-PC to maximum speed in three stages. When switching, small icons (green, orange, and red) are displayed on the screen. The system increases its performance limits for the CPU, GPU, and NPU so that higher clock rates can be maintained for longer. At the same time, the cooling system works more aggressively to reliably dissipate the additional waste heat. In practice, this means noticeably more power for gaming, rendering, coding or AI calculations – but with slightly higher noise levels and energy consumption. P-Mode is therefore ideal if you want to utilize the full performance of the EVO-X2. In the benchmarks (see below), we tested it in the standard settings and in performance mode. GMKtec EVO-X2: Features The EVO-X2 comes with an impressive hardware combination that clearly exceeds what you would expect from a conventional mini PC. At its heart is the AMD Ryzen AI Max 395, which is already manufactured in 4 nm, has 16 cores and 32 threads and clocks at up to 5.1 GHz. The integrated Radeon 8060S is based on AMD’s RDNA 3.5 architecture and has 40 compute units. Thanks to the efficiency and shader optimizations from AMD’s current mobile high-end GPUs, it delivers surprisingly high computing and rasterisation performance despite its compact thermal budget. Together with the fast LPDDR5X memory, the 8060S performs well above previous integrated Radeon generations and achieves frame rates in many modern games that were previously reserved for dedicated notebook graphics cards such as the Nvidia RTX 4070. Christoph Hoffmann There is also an NPU for AI loads with 50 TOPS so that AMD’s XDNA-2 engine can be utilized to its full potential—total performance of up to 126 TOPS according to the manufacturer. The NPU processes models directly on the device and thus noticeably reduces the load on the CPU and GPU, which not only brings efficiency gains, but also enables stable performance during longer inference (AI training) sessions. Demanding AI workflows in particular, such as image and video analysis, model quantisation or local LLM usage, benefit considerably from this, as the NPU has been specially optimized for these computationally intensive, highly parallelizable tasks. The model we tested has 128GB of Samsung LPDDR5X RAM with 8,000 MHz (K3KLALAOEM-MGCV). In addition, there is a 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD (Crucial P3 CT2000 PCIe M.2 2280). This combination turns the EVO-X2 into a serious workstation base. Christoph Hoffmann The GMKtec EVO-X2 offers versatile connectivity that easily supports both modern displays and fast peripherals. Via HDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and USB4, image signals up to 8K at 60 Hz can be output, which qualifies the mini PC for high-resolution multi-monitor set-ups. Wi-Fi 7 with the RZ717 module and a 2.5 Gbit LAN port are available for the network connection, supplemented by Bluetooth 5.4 for wireless accessories. The power supply delivers 19.5 volts at 11.8 amps and is therefore designed for high load peaks. Christoph Hoffmann On the front, there are two USB-A 3.2 Gen2 ports, a 3.5 mm audio socket, a USB-C port with USB4 for data rates of up to 40 Gbit/s, an SD card reader (SD4.0/SDXC), and buttons for power, fan lighting, and power mode switching. At the rear, the EVO-X2 also offers DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, USB-A 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbit/s), two USB-A 2.0 ports, another USB-C port with USB4 capability, a 3.5 mm audio connection, the DC power input, and the 2.5 Gbit LAN port. Christoph Hoffmann In short, the equipment and interfaces are on a par with desktop workstations—and in a housing that is still compact and unobtrusive. GMKtec EVO-X2: Operating system The EVO-X2 comes with Windows 11 Pro, which is automatically activated online after the first start. The basic setup is completed in just a few minutes; we then updated the system from Windows version 24H2 to 25H2. Christoph Hoffmann Important note: After the initial installation of Windows 11, numerous drivers are required, above all the AMD drivers for the Radeon graphics card and the chipset. This ensures that the Mini-PC runs under optimal conditions and that all components can develop their full performance. Christoph Hoffmann Pre-installed under Windows 11 is GMKtec’s own software in English. Numerous AI models can be loaded via the integrated app store, and when testing the EVO-X2, it quickly becomes clear what GMKtec means by the information on LLM support: the mini PC is designed to run large AI models directly on the device—without the cloud. When equipped with 128GB of RAM, local LLMs with more than 100 billion parameters can be loaded with relative ease. For everyday use, this means that more complex AI tasks that would otherwise only be possible on powerful workstations can be used directly on the EVO-X2. The hardware provides the necessary reserves for this, and it’s precisely this that clearly sets the mini PC apart from the entry-level or office segment. GMKtec EVO-X2: Performance The EVO-X2 excels particularly where intensive computing loads are required as our benchmark values clearly show. In PCMark 10, the system achieves a total of 8,953 points in the default setting, with 11,559 in “Essentials”, 10,853 in “Productivity” and 15,527 in “Digital Content Creation”. Mentioned in this article Minisforum AI X1 Pro Read our review Best Prices Today: $1,087 at Amazon The results in performance mode: 9,078 points overall with 11,325, 11,153 and 16,074 in the sub-disciplines. This clearly places the EVO-X2 in the upper segment of typical mini PCs—even the competitive values of devices such as the Minisforum AI X1 Pro with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 are noticeably lower at 7,400 points (PCMark 10). Christoph Hoffmann Compared to current desktop PCs, the EVO-X2 comes surprisingly close to full-fledged mid-range workstations: Many systems with Ryzen 7 or Core i7 desktop processors only achieve similar overall scores in PCMark. The high score in the “Digital Content Creation” area in particular reaches a level that is otherwise usually reserved for PCs with a dedicated GPU or a significantly larger performance budget. For a mini PC, the EVO-X2’s proximity to the classic desktop performance class is remarkable and shows how efficiently AMD’s current APU architecture works in combination with fast RAM and optimized power management. The 3DMark profile tests also show strong CPU performance across all thread sets: 9,875 points at maximum thread utilization or 9,719 (16 threads) and 8,348 (8 threads) are particularly striking. These values are well above what typical laptop APUs achieve and place the EVO-X2 in the performance class of modern mid- to upper-range desktop processors. Christoph Hoffmann In direct comparison, the multi-thread performance is more in line with CPUs such as a Ryzen 7 7700 or an Intel Core i7 of the 13th/14th generation, while the efficiency remains noticeably higher. This is remarkable for a mini PC—it’s well outside the usual mobile limits and actually comes close to the throughput performance of full desktop systems in many scenarios. In comparison: The Minisforum AI X1 Pro achieves 8,292 points while the Sapphire Edge AI 370 reaches 8,808 points. Christoph Hoffmann In Time Spy, the EVO-X2 achieves 10,697 points (graphics 10,779, CPU 10,256), with an estimated 105 FPS in gaming mode—a clear indication of serious gaming and 3D performance. The Sapphire Edge AI 370 achieves just under a third of the values (3,764 points), while the Geekom IT15 with an Intel Core Ultra 9 285H achieves 4,244 points. In the game Tomb Raider – Definitive Edition, the EVO-X2 achieved an impressively smooth performance for a mini PC with 10,767 rendered frames and an average of 69 FPS, with hardly any drops even in action-packed scenes. Christoph Hoffmann The Crystal DiskMark values of over 7,000 MB/s (read) and over 6,200 MB/s (write) also emphasize the speed of the built-in SSD—ideal for large files, projects, and fast loading times. Christoph Hoffmann However, the AI performance is particularly remarkable: in Geekbench AI Pro, the system delivers 6,393 points in Single Precision, 2,399 in Half Precision and an outstanding 11,315 points in Quantised Score. In performance mode, the values improve only slightly to 6,436, 2,401 and 11,337. These benchmarks indicate that the EVO-X2 is not only excellently suited for classic desktop workloads, but also for modern machine learning and AI tasks and thus outperforms the class of many traditional mini PCs. Christoph Hoffmann The power of the EVO-X2 is clearly noticeable in everyday gaming and content creation: video editing, image processing and 3D rendering run smoothly and quickly. Even demanding games on high settings are no problem – the integrated GPU delivers performance at laptop graphics card level (comparable to mobile high-end cards), so you don’t necessarily need an external GPU if you’re not aiming for maximum detail levels. Is the GMKtec EVO-X2 worth it? Overall, the EVO-X2 delivers a combination of CPU, GPU, and AI performance that is currently one of the best in the mini PC class. In its compact format, it strikes a balance between mini PC and compact desktop workstation—and delivers what many other mini PCs offer only inadequately or not at all. Compared to other current mini PCs with AI or performance-focussed processors, the EVO-X2 stands out with its well-balanced features. Mini-PCs with the AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 such as the Minisforum AI X1 Pro and Sapphire Edge AI 370 fall noticeably short of the top performance of the EVO-X2, despite the Ryzen AI 9 being a powerful processor. In terms of AI and gaming performance, the EVO-X2 is therefore more comparable with compact workstation PCs than with typical mini PCs. Only full-fledged desktop PCs with dedicated GPUs and more powerful, often more power-hungry processors can outperform it in high-end workloads. But for a mini PC, the Ryzen AI Max 395 is an impressive step forward—a future-orientated choice that meets or exceeds the current requirements in many respects. In everyday use, the EVO-X2 masters multitasking, parallel workflows, AI inference, and graphically demanding processes with ease. For users who want to run video editing, 3D modelling, AI projects, or simply games at a high level, the EVO-X2 is currently one of the most exciting options in the mini format. However, it comes at a high price—our test device costs around $2,100 full price. Read...