Minisforum HX90G review: Compact gaming PC with AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX and AMD Radeon RX 6600M

Minisforum is becoming more and more popular. The Chinese system builder started out with compact office computers and marked its debut in the gaming sector with the EliteMini HX90 – a device without a dedicated GPU. The Minisforum Neptune Series HX90G makes up for this and includes an AMD Radeon RX 6600M to complement the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX.

We are familiar with this chip from our notebook reviews. It has a VRAM of 8 GB and can work without being throttled by the HX90G. The Minisforum HX90G is available from the manufacturer’s own online shop.

It also comes as a barebone version without RAM or SSD modules – and without a license for Windows Professional 11. The price for this barebone version starts at 1,079 Euros. The best model with 64 GB of RAM and a 512 GB SSD is available for 1,469 Euros.

The first products will be distributed in mid-November and are currently available with a pre-order discount of approx. 300 Euros, making for a very attractive price. This review includes compact desktop computers as comparison devices and also looks at similarly equipped gaming notebooks for a more direct comparison of GPU performance.

The case is made entirely of plastic and, like the Minisforum EliteMini HX90, features a carbon look on some of its parts. The interior of the case is reinforced with metal. There is nothing to criticize about the device’s exterior.

The workmanship is good and the gap dimensions aren’t too large. Nonetheless, we would have preferred an aluminum case. This might have made the device a little heavier, but it would have given it a more top-quality appearance.

The Minisforum HX90G can be positioned flat or upright with the help of a little stand, as you can see on the pictures. The Minisforum HX90G weighs only 1. 4 kg (incl.

stand). The external power supply weighs another 650 g. At a first glance, the Minisforum Neptune Series HX90G seems to include all relevant ports.

It has five USB ports, one of which is a Type C port. Unfortunately, none of the ports support Thunderbolt, and the Type C port does not support image output. The device provides sufficient alternatives to connect external screens: two HDMI and two DisplayPort connectors.

Unfortunately, these four ports only support up to [email protected] The ports are distributed on the front and back and are easily accessible. Minisforum has included a MediaTek RZ608 module in its HX90G. The mini PC achieved good results in our test with our reference router ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000.

Its transfer rates were higher than all of our previous measurements with this module in other test units. The Intel Wi-Fi 6E modules are much faster, however, and easily outpace our test unit. The integrated LAN port is a good alternative and supports up to 2.

5 GBit/s. The device comes with a 260-Watt power supply and a stand. The device’s side cover can be removed for any maintenance work.

Unfortunately, this requires removing the rubber pads, which isn’t ideal as they tend to lose their stickiness when this happens. The side cover is fixed to the case with four screws. Users will then have to remove another metal cover before they have access to the RAM module, the SSD or the Wi-Fi module.

The metal plate only serves to secure the side cover. There is no space for a 2. 5-inch storage device, nor could it be connected to the main board.

There is room, however, for two SO-DIMM and two M. 2 SSD modules. You will have to take the device apart even further if you want to clean the fans, but this shouldn’t be a problem if you know what you’re doing.

The manufacturer discourages users from taking the cooling system apart. And as the manufacturer has used good-quality heat paste (liquid metal), we don’t think this is necessary anyway. We ran all performance tests in the “high performance” energy profile.

We did not make any changes to the performance of the CPU and left all BIOS settings in automatic mode. The AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX belongs to the Cezanne series and is based on Zen3 architecture. The SoC offers 8 physical cores with a total of 16 threads (thanks to SMT).

This is particularly beneficial for multi-thread applications. The AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX performs well, and the HX90G’s overall performance is better than that of the HX90, equipped with the same SoC. For a more pronounced difference in CPU performance, the manufacturer could have used AMD’s more recent Ryzen 9 6900HX SoC.

Our performance rating has shown that this SoC is 10 percent above our system’s SoC. The HX90G has another in-house opponent in the form of the Minisforum NUCXi7. The AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX has the Intel Core i7-11800H under very good control, but it cannot compete with the Intel Dragon Canyon NUC, based on the current Alder Lake generation.

In numbers, this equates to a 12 percent difference in performance, which we would not consider noticeable in everyday use. There are no differences compared to the Minisforum HX90 in terms of SoC specifications. We tested the HX90G’s SoC in automatic mode, with the SoC briefly reaching up to 54 watts.

The long-term power limit is set at 45 watts. The SoC can be set to six different modes (10, 15, 25, 35, 45, 54 watts) to save electricity or further reduce the already low noise emissions. For more comparisons and benchmarks, please visit our CPU comparison table .

The Cinebench R15 loop provides a first look at the efficiency of the cooling system. We did not observe any decrease in efficiency after the first few runs. Only in the second half of the total of 50 runs did we notice a minimal drop.

Overall, the performance is slightly better than the Minisforum EliteMini HX90 (2,121 points) with an average of 2,169 points. The Minisforum HX90G does well in our synthetic benchmarks and makes third place in the PCMark 10. Nonetheless, our AMD-based test unit cannot compete with the results of our Intel-based competitors in the Crossmark benchmark.

Subjectively, the Minisforum HX90G is still comfortably fast. The system runs smoothly and we did not notice any lagging caused by high latencies while loading various programs. The Minisforum HX90G does not have any issues when opening several browser tabs in the Edge browser, nor when playing 4K video on Youtube.

LatencyMon did not document any increased latency and the AMD Radeon RX 6600M only needs to work at 10 percent of capacity to play our test video. Our test configuration is equipped with an NVMe SSD with 512 GB of storage. The model is fast and places itself in the mid-range, but it cannot compete with faster PCIe 4.

0 SSDs. Its performance is perfectly adequate for everyday use. The amount of storage space it provides, on the other hand, is rather low for a gaming computer.

The space the operating system requires reduces the 512 GB of storage to 450 GB. As this is a gaming device, we would have expected at least 1 TB of storage. Fortunately, storage space can easily be expanded at any time thanks to the second M.

2 slot. See our comparison table for more comparisons and benchmarks. 3D performance is influenced not only by the CPU but also by the GPU.

The advantage this offers is evident from our direct comparison to the Minisforum EliteMini HX90, which is only equipped with the AMD Radeon RX Vega 8. The Minisforum HX90G features the AMD Radeon RX 6600M – a good mid-range graphics card. It is based on the newest RDNA-2 architecture and has a TDP of up to 100 watts, which it often reaches when working under load.

Users can expect to utilize the full performance of this dedicated GPU. The synthetic performance comparison positions our test unit in the center. The AMD Radeon RX 6600M’s performance is slightly better than that of competitors equipped with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060.

In return, the Minisforum NUXCi7 featuring the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop manages to outpace the Minisforum HX90G by just under 10 percent. For more details on the AMD Radeon RX 6600M , please visit our GPU page. Our GPU comparison table provides more comparisons and benchmarks.

The Minisforum HX90G does well when it comes to pure gaming performance thanks to its AMD Radeon RX 6600M. Compared to the Lenovo Legion 5, equipped with the same GPU, the laptop is the clear winner. Why? The dedicated GPU’s performance consistently remains at a maximum of 100 watts.

Our test sample only just falls behind when compared with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060. Overall, the Minisforum HX90G can display all games we tested at 1080p with maximum details. Some games can even be played at 1440p, but even higher resolutions soon push the mid-range GPU to its limits.

The Minisforum HX90G’s cooling system consists of seven heat pipes and two large fans. The manufacturer has used liquid metal to ensure ideal heat transfer from the CPU and GPU to the cooling system. This is why the manufacturer explicitly discourages users from taking the cooling system apart.

The system is very quiet and is practically silent when running at idling speeds. At low loads, we measured a system noise of only 31 dB(A), which is still very low. The Minisforum HX90G reaches a maximum of 36.

6 dB(A) during the stress test. The volume then fluctuates between 31 and 34 dB(A), depending on the application and load. We did not notice any abrupt speeding up of the fans.

The surface temperatures reach a maximum of 48°C under load, which is not a big problem. We used the device without its stand for this test. The temperatures drop minimally when the device is used with its stand.

The CPU and GPU temperatures we measured are very good. The stress test, which simulates an extreme scenario, increases the CPU temperature to a maximum of 88. 3°C.

The GPU’s temperature increase is noticeably lower at 77°C. However, the VR VDDC temperature increased to up to 106°C. Even in the single test with Furmark, we documented 103 °C.

However, we did not detect throttling of the performance. Compact mini PCs based on desktop components have a major advantage in terms of energy consumption compared to traditional desktop PCs. According to our measuring device, our Minisforum HX90G only consumes 17-18 watts while idling.

We measured 82 watts during average load and up to 262 watts under maximum load. However, the device only held this maximum value briefly. The maximum average load was measured while gaming, with a power consumption of 185 watts.

The power supply has a rated output of 262 watts, which is sufficient for this device. We did not notice any energy supply issues during our tests. The Minisforum Neptune Series HX90G is a very compact gaming device that is equipped with a full-fledged GPU.

Because of its build, the device is based on a setup that the manufacturer has repeatedly used to produce fast mini PCs and has thus become very familiar with. Fundamentally, Minisforum has improved its initial EliteMini HX90 and expanded it to include an AMD Radeon RX 6600M , making the system more suitable for 3D performance and enabling limitless gaming in 1080p and maximum details. The hardware is fitted into a compact device with good ventilation.

The cooling system is well-dimensioned and allows the AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX and the AMD Radeon RX 6600M to work without limitations, even under maximum load. The manufacturer has already proven the use of good cooling units in other devices. Some issues remain in the selection of available ports.

While the number of ports is satisfactory, the HDMI and DisplayPort ports sadly only support 2160p at 60Hz. The missing card reader and support for Thunderbolt are less disappointing in view of the device category (gaming device) and are something we could live with. The Minisforum Neptune Series HX90G is an attractive compact gaming device for uncompromising Full HD gaming.

We were very pleased with the Minisforum HX90G’s low emissions values. The device is not only quiet, it is also economical and always has its temperatures under control. Our test unit displayed solid performance throughout our tests with no severe faults.

Its system performance is on par with that of traditional desktop devices and its gaming performance is impressive, with the Minisforum HX90G giving comparison devices equipped with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 a run for their money. The Minisforum HX90G must compete with another one of Minisforum’s compact PCs, the powerful Minisforum NUCXi7 , equipped with the fast Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU. The Lenovo Legion 5 may also impede the HX90G’s success story.

The attractive laptop provides similar connectivity for only $1. 150. The Minisforum Neptune Series HX90G can be ordered directly from the Minisforum online shop.

The manufacturer currently has attractive pre-order discounts, which means that our test configuration is reduced to just over $900 at the time of writing. Without the discount, the device costs $1070. The more affordable barebone model is currently available for $800.

The device is dispatched from Hongkong starting in mid-November. Estimated delivery time: 2-3 weeks. Notebookcheck was given the Minisforum Neptune Series HX90G for testing.

This review will regularly be updated with the results from the latest games. The manufacturer had no influence on the review. Furthermore, the manufacturer did not receive a version of the finished review before publication.

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