Minisforum HX99G?

[CJM]

My YouTube algorithm feed has recently brought to my attention the existence of the Minisforum HX99G mini PC.

Minisforum PCs have had a high demand for more powerful graphics APUs, and so the faster Ryzen chips have led the pack. Subsequently, the latest model has a Ryzen 9 6900HX. You get two USB 4 jacks, and a PCI Express 4 M.2 slot. The HX99G does have a dedicated Radeon 6600M GPU.

I'm wondering what the long term potential of this mini PC is.

I've seen where there are dedicated GPUs running from the M.2 slot, and the PCI Express 4 makes it a potential viable upgrade option in the future. Lack of proper cooling for the NVMe not withstanding. This does leave the question of storage, though perhaps a Linux distribution such as SteamOS booting off a 1TB USB key may not be out of the question.

Of another note is the Radeon 680M, 12 core, 2400MHz iGPU in the Radeon 6900HX. While it is Vega, not RNDA 2, I am wondering if a BIOS update in the future might not enable the iGPU for AI upscaling or other tasks to free up performance on a dedicated GPU.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

You could maybe run an external GPU of it has a USB Type-C port capable of DP output

Compared to an off the shelf Desktop, the cpu + igpu in that mini is going to compare to Ryzen 3600X w/ Radeon 6500 or RTX 3050

[CJM]

Originalmente postado por Bad 💀 Motha:

Compared to an off the shelf Desktop, the cpu + igpu in that mini is going to compare to Ryzen 3600X w/ Radeon 6500 or RTX 3050

It has a 6600M dedicated GPU.

Originalmente postado por Cathulhu:

https://cpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/AMD-Ryzen-9-6900HX-vs-AMD-Ryzen-7-5800X/m1792755vs4085
Comparable? Not really. The 5800X is celarly ahead in every metric despite being two years older and from an older generation. Not to mention the extra PCIe lanes that weren't sacrified for the integrated videochip you don't plan on even using.

Typo, it is the 5800H, which is more comparable. I corrected it before I saw your post.

[Supafly]

Or how about Fractal Ridge case?

Ok a little deeper and higher but also not as wide.

Can fit GPU, decent PSU and multiple drives and is completely upgradeable.

First small case I found when looking, sure there a plenty of others that won't be as restrictive as that prebuild

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yew but if it's a dedicated gpu on the motherboard then it's a Laptop gpu, which is not the same performance as the Desktop variant.

Or does it somehow have a PCIE X16 card in there?

[Supafly]

Originalmente postado por CJM:

Originalmente postado por Bad 💀 Motha:

Compared to an off the shelf Desktop, the cpu + igpu in that mini is going to compare to Ryzen 3600X w/ Radeon 6500 or RTX 3050

It has a 6600M dedicated GPU.

It's essentially a laptop board. Laptop cpu and gpus are never as powerful as a desktop version

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Yea thats what I figured it would be. It's only going to be good as a SteamOS type of PC or maybe Win10 if you turn all the junk off in WinOS and then maybe run games at 720p/High in order to have decent FPS. It might do 1080p/high on some but not all games. Depending on what is a playable FPS for you.

[CJM]

Originalmente postado por Supafly:

Or how about Fractal Ridge case?

Ok a little deeper and higher but also not as wide.

Can fit GPU, decent PSU and multiple drives and is completely upgradeable.

First small case I found when looking, sure there a plenty of others that won't be as restrictive as that prebuild

I just quickly kitted out a Fractal Ridge, and I hit a $500 premium over the HX80G for a lower spec machine.

Ran into some compatibility issues with the PSU form factor... Fractal's recommended 650 watts is a bit snug for a future RTX 4090 upgrade...

Originalmente postado por Supafly:

Originalmente postado por CJM:

It has a 6600M dedicated GPU.

It's essentially a laptop board. Laptop cpu and gpus are never as powerful as a desktop version

The 6600M reportedly performs in step with its Desktop variant. It is not a 6600XT, but it seems to be the same performance as an RX 6600.

Originalmente postado por Bad 💀 Motha:

Yea thats what I figured it would be. It's only going to be good as a SteamOS type of PC or maybe Win10 if you turn all the junk off in WinOS and then maybe run games at 720p/High in order to have decent FPS. It might do 1080p/high on some but not all games. Depending on what is a playable FPS for you.

I'm sitting at 900p/60 on my GTX 970 4GB on a PCI-Express 2.0 bus. A couple of games have been hurt by the lack of VRAM. The HX80G does have 8GB VRAM on the 6600M.

Purportedly, the 6600M can beat out the GTX 970 4GB. And the 8 core Ryzen should help with the bottlenecks of my 4 core Intel CPU.

[Grimish]

I got the HX99G with the 6650M and the 6900HX. It was so great that I spent the money again a month later for the newer HX100G for my brother. When the HX200G arrives i'll be buying one of those as well and putting this thing out the pasture as a PC for the old grandma. These things are absolutely awesome for gaming and most workloads. It takes precedence now over my 3960X with the Saphire 6900XTX as well as the Zephyrus M15 with the 3070. My brother retired his Zephyrus G14 with the 3060. Guess what? They were not as expensive as those machines.

They pack quite a punch and are VERY compatible with linux machines. Their Aptio bios is nice as well. Sure I would love me some open coreboot or libreboot but this is close enough. Overwhelmingly Positive.

[CJM]

Originalmente postado por Grimish:

When the HX200G arrives i'll be buying one of those as well and putting this thing out the pasture as a PC for the old grandma. These things are absolutely awesome for gaming and most workloads.

Either it is awesome, or it needs to be "put out to pasture as a PC for the old grandma".

The GPU is below the RX 6700 in the PlayStation 5, which means it neither meets the console quality graphics standard, nor exceeds it in order to compensate for poor optimization and/or dependency on Dynamic Resolution Scaling (DSR).

However, as a compact design, it remains adequate for its purposes.

I completed Jedi: Survivor with the same complaints as Digital Foundry and the IGN Performance review. I completed the Last of Us Part 1. Tekken 8 performs admirably on this machine. There have been some issues regarding the meager PCI-Express 3.0 bus, which I suspect is to blame for stutter in "Ghost Recon: Breakpoint" and "Forza Horizon 5".

I would be interested in how you would justify an expenditure with regards to the HX200G.

Outside of the larger form factor, the Framework 16 with the RX 7700s upgradable GPU is more interesting. I am waiting on Elevated Systems' review of the Framework 16 to re-evaluate my purchasing decision regarding this little machine.

Originalmente postado por Grimish:

Their Aptio bios is nice as well.

What?

The BIOS on the HX80G has been absolutely atrocious. I was able to disable the integrated GPU, but that was about it.

I have not found options to disable Hyper-Threading (SMT), nor reduce the Core Count for legacy software. Much of the BIOS is rather obtuse, having far too many options which seem far too advanced for the target demographic, and seems more like a thing that requires an industry class certification.

Ryzen Master doesn't support laptop CPUs, and so I am quite handicapped regarding performance troubleshooting and optimization.

---

I feel that I am between a rock and a hard place with technology currently. AMD is moving towards the 8000 series Ryzen AI CPUs. Technology that may progress too rapidly to be wise to tie it directly to the CPU.

However, the PCI-Express 3.0 bandwidth is likely far too limited for good performance with an M.2 AI Accelerator or Neural Processing Unit card. Primarily, I would see these as being utilized for optimizing threading performance, but the machine learning may require significant bandwidth from the CPU in order to maintain performance.

I am looking for adequate performance from Jedi: Survivor, and other similarly unoptimized games. As well as "Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing" which seems to be negatively affected by modern CPUs.

[virmani.y]

Interesting discussion going on here. I have had the hx99G for almost a year. Just thought i would add my opinion into this. So the 8gb vram i would recommend for 1080p high settings or 1440p low to medium settings. I just started ff7 rebirth on it via steam playing 1080p medium preset. Seems ok but getting odd stuttering so gone down to low settings for a decent 60fps.
So now i want to continue playing good games so i have purchased an oculink adapter and installed it into my hx99g into one of the m.2 slots. I have minisforum deg1 egpu dock on the way and and next month i will pick up a 4070 super card. Will let you know on the performance once it’s set up.
So to round it up, 2TB m.2 ssd in one slot. Oculink already installed in the 2nd m.2 slot. 32GB ram.
If anyone has any experience in installing egpu onto mini pc’s or laptop and give me some tips it would be very helpful as its first time im doing this kind of stuff. I just hope the nvidea card won’t have issues with amd pc.

[Steve]

This thread was quite old before the recent post, so we're locking it to prevent confusion.