AtomMan G1 Pro evaluation | PC Gamer

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The Minisforum Atomman G1 Pro has sat on my desk now for about two weeks. Happily bimbling away, working benchmarks, stress checks, and going via all method of arduous rigamarole that we require these mini gaming PCs to endure in our pursuit of testing excellence, (write that down, it’s going to be within the firm name later).

In essence, it is fairly distinctive. Effectively a bizarre hybrid of types. Fluidly blurring the strains between a mid-range gaming laptop computer and an entry-level ITX rig. The case is outlandishly compact, with solely 3.8 L of inside capability, and but someway, Minisforum has slammed a 350 W PSU in there, a motherboard with 32 GB of dual-channel DDR5, an RTX 5060 low-profile GPU, and at least two M.2 slots as properly. It’s so slim. So sheepishly svelte, it is laborious to consider that this plucky little case truly manages to carry all that in there with out buckling on the seams. Looking extra akin to a PS5 than a devoted gaming desktop.

The saving grace is, indubitably, that CPU that Minisforum has strapped up below the cooler, puttering away beneath that chassis. Namely AMD’s Ryzen 9 8945HX. This is one of Big Red’s latest Ryzen 8,000 series chips (I say latest, it launched over a year ago now, but I wouldn’t hold out hope for new silicon these days that ain’t going into an AI datacenter), and arguably the reason why this might make it into our best Mini PC list, albeit in a bit of a roundabout way.

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G1 Pro specs
CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX
Cores \| Threads	16 \| 32
Clock speed	Up to 5.4 GHz
GPU	Gigabyte RTX 5060 OC Low Profile 8G
RAM	32 GB DDR5-5200
Storage	1 TB Kingston PCIe 4.0 M.2 (2x PCIe 4.0 M.2 slots available)
Rear I/O	1x USB 3.2 Type-C, 2x USB 3.2 Type-A, 1x RJ45 5GB, 2x HDMI 2.1, 2x DisplayPort 1.4
Front I/O	1x USB 3.2 Type-C, 1x USB 3.2 Type-A, 3.5mm combo jack
Power	350 W
Dimensions	215 x 57 x 315 mm
Price	£1,350 \| $1,449 (as configured)

Buy if…

✅ You worth compact portability: Smaller than a PS5 and arguably twice as versatile the G1 Pro is remarkably properly designed, producing spectacular efficiency given the scale constraints

Don’t purchase if…

❌ You can construct your individual and do not care about house that a lot: You may most likely construct one in all these with barely higher efficiency for a similar value, with off-the-shelf elements, but it surely will not be wherever close to as small.

It’s successfully a low-powered Zen 4, 16-core unit, working off the again of TSMC’s 5nm FinFET design. Primarily, it is aimed on the high-end laptop computer market, but it surely’s obtained some severe chops by way of general processing energy too, notably if you present it with sufficient juice. And it is that one distinctive aspect Minisforum is making an attempt to make the most of right here.

The G1 Pro comes with its personal desktop app, and as you most likely have already guessed, it permits you to swap between three completely different profiles that successfully alter the facility supply to the CPU immediately. There’s “Office Mode”, the place the 8945HX is locked at 60 W TDP, “Gaming Mode” the place it stumbles alongside at a fully placid 80 W, and “Beast Mode” (phwoaaar…) that ramps that wattage all the way in which as much as 100 W, (though formally AMD’s 8945HX is simply rated to run between 55 and 75 W). It’s very comparable in some ways to Lenovo’s Legion 9i laptop computer line. As you possibly can think about with that, although, you get extra efficiency, greater frequencies for longer, but additionally much more warmth.

The GPU itself, a low-profile RTX 5060—full with 8 GB of VRAM and packaged up properly by Gigabyte in a spectacularly slim Low Profile OC design—will fairly fortunately trundle away at 145 W it doesn’t matter what profile you set. Really, you are solely impacting CPU efficiency with this, and even with it set to Ultra Instinct Mega Beast mode, at max, you are still leaving that PSU with an excellent 105W of headroom. No drama on energy provides going pop right here.

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Minisforum Atomman G1 Pro mini PC — (Image credit score: Future)

That CPU, although, will not be a cool chip. Not on this design anyway. And not even in dull-as-dishwater workplace mode both. It’s silicon that is been constructed very particularly with low energy supply in thoughts, as a result of it is meant for use in laptops, and merchandise the place cooling is proscribed in comparison with, you realize, these desktop machines the place you may simply slap a full-fat 360 mm wham-bam-thank-you-mam AIO into it and name it a day.

In the G1 Pro, as a result of it is obtained such a compact type issue, it naturally runs scorching. In that default mode, max CPU temps all through our computational checks landed at 93 °C. In-game, that high temp hit a staggering 91 °C in consecutive runs of Metro Exodus, with a mean of 89 °C general.

Now, sure, technically the 8945HX does have a TJmax temp of 100 °C, however outdoors of bragging rights, and that one-off benchmark run you do when your workplace is 7 levels, since you’ve left the window open all evening, these profiles arguably aren’t actually price it. Particularly because it would not have an effect on the GPU. That’s a bit bizarre, too, by the way in which, as a result of that RTX 5060 is surprisingly environment friendly given its dimension (good work, Gigabyte).

In computational checks (Blender particularly), it maxed out at 67 °C general. In-game, although, the determine was markedly greater at 77 °C general. Clearly, there’s headroom there nonetheless, particularly for that graphics card to be pushed somewhat tougher, which is shocking that Minisforum did not bake one thing in for that particularly.

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A tiny peak inside rapidly reveals simply what is going on on right here, and it is purely a matter of type issue over operate, and I do not know if I ought to be impressed or not. It’s cramped, cables are tidy, properly secured, out the way in which as greatest they are often. Cooling is optimized, and {hardware} positioning is intuitive. There are two M.2 slots right here, one housing a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD (Kingston’s OM8TAP41024K1-A00, full with Kioxia’s 162-layer BiCS6 QLC NAND), and Minisforum has included an extra M.2 heatsink as properly if you wish to add an extra drive (a genuinely good contact). But boy, they di not have a lot house to work with. Still, should you do need to improve it in a while, say if OpenAI awkwardly cannot purchase up 40% of the world’s reminiscence provide, and DRAM costs plummet all of a sudden because of this (oh no, what a disgrace), you possibly can… with a little bit of effort.

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One factor I’ll spotlight as a possible situation, although, is the entire I/O scenario. Just full cease, interval. It’s extremely restricted. You’ve obtained a complete of two USB Type-C ports (one on the entrance, one on the again), three USB Type-A (once more one on the entrance, two on the again), a 5G Ethernet, one audio out (in entrance), and properly that is it (except for the apparent show outputs, WiFi 7 and Bluetooth). It ain’t rather a lot, so should you’re severe about your setup, you are going to need to spend money on a strong USB hub of some description.

Generally, although, construct high quality, superb. Aesthetics, top-tier. Expandable, internals glorious. Cooling, a little bit of a swing and a miss in some instances. I/O, eugh. But the efficiency, now that’s the fascinating bit. And let’s face it, it form of must be for the worth (£1,350 within the UK, $1,439 within the US with a hefty low cost at time of writing).