Play modern games on a box smaller than a console: pick a Radeon 780M/890M or Arc B390 iGPU for 1080p, a Strix Halo for 1440p without a graphics card, or OCuLink when you want to dock a desktop GPU later.
With no discrete card, frame rates come from the integrated GPU. Radeon 780M is the 1080p-low/medium floor for modern titles; Radeon 890M and Arc B390 are roughly a tier above; Radeon 8060S (Strix Halo) plays at 1440p.
iGPUs share system memory bandwidth. A single SODIMM can cost 30–50% of frame rate — always run two matched DDR5 modules, or buy soldered LPDDR5X in a large enough size.
OCuLink gives a native PCIe 4.0 x4 link to an external GPU dock with far less overhead than USB4/Thunderbolt. It turns a mini PC into a full desktop gaming rig later.
Gaming loads the CPU and GPU together for hours. Chassis rated for 54 W+ sustained hold clocks; thin 35 W designs throttle and get loud.
Radeon 780M handles esports titles at high settings and AAA games at 1080p low/medium with FSR, and many models add OCuLink.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Radeon 780M (12 CUs RDNA 3) |
| Memory Architecture | Dual DDR5 5600MHz SODIMM |
| Storage Exp. | 2x PCIe 4.0 NVMe (Raid 0/1 support) |
| Idle Power | 11W – 16W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $490 - $680 |
Native 1080p AAA gaming, external eGPU docking, Ollama local 7B-13B LLM inference.
Radeon 890M is a clear step up from the 780M, with OCuLink on popular chassis for a later eGPU upgrade.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Radeon 890M (16 CUs, up to 3.1 GHz) |
| Memory Architecture | DDR5-5600 SODIMM or LPDDR5X (Up to 128GB) |
| Storage Exp. | 2–3x M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 (chassis dependent) |
| Idle Power | 6W – 10W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $720 - $1,400 |
Local LLM inference, 1080p–1440p gaming with upscaling, software builds and creative workloads in a compact desktop.
Arc B390 rivals the 890M and supports XeSS frame generation, at very low idle power.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Intel Arc B390 (12 Xe3-cores) |
| Memory Architecture | LPDDR5X-9600 soldered (X-series) or DDR5-7200 SODIMM |
| Storage Exp. | 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 / 5.0 (chassis dependent) |
| Idle Power | 5W – 10W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $850 - $1,600 |
Quick Sync media servers and editing, efficient always-on workstations, 1080p gaming on the iGPU, on-device AI with OpenVINO.
Radeon 8060S performs close to a laptop RTX 4060 — the only mini PC chip that plays at 1440p on its own.
| Graphics (iGPU) | Radeon 8060S (40 CUs, up to 2.9 GHz) |
| Memory Architecture | LPDDR5X-8000 256-bit, soldered (64GB or 128GB) |
| Storage Exp. | 2x M.2 PCIe 4.0 x4 |
| Idle Power | 10W – 18W |
| Est. Barebone Cost | $1,500 - $2,800 |
Local LLM inference on 30B–120B models, ROCm/AI development, 1440p gaming without a discrete GPU, heavy multi-core builds.
| Graphics | Radeon 780M or better (890M, Arc B390, 8060S) |
| Memory | 32 GB dual-channel DDR5-5600+ or LPDDR5X |
| Expansion | OCuLink or USB4 / Thunderbolt for an eGPU |
| Storage | 1 TB+ PCIe 4.0 NVMe — modern games are 100 GB+ |
| Power | 54 W+ sustained CPU power limit |
| Graphics | AMD Radeon 780M (12 CUs, RDNA 3, up to 2.7 GHz) |
| Memory | 2x DDR5-5600 SODIMM (Up to 128GB) |
| Storage | 2x M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 (Up to 16TB) |
| Idle Power | 13W – 15W |
| Price | $409.99 barebone · $919.99 (32GB/1TB) |
Ryzen 7 8845HS / 7840HS Beast
| Graphics | AMD Radeon 890M (16 CUs, RDNA 3.5) |
| Memory | 2x DDR5-5600 SODIMM (Up to 128GB) |
| Storage | 3x M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 (Up to 12TB) |
| Idle Power | 5.5W – 9W |
| Price | $719 barebone · €1,399 (32GB/1TB) |
Gorgon Point Ryzen AI 9 HX 470
| Graphics | AMD Radeon 890M (16 CUs, RDNA 3.5, 3.1 GHz) |
| Memory | 2x DDR5-5600 SODIMM (32GB or 64GB) |
| Storage | 2x M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 (Up to 8TB) |
| Idle Power | ~8W idle (Robtech, via Starry Hope) |
| Price | $1,399 (32GB/1TB) · $1,699 (64GB/1TB) |
Gorgon Point Ryzen AI 9 HX 470
| Graphics | Intel Arc B390 (12 Xe cores, 2.5 GHz, 122 TOPS INT8) |
| Memory | LPDDR5X-8533 onboard (64GB) |
| Storage | 2x M.2 2280 (PCIe 5.0 x4 + PCIe 4.0 x1, up to 8TB each) |
| Idle Power | Not published |
| Price | $2,399.99 (64GB/1TB) |
Intel Panther Lake Core Ultra X9 388H / X7 358H