GMKtec NucBox K4 Mini PC
The living environment in Hong Kong is extremely expensive. It’s not that there is no money to build a computer, but that traditional PCs take up too much space. This time, I will introduce GMKtec NucBox K4 Mini PC. Although the machine is small, it has excellent computing performance. It is equipped with AMD Ryzen 9 The 7940HS APU processor has 8 cores, 16 threads, and a built-in Radeon 780M graphics core, which provides good computing performance. Next, the author will test the actual performance of this Mini PC in different scenarios and games. , readers who need high-performance mini-computers should not miss it.
GMKtec NucBox K4 measures 123mm x 112mm x 43mm, has a capacity of about 0.6L, and weighs only 421g. It has a Power button on the front, 2 USB 3.2 Gen2 Type A ports, 1 Thunderbolt 4 / USB 4.0 Type C port, and 3.5mm earphones Jack and Reset pinhole.
There are 1 USB 2.0 Type A interface, 1 USB 3.2 Gen 2 interface, 2 HDMI 2.1 (4K@60Hz) display output interfaces, 1 security lock slot and 2.5Gbps RJ45 Ethernet interface on the back, and the lower part is the heat exhaust tuyere.
The middle frame of the GMKtec NucBox K4 body is made of aluminum alloy CNC and then sandblasted with space gray anode. The top cover is added with a brushed surface texture, which has a very good texture. Ventilation grilles are added on both sides to enhance the air intake effect.
There are ventilation holes at the bottom, and the radiator mainly draws in the fresh air from the bottom, so the user should keep the bottom unblocked. It provides a dual-mode design of VESA hanging slot and attached VESA hole bracket, which can be hung on the back of any graphics card, which is more economical space.
Disassemble the bottom of the GMKtec NucBox K4 Mini PC, and you can see that it adopts a blower-type fan radiator, and the fresh air is drawn in from the bottom and discharged directly out of the fuselage through the copper cooling fins.
In order to provide heat dissipation, GMKtec uses 2 direct-touch all-copper heat pipes to transfer waste heat to copper metal fins, and the fan uses a 5cm blower fan from Shenzhen Broadway Technology.
After removing the radiator, you can see the real body of the NucBox K4 Mini PC motherboard. The central one is the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor. In terms of power supply, it adopts a 4 + 1 phase power supply design. The maximum power draw of the CPU is 55W. More than 45W.
There are two DDR5 SO-DIMM memory expansion slots on the other side of the PCB, which support up to DDR5 64GB capacity and DDR5-5600 speed, and one M.2 2280 SSD expansion slot, which supports PCIe Gen4 x 4 interface specifications. The version sent for testing is 32GB DDR5 + 1TB Gen 4 SSD.
AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS Processor
▲ AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor
GMKtec NucBox K4 Mini PC is equipped with AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS APU processor, adopts Zen 4 micro-architecture, the core code is Phoenix, adopts TSMC 4nm process, supports SMT technology, has 8 cores, 16 threads, has 512KB L1 Cache, 8MB L2 Cache and 16MB L3 Cache, the base clock is 4GHz, the highest Boost core clock is up to 5.2 GHz, and the highest TDP is 45W.
In addition, the Ryzen 9 7940HS processor adds a new XDNA AI engine, which can accelerate AI reasoning workloads and is used to perform low-intensity AI reasoning operations, such as audio, photo, image processing, etc., and its power consumption is lower than that of For CPU and GPU, AMD claims that its XDNA AI engine has higher performance than Apple M2’s neural computing engine.
In terms of GPU, the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor has a built-in Radeon 780M graphics core, based on the latest RDNA 3 graphics architecture, with 12 CUs, 768 SPs, 48 Texture Units, 32 ROPs and 12 RT acceleration units. With a Boost clock of 2,800MHz, the performance is very close to that of the GTX 1650.
Crucial DDR5-5600 16GB x 2 RAM
In terms of memory, the NucBox K4 motherboard provides 2 DDR5 SO-DIMM expansion slots, supports Dual Channel memory technology, and supports a maximum system memory capacity of 64GB (32GB x 2). The test sample is attached with a Crucial DDR5-5600 16GB x 2 RAM.
The memory model is Crucial CT16G56C4655.M8G1, the operating voltage is 1.1V, the memory operates at DDR5-5600 speed, and the timing is CL46-45-45-90-135.
Lexar PCIe Gen 4 1TB SSD
In terms of SSD, it is attached with Lexar NM7A1 Gen4 1TB M.2 2280 NVMe SSD, using MAXIO MP1602 controller, the highest continuous read and write speed is 5,300MB/s Read, 4,500MB/s Write, 4K random read and write is 440K IOPS Read, 900K IOPS Write.
2.5Gbps LAN + Wi-Fi 6E Module
In terms of network, GMKtec NucBox K4 uses Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5Gbps Ethernet chip, which supports up to 2,500Mbps LAN network connection, and wireless network uses MediaTek MT7921K Wi-Fi 6E network module, which supports 2.4GHz / 5GHz / 6Hz tri-band network speed up to 1,200Mbps (80MHz) and Bluetooth 5.2 wireless connectivity.
Power consumption and heat dissipation test:
Using OCCT for load test, the power consumption of CPU + GPU can reach 55W in the first 50 seconds, and then it will drop to 45W. After 30 minutes of burn-in, the highest temperature recorded in CPU Tdie is 70°C.
PCMark 10 test:
▲ PCMark 10 comprehensive test score is 7,634
In the PCMark 10 benchmark test, the comprehensive score is 7,634 points, of which the Essentials basic test score is 11,585 points, which is a high level, and the Productivity productivity test score is 10,525, which is also very good. The digital media calculation score is 9,903. .
3DMark test
3DMark should be the most widely used 3D performance benchmarking software at present. GMKtec NucBox K4 Mini PC equipped with Radeom 780M graphics core has basic game performance. This test uses 4 benchmarks including Fire Strike, Time Spy, Port Royal and SpeedWay scene to understand its gaming computing performance.
Radeon RX 6600M belongs to the middle-level graphics core, and the 3DMark game scores are not too bad. In Fire Strike, Time Spy, Port Royal and SpeedWay, they scored 7,787, 3,259, 1,651, and 455 respectively. It’s a masterpiece of 3A games, and it’s not bad for the creators to play the game and relax.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
▲ 1920 x 1080 + Ultra High Setting – 114 FPS
F1 2022 Game Test:
▲ 1920 x 1080 + High Present + FSR 2.0 Performance – 85 FPS
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Game Test:
▲ 1920 x 1080 + Mid Present + FSR 1.0 Performance – 52 FPS
Cyberpunk 2077 Game Test:
▲ 1920 x 1080 + Mid Preset + FSR 2.1 Performance – 53.40 FPS
UL Procyon test
In addition to the common PCMark and 3DMark tests, UL has also launched a benchmark test suite for Microsoft and Adobe applications – UL Procyon, which has four benchmark tests for office productivity, photo editing, video editing and AI reasoning. The first three Control the Microsoft Office series of applications, Adobe Photoshop + Lightroom Classic and Adobe Premiere Pro through scripts to conduct actual functional tests. Compared with the self-developed benchmark tools, it is closer to the actual use situation and provides very referential test results.
▲ Procyon Office Productivity Benchmark Test
In the Procyon office productivity benchmark test, Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Outlook in the Microsoft Office series were used to perform a large number of commonly used functions and commands, such as exporting PDF, loading files, inserting pictures, VLOOKUP commands, mobile mail etc. The GMKtec NucBox K4 Mini PC scored an overall score of 6,610 in this test, and the paperwork performance is quite smooth and crisp.
▲ Procyon photo editing benchmark
In the Procyon photo editing benchmark test, Photoshop and Lightroom Classic in the Adobe Creative Cloud series are used. The test first imports the DNG digital negative image into Adobe Lightroom Classic, and then applies various preset effects in batches, and crops, Straighten and modify. In the second part, the test applies a variety of editing and layer effects to photos in Adobe Photoshop, and records the computing time required for each item to measure the speed of the system when performing common photo editing tasks.
GMKtec NucBox K4 Mini PC got a score of 8,777 in this test, which can meet all kinds of photo editing needs, and the score ratio is similar to that of traditional performance-level Desktop PCs.
▲ Procyon Video Editing Benchmark
In the Procyon video editing benchmark test, Adobe Premiere Pro video editing software is used. The test first imports two video project files for editing, adjustment, and adding CPU-Based special effects and GPU-accelerated special effects respectively. 1080p H.264 and 4K H.265 output, with a benchmark score calculated based on the time required to output 4 clips.
GMKtec NucBox K4 Mini PC has a score of 3,152 in this test, which is a very high score. If you check the details, you can see that it is the fastest among IGP models in outputting GPU-accelerated special effects, even faster than mainstream graphics cards. In fact, it is more than enough to deal with simple video editing work.
AS SSD Benchmark test:
The AS SSD Benchmark is also one of the main benchmarks for testing SSDs in the current industry. The read and write performance and speed of SSDs are tested through 1GB files, and the measured performance benchmark score is 6188. The speeds of 4K random reading and writing projects with a queue depth of 64 are 1,600.64 MB/s and 2,722.31 MB/s respectively, and the 4K random reading performance is not bad.
CrystalDiskMark test:
CrystalDiskMark is a set of disk test programs developed by Hiyohiyo Miyazaki, which provides continuous disk read and write speed tests and 4K random multiplex read and write performance tests with different queue depths (Queue Depth).
Using CrystalDiskMark version 8.0.4 and NVMe configuration files to perform all tests, it is found that the sequential read and write speeds of the NVMe SSD installed in the GMKtec NucBox K4 Mini PC are 4,470.08 MB/s Read and 2,829.61 MB/s Write, while the 4KB Q32T1 random read The write speed is 611.35 MB/s Read and 492.44 MB/s Write, the read and write performance is not bad.
GMKtec NucBox K4 Mini-PC
Price: HK$5,999
Enquiry: Hornington (3626-9898)
Editor’s comment:
GMKtec NucBox K4 Mini PC has excellent computing performance. Ryzen 9 7940HS + 32GB DDR5 memory can meet the computing needs of word processing and creators. Although it only has Radeon 780M IGP graphics core, its performance is comparable to GTX 1650. After enabling FSR technology, it can meet The vast majority of 3A masterpieces meet the basic requirements of 1080p games, and more importantly, they are meticulously designed, and they are just like the housing environment in Hong Kong.
By: John Lam/Test Center