OK, I’ll start by saying the headline is a little tongue in cheek. Of course, we think a Windows 11 PC is better than a Mac. You’re not convincing us otherwise.
But Geekom’s next mini PC is very much in the same arena as the Mac Studio. They’re billing the Geekom A9 Mega as “the most powerful mini PC on earth” and there’s a degree of truth to that.
It won’t stand alone, but there isn’t much company for it. That’s because it’s going to be one of only a small number of PCs, mini or otherwise, confirmed to use AMD’s Strix Halo APU. Or, to give it its full title, the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395. I’ll be calling it Strix Halo from here on out.
This is simply the king of mobile chips right now, and not yet widespread. Part of that is surely down to the price. We’ve seen it ourselves inside the ASUS ROG Flow Z13, and it’s inside an HP mini workstation we currently have in the review backlog. You’ll also find it in the Framework Desktop, and a mini PC from GMKTec.
I might have missed one or two, but there’s not many. And that in itself is enough reason to take serious notice of the Geekom A9 Mega.
The beating heart of the Geekom A9 Mega is that Strix Halo APU backed up by up to 128GB LPDDR5X 8000 unified memory. Unlike previous generation APUs from AMD, the Strix Halo adopts a similar approach to Apple Silicon, where the system can dynamically allocate memory to the GPU up to a total of 96GB.
That’s different to the way it’s done on previous generation chips, like the Ryzen AI 9 HX370 in the Geekom A9 Max I’m currently in the process of reviewing. On these chips, you’re able to silo off a chunk of the RAM to be dedicated for the GPU, but it’s unable to do it dynamically like a unified memory system.
It’s more efficient, reduces bottlenecks, and latency. It’s just better.
The Geekom A9 Mega will also be a potent little box for running local AI. Despite its size, the fact it can dedicate up to 96GB of memory to the GPU means even pretty massive LLMs will run locally. This thing will swallow up the full gpt-oss:120b.
That GPU is also a huge deal. Strix Halo comes with the Radeon 8060s, the first true desktop-quality integrated graphics. It can go toe-to-toe with RTX 40 series cards. It can even do ray tracing.
AMD really has changed the game with Strix Halo, but it doesn’t come cheap. Geekom will be going live first through Kickstarter, and if you sign up ahead of launch you can get one at a reduced price of $1,899.
But hey, to get a Mac Studio with a measly 96GB of unified memory you have to spend $3,999. In that context, it’s an absolute steal. It’ll be better for gaming, too, because, Windows 11.
I’m just happy to see another option coming with Strix Halo inside. Alongside the Snapdragon X platform, it’s one of the most exciting hardware advancements in Windows PCs in many a year. I’m looking at my gaming PC under my desk right now and starting to wonder how long it is for this world.
Sign up to be notified of the Kickstarter launch for the Geekom A9 Mega on its page right now. At this time, there is no indication when that might be.
