General Information
It's the A7, but Again
While I am enjoying a bit of a jab at Geekom for releasing a generational upgrade within months of their last system in this particular series, I do want to highlight just how little has actually changed here. In the past we've seen very similar design philosophy being followed for systems in the same line, but I think this is the first time we're seeing one PC exactly mirror the one before it in both aesthetics and function.
The A8 is a sleek package, taking design cues from Apple's popular Mac Mini and shrinking it down to the essentials. As is typical for a decent Mini PC you've got a slurry of ports to pick from, with two USB 3.2 Type As on the front next to a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a full-sized SD card slot on the left side. On the back we'll find the bulk of our port choices, with two USB C ports, one being USB4 and the other 3.2, two USB A ports, one being 3.2 and the other being 2.0, and two HDMI 2.0 ports. There's also a 2.5G Ethernet port for those still living for that wired connectivity. It's a really solid set of IO, and it might become the standard for Geekom going forwards if they do decide to stick with this chassis. I would like to see them squeeze in an Oculink port for users really looking to get the most out of the system and perhaps have some degree of upgradability, and as we're creeping closer to the £1000 mark with this system I don't think it's an unrealistic desire. We've already seen it from Minisforum, albeit in a slightly less slim package, so I am eager to see if Geekom will eventually follow suit. It could even be its own series of systems if they were really attached to the form factor they have here.
If you're interested in a full breakdown of specs and hardware, you can find the list directly from Geekom below:
Size: 112.4* 112.4* 37 mm
CPU:
- AMD R7-8845HS(8 cores, 16 threads, 16MB L3 cache, 3.8 - 5.1 GHz, TDP: 45W)
- AMD R9-8945HS(8 cores, 16 threads, 16MB L3 cache, 4.0 - 5.1 GHz, TDP: 45W)
Memory: Dual-channel DDR5 5600MHz SODIMM, up to 64GB
Storage: 1 x SSD PCIE Gen 4*4 up to 2TB
I/O Ports:
- 1 x rear USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 1 x rear USB 2.0 Type-A
- 1 x front USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A support Power Delivery, 1 x front USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A
- 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C support Power Delivery (back panel)
- 1 x USB 4 Gen3 Type-C support Power Delivery (back panel)
- 1 x 3.5mm front stereo headset jack
- 1 x RJ45 (back panel) RTL8125BG-CG
- 2 x HDMI 2.0 (back panel)
- 1 x DC in (back panel)
- 1 x Power Button
- 1 x SD Card
- 1 x M.2 key-M slot for PCIe x4 Gen 4
- 1 x M.2 2230 for WIFI PCIe
- 1 x FAN
Ethernet: Intel 10/100/1000/2500 Mbps RJ45 RTL8125BG-CG
Wireless LAN: M.2 Wi-Fi 6E BT5.2 AW-EB600NF
Kensington Lock: No
DTPM2.0: FTPM
Battery: RTC coin battery
Adapter: 19V/6.32A
PCBA Dimensions: 105.75*102.9*1.6mm
Certification: CE, FCC, CB, CCC, RoHS
Operating System: Microsoft Windows*11(64-bit)
Accessory: VESA Mount
Inside this familiar shell we have a 2TB 2280 SSD that can be swapped out and upgraded if you're happy prying off the adhered rubber feet, as well as 32GB of swappable SODIMM DDR5 RAM running at 5600MT/s. The real star of the show is the one major part that can't be changed, and that's the Ryzen 9 8945HS, but is it really a generational leap to warrant upgrading for?
A Generational Performance Boost?
Looking to the headliner, I'll just get this point out of the way now. If you did happen to buy an A7, or any other 7940HS system, there is absolutely no reason to upgrade. There are gains to be found, as we'll see below, but they are marginal at best, with the only actual change on paper being the new NPU, which is itself currently very limited in use. I was still relatively interested to see if Geekom had done anything on their end to squeeze more out of the A8 than was previously possible in the A7 to perhaps justify the slightly price, but the end results actually left me quite confused.
Starting with my usual benchmarks, we're looking at marginal increase almost entirely across the board. On Geekbench 6 we've got a score of 13583 on the multi-core (a 2% increase over the A7), and 2669 for single-core (another 2% increase). On Cinebench 2024's multi-core test we see a more respectable 13% increase over the A7 with a score of 938, while the single-core performance remains exactly the same at 106. Turning everything down to the lowest settings at 1080p and disabling VRS, we see an average 81.86 FPS in Hitman 3's Dartmoor benchmark, up from the A7's 60.02 FPS. Note performance does also see an improvement with either a lower resolution or VRS enabled for those actually wanting to play Hitman 3 on the A8. These settings are just used for the sake of consistency in testing.
Where things took something of an odd turn was in the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark, with the A8 coming out with a significantly lower score when compared to the numbers I had down for the A7. My first thought was a case of thermal throttling, and I realized that thermals is something I hadn't previously looked at in previous mini PC reviews. For a better comparison, I hooked up the A7 again and ran the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark a few times on that system, and it was indeed an issue. The first few runs of the benchmark saw an FPS average between 60 and 70, with it dropping pretty heavily to the low 40s afterwards. Observing the GPU temperatures via MSI Afterburner, it peaked at a fairly hot 95C, with the chassis being very uncomfortable to touch. Straight after the Hitman 3 benchmark the A8 was hitting the high 40s in terms of FPS average, but after 30 minutes to cool off the GPU temperature barely crept over 80 degrees and I saw a much more respectable average of 66 FPS. Repeating the benchmark the FPS again drops to the 40s, but the GPU temperature is still relatively consistently hovering around the low 80s. I'm really not certain why there are such wild inconsistencies when the temperatures seem to be holding around the same mark.
Realistically thermals are something I should have been putting more of a spotlight on in past reviews though, and it's something I will try to better highlight going forwards after recognizing just how hot some of these systems can run. For now I decided to stress the system using CPU-Z's CPU stress test. With this running the CPU temperatures jumped straight up to 92C, with all cores running at 4441MHz. This remained consistent for around ten minutes, with the temperature dropping to 88C shortly thereafter, with CPU cores stabilizing around 4391MHz. Nothing I found here really explains the inconsistent performance, especially with the temperatures seeming consistent regardless of the performance level. I would like to get some more formal testing together for this kind of thing, so if there is one in particular you'd like to see run please let me know.
Inconsistent improvements make it hard to properly compare, but even the lows do make for a usable experience.
In terms of more real world gaming performance, I've actually been moving between the A8 and my Intel Ultra 9 laptop for playing Baldur's Gate 3 for the past week, and while neither can hold a candle to a system with a discrete GPU, I've been really surprised by just how well the game can run. Using ASUS' ROG Ally-recommended settings as a guideline, I've been seeing performance as high as 120 FPS in indoor areas like the Shattered Sanctum at 720p, with more difficult areas like those you find in Act 3 hovering around 30 FPS at worst. At 1080p Act 3 becomes a little more challenging with these settings, performance falling to the mid-20s in terms of framerate, even with FSR 2.2 set to Quality. You can stay above 30 FPS here at 1080p with more aggressive FSR, but to me the best balance of graphical fidelity and performance would be the Ally settings at 720p.
Elden Ring was a game that managed to surprise me on the A8, with a very consistent 60 FPS when playing at 720p and low graphics settings. The game still manages to look incredibly nice under these circumstances but if you are interested in playing at 1080p, the game does at least manage to stay above 30 FPS for the vast majority of the time. For a few more quickfire titles, Monster Hunter Rise unsurprisingly spat out a huge 145 FPS average at 1080p low settings, with a 70 FPS average when running at 1080p medium. There were some moments during combat where the performance fell just shy of 60 FPS at medium, but it's a great showing all the same. Armored Core 6 showed great 1080p performance out of the gate, but featured similarly heavy fluctuation as was demonstrated in the Shadow of the Tomb Raider benchmark. Note I didn't see this in either Elden Ring or Baldur's Gate 3, and it's these titles I played for longer multiplayer sessions. On low settings the game would run as high as 70 FPS in some open and very busy scenes, but as low as 30 FPS in less populated indoor areas. Reloading the level I'd see further fluctuation. The Ryzen 9 here is clearly capable of gaming, but is the A8 capable of keeping it cool enough to perform at its best, or is there a driver update needed? With temperatures again sitting around 80C I'm really not certain.
Unverified Issues
Before wrapping up, I did want to take a little time to mention one major issue I came into with the A8. I've been using the system for around a month total, mostly for lightweight video watching while working from home, with some gaming as mentioned above. After around five hours of being turned on, the system blue-screened with the "KMODE Exception Not Handled" error. I did a bit of Googling which seemed to suggest it could be a RAM issue, so I opened the system up to maybe try reseating the two sticks. It didn't help, with the device only booting to BIOS and going no further. In the end I reinstalled Windows 11. In opening it up I will note that I did manage to pull one of the wireless card antennas out though, and thanks to a hard-stuck acrylic plate on top of it (assumedly to hold these antennas in place) I've not been able to reattach it since. If you do decide to open the system up, or any system of this form factor since Geekom do seem to be sticking with it, it's something you should keep in mind.
Be careful when opening up, it's easy to pull that antenna out!
It's been around a week since I reinstalled Windows and it has been completely fine. To the best of my knowledge this seems to have been a one-off, with no other reportings appearing online to suggest something more systemic. With the Ethernet port still working fine, the detached antenna isn't a huge issue, and the machine will likely see future use next to the TV as some kind of Linux emulation box thanks to how easy it is to swap out Windows 11.
Still Pretty Capable
Despite its inconsistent performance across a few games and the complete system reinstall I had to do, I have genuinely had a pretty good time using the A8, and if you're looking for the most power in the smallest package, this might just etch the title away from the A7. To me it doesn't quite do enough to justify its higher price point unless you're specifically looking for the most modern system, or are on the hunt for a dedicated NPU in your next mini PC.
As usual we have a few minor discount codes provided by Geekom, though as usual I'll mention these aren't any kind of affiliate deal, and that we get no kickback from you deciding to use them. There is also a sale on the go for their 21st Anniversary, so you can likely get a bit of a better deal between those. You can find links below:
