General Information
Return of the Mini PC
You already know what's under the hood since I felt like I had to get that out of the way, so let's just finish up the internals. Alongside the i9-13900H we're looking at 32GB of DDR4 RAM and a 2TB SSD. If you think the shell of this system looks familiar, well, it's because it is! We're looking at an identical chassis to the A7 and A8 models from Geekom, with all three also sharing the same ports on the back as the XT12 Pro. It does seem like there are plans to mix things up in the near future, with the XT1 Mega and A8Max being featured at Japan IT Week back in April, but for now we're looking at a familiar spec sheet with a new CPU swapped in. Let's recap what's on offer!
- Front Panel
- 2x USB A 3.2
- 3.5mm headphone jack
- Power button
- Left Panel
- SD reader
- Right Panel
- Nothing!
- Back Panel
- 1x USB A 3.2
- 1x USB A 2.0
- 2x USB C 4.0
- 2x HDMI 2.0
- 1x 2.5G RJ45
- 1x 19V barrel for power
Putting It to the Test
Before diving any further, let's get some basic numbers on the table. As usual I've run the system through Geekbench 6.2.2 and Cinebench 2024.1.0's respective benchmarks, as well as the Dartmoor benchmark of Hitman 3, and the DX12 benchmark of Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Note as usual that the game benchmarks have the games on their lowest graphical settings at 1080p.
- Geekbench 6.2.2
- Multi-Core: 10856
- Single-Core: 2313
- Cinebench 2024.1.0
- Multi-Core: 656
- Single-Core: 108
- Game Benchmarks
- Hitman 3: 44.25 FPS Average
- Shadow of the Tomb Raider: 36 FPS Average
Trying to Play…
New for this Mini PC review, I wanted to deviate a little and pick three reasonably notable games and see just what it would take to get them running at what I would consider a playable level (assuming it is possible at all!). With an i9-13900H under the hood, the GT13 Pro should be capable of a good chunk, so the games I've picked for this bout are God of War, Need For Speed Unbound, and the recently released Earth Defense Force 6 since I've been playing that a ton. Ideally I'd want to be playing games at 1080p, but without a discrete GPU, compromises usually do have to be expected beyond just setting your games to a low preset.
Starting with God of War I had the expectation of an uphill battle, and out of the box it did seem a little like that. Using the standard Low configuration at 1080p, even the main menu was only hovering around 20 FPS. From here I'd usually start playing with the resolution to see how much of a difference 720p would make before looking at something like FSR, but weirdly the game doesn't give me the option to change either the output or render resolution directly. With that in mind my only real option here is AMD's FSR 2.0, and you really need it set to Ultra Performance for even a chance at a solid 30 FPS experience. I will give due credit, the game is very playable using the Ultra Performance setting, and in the early game I have access to I never saw the framerate fall below that 30 FPS sweet spot. If you've ever played a game with the more performance-focused FSR settings, you'll probably know that the graphics aren't looking too great. Everything has this weird fuzz to it, but once you're in the zone it does somewhat blend into the background. After some faffing I did realize resolution scaling was a separate setting, and that 50% scaling for 540p actually looks really solid. With this I got my locked 30 FPS, albeit in some pretty early parts of the game.
Next onto Need For Speed Unbound, we have a game that is remarkably stylish, relying on its graphical style for much of its larger character. Out of the box with settings at 1080p, 100% resolution scale, a Low graphics preset, and dynamic resolution scaling enabled to target 30 FPS, we see a really solid start. What we're looking at is a 25 FPS average with drops to the low 20s. Even on this Low preset the game manages to look really great throughout. Dropping to 720p and changing nothing else we manage to hit that very close to that consistent 30 FPS I so desire. It doesn't quite get there at 720p, but with it only occasionally dropping to around 27 FPS, it's an experience I could more than enjoy.
Earth Defense Force 6 managed to surprise me out of the gate. At all the default settings, that being 1080p with anti-aliasing and shadows enabled, as well as 16x anisotropic filtering, the game managed to stay above 30 FPS for the vast majority of the time spent in missions. Where there were drops below, it wasn't something that really pulled me out of the game, still being the high 20s. It's a brilliantly playable experience, but if we're shooting for framerate we can do better. My first thought was to just disable the filtering altogether, this pushing us from a 34 FPS up to around a 40 FPS average. It's not much but it does eliminate those sub-30 lows without really losing much in the way of graphic fidelity. The larger gain to be had came from dropping down to 720p, and while the game is noticeably blurrier, your reward is a framerate that hangs in the mid-50s, with lows in the mid-40s. If you really want to push it, disabling anti-aliasing and shadows will net you a near-60 FPS, with drops only getting to the mid-50s. Personally I'm happy with how the game came out of the box at 1080p with everything turned up, but for a game released just last month it's a great showing. EDF might not be the most graphically intense series, but with the number of entities on-screen and the attacks coming from them, the power needed to run it can certainly add up. I will note I'm only four hours into the game, so I can't vouch for how some of the more taxing later missions hold out.
I was keeping a close eye on thermals while playing each of these games, and I won't sugarcoat it, this PC gets hot. Of the 14 cores, four of them clocked in at 100C during play, with a few cores going this high even on the menus of EDF 6. Despite the high temperatures, performance did appear largely consistent throughout; where I did spot lows, they could be relatively easily explained by the action on-screen. I'm not going to say this'll be an ideal PC for gaming, but it certainly can pull its weight. If you are wanting a Mini PC that does handle its temperatures better, I do have some hope for the XT1 Mega if only for the larger shell allowing for more breathing room. Time will tell on that front though.
One to Consider?
The GT13 Pro is, like many of Geekom's systems before it, a very solid Mini PC. It's equipped with some really solid hardware, but the price makes it difficult for me to recommend even over something like Geekom's own A7 or A8. The system I'm looking at here currently retails for £899, with its full retail price being an astonishing £999. For that you get a really strong i9 processor, but I just can't see a reason to pick it over the more performant AMD flavors for either the same price or cheaper in the case of the A7. If you spot a good deal I can say the system holds up well, but I would recommend waiting for one or shopping around given how much exists in these upper echelons of Mini PCs.
If you are still interested in the GT13 Pro, I can at least pass on a small discount code courtesy of Geekom. As always these aren't affiliate codes and we don't get any kind of kickback, but they do at least make a dent in that rather hefty price:
- Official Store UK (5% Off: GBAGT13)
- Official Store US (5% Off: GBAGT13)
- Amazon US (5% Off: GBAGT13GM)