The tech I want in my life more than any other right now is a mini PC powered by the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395, also referred to by its less clunky codename, Strix Halo. That's because it's an absolute beast.
Whether it's for AI or other intensive workloads, or even gaming, this chip can do it all. But it's not that common yet, though right now you can get one for less than you used to. At Walmart — not Amazon — this Prime Day, the GMKtec EVO-X2 is still available for $1,499.89. It makes it a must-have.
So, why this mini PC over all others, then? For starters, it packs performance not seen elsewhere. The Ryzen AI Max+ 395 boasts a whopping 16 Zen 5 cores with 32 threads, paired with Radeon 8060S graphics.
This means not only incredible CPU performance, but in this tiny box, you have actual desktop-class graphics capabilities. The Radeon 8060S can go toe-to-toe with some of NVIDIA's RTX 40-series lineup. That's no joke.
Where this PC also stands out is in the ever emerging world of AI. While it has 50 TOPS NPU onboard, so it's a Copilot+ PC, having a large pool of unified memory makes it capable of running quite sizable local AI models.
Unified Memory is something Apple made famous, and simply put, it's one lot of memory that is intelligently shared between the CPU and GPU. It improves performance, with lower latency and fewer bottlenecks. But because you can dedicate most of it to the GPU if you wish, you can power some hefty LLMs.
For example, if you split it down the middle, you'd have 32GB for Windows 11, and 32GB for the Radeon 8060S. To put it into context, to get a single 32GB VRAM GPU right now you're buying an NVIDIA RTX 5090, and spending at least $1,000 more than the cost of this whole PC.
It's potentially a really good time to buy a new PC. Windows 10 is reaching End of Life soon, and if your current hardware can't upgrade, this would be a pretty incredible new PC to buy.
Obviously, it's not a laptop, though it is small enough to be portable. But if you're in the market for a new desktop rig, be that a gaming machine, a workstation, or both, this is a pretty outstanding value option.
For AI work, in particular, it makes much more sense than a full-sized desktop PC. You still get a good GPU to power everything, even if slightly slower than a flagship graphics card, but you get significantly more memory to use with it than anything else you could buy for this money.
Not to mention it's also quieter, more efficient, and actually has a more comprehensive set of ports than you'd find on many laptops and desktops. It's such an incredible little PC, it's remarkable to think something this small and powerful exists at all.
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