GMKtec EVO-X2 Review: The Most Powerful Mini PC of 2026?

The GMKtec EVO-X2 is undoubtedly one of the most powerful mini PCs on the market.

Its AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 processor with integrated Radeon 8060S graphics delivers performance that rivals desktop computers with dedicated GPUs.

However, its cooling system in Performance mode leaves much to be desired, and its high price puts it out of reach for the average user.

✅ Pros:

• Exceptional CPU and GPU performance for a mini PC

• Up to 128GB of unified LPDDR5X RAM

• Supports 8K displays and up to 4 simultaneous monitors

• Expandable storage up to 16 TB

• 126 TOPS NPU for local AI workloads

❌ Contras:

• Temperatures that can reach 85–98°C in Performance mode

• Very high price (from ~€2,211)

👉 View Prices and Availability GMKtec EVO-X2

📦 Unboxing and Box Contents

The EVO-X2 arrives in a well-presented box, typical of GMKtec. Inside you will find:

• 🖥️ Mini PC GMKtec EVO-X2

• 🔌 240W Power Adapter

• 📺 Cable HDMI 2.1

• 🔩 VESA mount for mounting behind the monitor

• 📄 Quick Start Guide

The 240W adapter is sturdy and necessary given the device's power consumption. Its cable is rather short, so it's advisable to have an extension cord nearby.

🔧 Technical Specifications

🎨 Design and Construction Quality

The EVO-X2 features an aluminum chassis with a matte dark finish and customizable RGB details in 13 modes.

The build quality feels solid, nothing cheaply plastic. Its dimensions are compact for the power it houses, although it's slightly bulkier than other mid-range mini PCs.

Most of the ports are concentrated on the back, leaving the front clean with only two USB-A ports and the audio jack.

The included VESA mount allows you to mount it directly behind a monitor, which is very practical for minimalist desks.

🖥️ Screen and Multimedia

The EVO-X2 supports up to four simultaneous monitors with a maximum resolution of 8K via its HDMI 2.1 and USB4 ports. This makes it an excellent choice for multi-screen productivity setups or professional video editing.

The Radeon 8060S chip handles 4K HDR video decoding seamlessly, and AV1 support ensures smooth streaming from platforms like YouTube and Netflix. Audio is limited to the 3.5mm jack, with no built-in speakers, so you'll need headphones or external speakers.

🚀 Performance and Software

The AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 is a beast. With 16 Zen 5 cores and speeds up to 5.1 GHz, the benchmarks speak for themselves:

These results are comparable to a discrete RTX 4060 or RX 7600 GPU in graphics tasks, something unthinkable two years ago in integrated graphics.

Windows 11 Pro comes pre-installed, and the computer arrives relatively clean of bloatware, although it does include some GMKtec applications for power management. Windows updates and AMD drivers work normally.

👉 View Prices and Availability GMKtec EVO-X2

🔋 Energy Consumption and Cables

The EVO-X2 is not exactly energy efficient for a mini PC:

• Idle / browsing: ~15–25W

• Mixed load (office work + streaming): ~45–70W

• Full sustained load: ~120W

• Peak power (burst): up to 140W

The included 240W adapter provides ample power. It does not have USB-C PD charging for use with external batteries, making it a purely desktop device .

🌡️ Temperature and Noise (Actual Thermal)

This is the most controversial aspect of the EVO-X2, and where we need to be completely honest. The cooling system features two turbo fans for the CPU and one dedicated fan for the RAM/SSD, three heatpipes, and a 360° airflow design.

In Quiet mode: temperatures of 75–81°C and ~35 dB of noise — perfectly acceptable.

In Balanced mode: temperatures of 87–94°C, with peaks up to 98°C.

In Performance mode: temperatures frequently above 85°C with peaks to 98°C, which can cause thermal throttling and occasional freezing.

⚠️ Important note: Several Reddit users report that Performance mode can cause instability. Balanced mode  is the sweet spot between performance and thermal stability. Some users opt for additional cooling mods (140mm external fan) to unlock its full potential.

🔌 Connectivity and Extras

The EVO-X2 offers very complete connectivity:

• 📡 Wi-Fi 7 (tri-band, up to 5.8 Gbps theoretical)

• 🔵 Bluetooth 5.4

• 🌐 Dual LAN 2.5 Gbps (ideal for NAS or enterprise network)

• ⚡ 2× USB4 40Gbps (compatible con Thunderbolt 4)

• 🖥️ 2× HDMI 2.1 + 2× USB4 with video output

• 🎧 Jack 3.5mm combo

• ❌ No SD card reader

• ❌ No NFC or integrated fingerprint sensor

• ❌ No IP rating (not water/dust resistant)

🔧 Expansion and Upgrades

One of the great strengths of the EVO-X2 is its storage expandability:

• 💾 RAM: NOT expandable — the LPDDR5X memory is soldered to the motherboard (choose the configuration carefully when buying: 64, 96 or 128 GB)

• 📀 Primary SSD: Replaceable M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 slot

• ➕ Second M.2 slot: Yes, it has a second M.2 PCIe 4.0 slot for expanding storage

• 🗄️ 2.5" Drive: Does not include a 2.5" SATA drive bay

• 📦 Maximum storage: up to 16 TB in dual M.2 configuration

  💡 Tip : If you're going to use it for local AI with large LLM models (like LLaMA 70B or higher), choose at least the 96GB RAM configuration, as the GPU shares that memory and needs space for the model's weights.

  👉 View Prices and Availability GMKtec EVO-X2

🆚 Comparison with Direct Competitors

💬 Reviews on Well-Known Pages

Opinions in specialized media are generally positive, although with important nuances:

Tom's Hardware gives it a very high score, highlighting that its integrated Radeon 8060S graphics are more than sufficient for 1080p gaming, achieving 90–110 FPS in titles like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order at Epic settings. They also praise its excellent thermal stability during extended gaming sessions, with average temperatures of 61°C in the Metro Exodus stress test.

NotebookCheck rates it as "one of the best mini PCs of 2025," praising its combination of Zen 5 CPU and RDNA 3.5 GPU for workstation and gaming tasks simultaneously.

Wccftech highlights the XDNA 2 NPU as a key differentiator for running AI models locally, something few mini PCs can do with real efficiency.

IGN confirms that games like Borderlands 4 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 run above 60 FPS on high settings with frame generation enabled.

Reddit (the community of real users) is more critical: several users report temperatures of 87–94°C in Balanced mode during intensive gaming, and some instances of freezes in Performance mode. The consensus is that it performs best in Balanced or Quiet mode for stable use.

AliExpress: 5 out of 5 rating from 16 users at the time of publication of this article. Some of these reviews are:

• Excellent quality mini PC, and an even better seller and customer service. The best purchase I made in 2025. I would buy it again if I could, but one is enough :)

• Originally, Windows 11 Pro was installed as an OEM, but due to my personal work, I switched to Linux. If you install Windows 11 Pro later, it will authenticate automatically. Since another seller in Korea has received radio certification for the same model, there shouldn't be any issues with this part. As it's a computer product, there are no customs duties upon release, but an additional 10% VAT must be paid. The seller shipped the product with a low declared value, but no additional amount was sent beyond the product price, so I simply sent a screenshot of the receipt to customs and paid 10% of the purchase price. This should be checked carefully. I received it via UPS, and it seems to be the fastest delivery I've ever gotten from a direct purchase in China. Approximately 5 days? Reviewing the 4-bit gpt-oss-120b quantization model, the TPS is approximately 32. This is similar to the performance measured on Reddit or related communities. Overall performance may refer to community or various benchmarks. Aside from that, I've tried several tests like embedded OCR with Comfy, but setting up ROCm isn't easy. CUDA used to do what a command line did, but now you have to find ROCm-compatible libraries, match the Python version, and adjust dependencies... I don't know much about it because I don't play video games.

👉 View Prices and Availability GMKtec EVO-X2

🧪 Technical Tests

The EVO-X2 benchmarks place its integrated graphics on par with mid-to-high-end discrete GPUs:

CPU Performance:

• Cinebench R23 Single: 1,996 points (outperforms many gaming laptops)

• Cinebench R23 Multi: ~19,000–21,000 points

• Geekbench 6 Multi: +20,000 points

GPU performance:

• 3DMark Time Spy: ~10,554–11,253 points (equivalent to RTX 4060 / RX 7600)

• 3DMark Steel Nomad: 22.004 puntos (~220 FPS)

• 3DMark Night Raid: 58,807 points

Storage:

• PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD with sequential read speeds exceeding 6,500 MB/s (typical on Gen4)

IA Local:

• 126 total TOPS with XDNA 2 NPU — allows running LLM models like LLaMA 3 8B or Mistral 7B in real time, even with 70B models in 128 GB configurations

🎮 Gaming and Emulation

The EVO-X2 is surprisingly capable for gaming on a device without a discrete GPU:

For retro emulation, the EVO-X2 handles PS3 (RPCS3), Nintendo Switch (Yuzu/Ryujinx), Wii U, and PS2 games with ease at increased resolutions. It's a top-tier emulation machine.

⚠️ Frame generation requires native game support (FSR3 or DLSS4 Frame Gen). Enabling it when you're already below 40 FPS may cause visual artifacts.

❓ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Can I upgrade the RAM on the EVO-X2?
No. The LPDDR5X RAM is soldered to the motherboard. Choose the correct configuration from the start: 64 GB for gaming and general work, 96 GB for content creation, and 128 GB for local AI with large models.

Does it fit a monitor's VESA mount?
Yes, it includes a VESA mount in the box and is compatible with 75x75 and 100x100 mm standards.

Does it work well for office work and video conferencing?
Absolutely. For office applications, Zoom/Teams, and web browsing, the difference is practically imperceptible compared to a high-end desktop PC.

Can I connect 4 monitors at once?
Yes, via 2× HDMI 2.1 and 2× USB4 with video output, all at 4K@60Hz or configurations up to 8K.

Is it suitable for 4K video editing?
Yes, especially with 96 or 128 GB of RAM. Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve run smoothly on 4K projects thanks to the integrated GPU acceleration.

Does it have Wi-Fi 6E or Wi-Fi 7?
Wi-Fi 7, the most modern on the market, with tri-band support.

🏁 Final Conclusion

The GMKtec EVO-X2 is a revolutionary proposition: the first mini PC that can truly replace a gaming computer and workstation without requiring a discrete GPU. Its AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 with integrated Radeon 8060S is a combination that seemed impossible in such a compact form factor just a few years ago.

Who is it ideal for?

• 👨‍💻 Professionals who need workstation power in a small space

• 🤖 AI enthusiasts who want to run LLMs locally

• 🎮 Gamers who want to play at 1080p/1440p without a discrete GPU

• 🎬 High-budget 4K video editors

• 🏢 Companies that need powerful and discreet equipment

Who is it NOT ideal for?

• 💰 For those looking for value for money — there are cheaper options for general use

• 🔥 Anyone who plays for hours on end in Performance mode without additional cooling.

• 🎮 Gamers who need RTX 4080/4090 level for Ultra 4K gaming

Alternatives to consider:

• Minisforum MS-A2 — same chip, slightly cheaper

• Beelink GTi14 Ultra — more affordable, lower GPU performance

• Building an ATX desktop PC — more performance for the same price, but much more bulk

🛒 Where to Buy It at the Best Price?

👉 Comprar GMKtec EVO-X2 en AliExpress — Desde 2.211 € (64GB/1TB)

💡 Recommendation: For most users, the 96GB/2TB configuration  is the sweet spot between AI capacity, gaming, and storage. If you'll primarily use it for work and gaming without intensive local AI, the 64GB/1TB version  is sufficient and the most economical option.

👉 Amazon: 🛒 GMKtec EVO-X2 Mini PC