Geekom GT13 Pro Review – How does it compare with the Geekom A8?

We reviewed the Geekom A8 AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS powerhouse a few months ago and now it is the turn of Intel with the Geekom GT13 Pro with i9-13900H. How will these two flagship devices compare with each other? Let’s find out in our Geekom GT13 Pro review.

Inside the box

The Geekom GT13 Pro comes with the Intel mini PC itself along with a quick start guide that is in multiple languages.

There is a small power brick and cable with a plug for your country, in our case a UK plug. There is a HDMI cable and last but not least a VESA mounting plate and screws to attach the mini PC for office behind your TV or monitor.

Geekom GT13 Pro Overview

The Geekom GT13 Pro measures around 4.42 x 4.42 x 1.45 inches (11.24 x 11.24 x 3.7 cm) and weighs 442g. Like the A8 model, it is made from an aluminium case with a slightly darker grey metallic finish which looks great on your desktop.

On the front side there are two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, the first supporting Power Delivery. There is a 3.5mm headphone port and the power button.

On the left side is a full size SD card reader which I always appreciate over a micro SD card reader.

The back, from left to right, has a USB 4 Gen 3 port which also supports power delivery. There are the first of two HDMI 2.0 ports and one 2.5Gbps ethernet. Next we have one USB 2.0, one USB 3.2 Gen port and end with the second USB 4 and HDMI ports.

With the use of the two HDMI and 2 USB Type-C ports you can use up to quad monitors supporting up to 4K resolution, or a single 8K display.

The USB 4 Gen 3 port supports up to 40Gbps, up to 15W PD 3.0 and external devices including SSDs and eGPUs such as the GPD G1 eGPU docking station. A docking station is excellent for Intel mini PCs, especially if you require a boost in graphics related performance such as when gaming or video editing.

Geekom GT13 Pro Technical Specifications

There are two models of the Geekom GT13 Pro. The first, which we are reviewing here, uses the 13th Gen. Intel i9-12900H processor with 14 cores and 20 threads. The second features the 13th Gen. Intel i7-13620H processor with 10 cores and 16 threads.

For the graphics there is the integrated Intel Iris Xe for the i9 model and Intel UHD graphics for the i7 model. Intel graphics are not great for gaming, but for day to day home and office tasks they are fine, and this is what this mini PC is aimed towards.

Both models come with 32GB DDR4-3200 SODIMM RAM and 2 TB M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4×4 SSD. For communications there is Wi-Fi 6E provided by the M.2 2230 slot. It has support for Bluetooth 5.2 and the aforementioned 2.5Gbps Ethernet.

As part of our reviews we always perform a power usage, fan noise and thermal test. For power usage, while sitting idle on the desktop, we got around 8W average. With 3DMark loading we got 32.8W and under full load (running Cinebench and 3DMark) we got around 55.5W. The Geekom A8 in comparison had a low of 4.6W and high of 78.4W, so we do see lower power consumption with the Intel model

While running the full load test we also tested the fan noise and mini PC thermals. We got a highest fan noise of 60dB and highest internal temperature of around 62 °C. Compared this with the Geekom A8 which got 67dB and 65 °C respectively. The Geekom GT13 Pro definitely wins in the power usage, fan noise and thermals.

System Benchmarks

As always we perform a series of benchmarks for our Geekom GT13 Pro review in order to learn about its performance and also compare it with other mini PCs.

PassMark

We start the benchmarks with PassMark which performs a series of tests on the CPU, GPU, RAM and Storage. 

We got a total score of 5727.9 which unfortunately puts the GT13 PRO at the bottom of our comparisons of recent mini PCs. 

In the breakdown we see very good scores for the CPU, above average for 2D graphics, below average for 3D graphics. The scores vastly improve with excellent scores for Memory and Disk performance in the 98th percentile.

PCMark

PCMark tests your average day to day uses of a PC ranging from web browsing, video conferencing, working with office documents through to image editing and rendering.

We got a score of 6546 which is respectable, closer to most of the other mini PC models but still at the bottom of the results.

Cinebench R23

Next in our benchmarks is Cinebench R23 which tests the CPU’s single and multi core performance.

Some good news as in the Single-core test we got the top score of 1931, but in multi-core tests we see last place with 11,348.

Cinebench R24

We have recently started benchmarks using Cinebench R24 and do not have our own comparable data for this yet.

But the scores are promising, we got 115 for single-core, putting it just ahead of the Apple M1 Max. And for multi-core performance it scored 661, a little behind the Apple M1 Max.

3DMark

Our final system benchmark is 3DMark which tests the CPU and GPU working together. It’s not just for gaming, a strong GPU is ideal for image and video editing for example.

Across the Time Spy, Night Raid and Fire Strike test we get the lowest scores when compared with the AMD mini PCs which we did expect. But these scores are not as bad as what we thought they would be.

Gaming Benchmarks

While the Geekom GT13 Pro is not a gaming mini PC we always run a few benchmarks to get an indication of what is actually possible to play on it. We do usually run at 720P, 1080P, 1440P and 4K but as this is not a gaming mini PC we only test at 720P

Forza Horizon 5

Forza Horizon 5 is optimised for AMD processors and the results reflect that. We got 61 FPS at 720P Very Low graphics settings. You could lock it to 30FPS and increase the resolution and/or graphics settings and play this just fine.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

For Shadow of the Tomb Raider we are running at 720P Lowest Graphics Settings. We got 61 frames per second and again you could lock this to 30FPS and change a few graphics to make it run great.

Street Fighter VI

For our Street Fighter VI benchmark we are running at 720 on the Highest graphics settings. We got scores of just under 30 FPS which is not very playable for this game. But playing on the lowest graphics settings will speed up the performance and make it more enjoyable.

Benchmark Summary

There’s no avoiding it, the Intel processor when compared with AMD processors have vastly different results. We saw in the system benchmarks mostly last place results against the AMD processors, only taking first place once in the Cinebench single core performance test.

For your day to day tasks the Geekom GT13 Pro will perform just fine. While we do not have the highest benchmark scores, you certainly would not see any slowdown while browsing the web, watching 4K or even 8K videos or working on large office documents. It can handle this all perfectly well.

Games are playable on the GT13 Pro, but you would have to limit the FPS to 30 and make some changes, whereas with an AMD CPU you could run at higher settings with no issues. You can of course run lower demanding games just fine. We are able to enjoy games such as Hades II, TMNT: Shredders Revenge and Dead Cells at higher resolutions and graphics settings. And there is always game streaming which works great!

Or as an alternative, an eGPU docking station such as the GPD G1 2024 or ONEXPLAYER ONEXGPU will make a massive difference in gaming and general graphics related performance. The dedicated GPU will take place of the iGPU and act much like a desktop gaming PC providing higher resolutions, graphics settings and faster video coding for example.

Geekom GT13 Pro Review Final Thoughts

Time to sum up our Geekom GT13 Pro review with our final thoughts. I have to be honest and say that I find it hard to recommend the Geekom GT13 Pro over its AMD equivalent, the Geekom A8. 

The main issue is the lower performance. It consistently scored lower than the AMD models. while you may not need the high performance, the prices of both models are roughly the same. So why choose the GT13 Pro over the A8?

The positives that we can take away with the Geekom GT13 Pro are the lower power consumption, fan noise and temperatures. The loud fan noise in the Geekom A8 was my main negative, its very loud and constantly at a high speed level compared to the GT13 Pro, which is quieter and spent less time at high fan speeds. You can also potentially save some money with the overall lower power usage.

If the higher noise levels are not a major concern and you desire the best performance for your money, I would recommend the Geekom A8. The Geekom A8 is otherwise an excellent all round mini PC when directly compared with the Geekom GT13 Pro. If you prefer lower noise and temperatures then the Geekom GT13 Pro Intel mini PC is an option.

You can learn more about the Geekom GT13 Pro and order yours from below. The 10% discount codes expire by September 30th 2024

Official Geekom Stores
Geekom Store (USA) Discount code “DROGT13”
Geekom Store (UK) Discount code “DXGT13”
Amazon (USA)
i9 model – Discount code “DROXGT13”
i7 model – Discount code “DROXGT13”

And if you would like to know more about the Geekom A8, check our full review here. You can also buy it from:

Geekom A8 Ryzen 9 8945HS: Amazon US , Geekom Store
Geekom A8 Ryzen 7 8845HS: Amazon US , Geekom Store

The Geekom GT13 Pro was provided to us by Geekom for review. All words and opinions are my own and were not paid for or instructed by Geekom.