MinisForum HX99G Review – Amazing AAA gaming mini PC

The MinisForum HX99G is a gaming mini PC that actually does exactly what it says on the tin… erm case. In our MinisForum HX99G review we will run some benchmarks and compare the performance with others and see how well it can run AAA games!

MinisForum HX99G Review Video

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Unboxing the MinisForum HX99G

We start the MinisForum HX99G review with a very brief unboxing. First out the box is a user guide which is in multiple languages including Chinese, English, German, Spanish and Italian.

Up next we have the HX99G gaming mini PC. We will take a closer look at it shortly.

Underneath the packaging there is a power brick and plug lead. We will include the correct adaptor for your country. There is a pack containing heatsinks and thermal pads for when installing your RAM. As a note, if you buy from us pre configured then we will use these when installing the RAM. Next we have a HDMI cable for connecting the HX99G mini PC with Windows 11 to your display.

And there is a stand with a bracket and screws which you can use to stand the HX99G vertically.

Overview of the HX99G

We continue the Minisforum HX99G review with an overview of the min PC. The MinisForum HX99G measures around 8.07 x 7.99 x 2.72 inches  (20.5 x 20.3 x 6.93 cm) and weighs 1.4kg. It can be used either horizontally on a flat surface, or vertically with the mount.

On the front there is a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, followed by dedicated 3.5mm headphone and microphone jacks. Beside that is a USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C Port, and the power button.

On the back of this Ryzen mini PC there is a four pin power supply port. There are two USB 4 Type-C ports and just below are two HDMI ports. You can use them together for quad monitor display, two at 8K 60Hz and two 4K 60Hz respectively.

Next we have three USB 3.2 ports, two are gen 1 and the other is gen 2. And last but not least there is a 2.5 gigabit ethernet port.

Technical Specifications

We continue the MinisForum HX99G review with an overview of the technical specifications and some tests.

CPU	AMD Ryzen 9 6900HX processor with 8 cores and 16 threads up to 4.9GHz at 45W TDP.
GPU	Integrated: AMD Radeon 680M Discreet: AMD Radeon RX 6600M with 8GB GDDR6 RAM, up to 2117MHz @ 100W TDP
RAM	Up to 64GB DDR5 4800MHz
SSD	Up to 2TB m.2 2280 PCIe 4 SSD
COMMUNICATIONS	2.5 Gbps Ethernet WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.2
HIGHEST POWER DRAW	199W
HIGHEST FAN NOISE	55dB
HIGHEST TEMPERATURE	56°C

Highest Power Draw, Fan Noise & Temperature measured while running the Cinebench benchmark.

System Benchmarks

As part of the MinisForum HX99G review we run a few system benchmarks covering CPU, GPU, RAM & Storage speed. As well as different usages such as general software, gaming and video editing. This gives us some data which we can use to see the overall performance and also compare to other gaming mini PC’s.

PassMark

First we have the PassMark benchmark results. The MinisForum HX99G takes a very respectable second place, beating the MinisForum NUCXi5 in third and behind the NUCXi7 in first.

The NUCXi7 CPU and 3070 laptop GPU definitely gives it the lead, but the HX99G does have a great jump on the Intel i5 model which has the laptop 3060 GPU.

PCMARK 10

Next we have the PCMARK 10 benchmark results. This is your more day to day tests ranging from web browsing through to image and video editing. 

The HX99G takes first place here with a decent gap of around 7% between the UM690 in second place. 

Cinebench 

On to Cinebench Multi-core test. This tests the CPU and we can see that the MinisForum UM690 and HX99G have almost identical scores, they have the same Ryzen 9 6900HX processor.

There is quite a gap between 2nd and 3rd place with the GTr6 taking it. The two NUCX models fall quite far behind on this test.

3DMark

Our final system benchmark is 3DMark, we tested Fire Strike, Night Raid and Time Spy. 

For Fire Strike we can see the HX99G in second place behind the MinisForum NUCXi7, and again on the Night Raid benchmark. It drops down to 3rd place behind the NUCXi5 for the Time Spy test only by a small margin though.

Gaming Benchmarks

Continuing our MinisForum HX99G review, we are testing some games across 720P, 1080P and 4K resolutions to see how well the HX99G does with different games and resolutions. 

Forza Horizon 5

Starting with Forza Horizon 5 we can see that at 4K the MinisForum HX99G does well in second place. It gets 94 frames per second, compared with 101 on the NUCXi7, both on the Very Low graphics settings.

At 1080P is where there is a power shift with the MinisForum HX99G, it has a massive 198 FPS average, compared to just 153 on the NUCXi7 in 2nd place. Ryzen mini PC’s run amazingly well compared to Intel and Nvidia devices on this game as we saw in our gaming handheld benchmarks.

And at 720P we can see a minor increase at 200 frames per second but still far ahead of the NUCXi7. We won’t see such a dramatic gap in other benchmarks but it goes to show what optimising can do for a game.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

This game is optimised more for Intel and Nvidia based devices, so we can see if there is much difference. 

At 4K we can see the HX99G mini PC for gaming in third place with the NUCXi5 and i7 taking the lead.

But at 1080P we can again see a switch, with the HX99G taking 1st place just ahead of the NUCXi7. The pattern repeats at 720P.

It looks like the 30 series graphics cards are better at 4K resolutions than the 6600M on the HX99G.

Cyberpunk 2077

On to Cyberpunk 2077 next which is a highly demanding game and a great test of performance.

We can see again at 4K resolution that the HX99G gaming mini PC is in 3rd place, and at 1080P the HX99G jumps up to 2nd place with the NUCXi7 still in front. But at 720P the HX99G takes a massive leap ahead of the NUCXi7. Very impressive and a great frame rate if you play at 720P!

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Our final benchmark is Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2. The MinisForum HX99G mini PC for gaming is essentially tied with the NUCXi5 for 2nd place at 4K.

Again the pattern continues once we go to 1080P, which is a jump in performance for the HX99G taking a solid 2nd place. 

And at 720P we can see that while the HX99G Ryzen mini PC remains in second place, there is only a few frames per second difference between it and the NUCXi7.

Gaming Benchmarks Summary

The benchmark results are interesting. At 4K, the NUCXi5 and i7 models do very well, but if we drop down to 1080P or 720P we can see the HX99G performs far more competitively against the 30 series GPU’s. If 1080P gaming is what you are looking for, then the HX99G mini PC with Windows 11 is definitely the one to consider.

Gaming Performance

Running benchmarks over and over is all well and good. But what about games at playable settings? In our MinisForum HX99G review will take a brief look at a few AAA games and see how far we can push the settings before we get performance issues that affect playing.

We are trying the HX99G with a new 4K portable touchscreen monitor and GuliKit KingKong 2 Pro gamepad we will be selling. Check the links in the description if you want to learn more and keep an eye out for their reviews shortly.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

For Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 we can run at 4K resolution with no upscaling on the Minimal graphics settings. We get around 64 FPS and this will drop below 60 on busier scenes.

At 1440P Balanced graphics we get around 85 FPS which should be fine, you may get rare drops below 60. Lower it to Minimal settings for an extra 10 FPS.

At 1080P on the Extreme graphics settings with no upscaling, we get around 120FPS average which is plenty for even busy scenes.  You can increase the Anti Aliasing to Ultra and lose 20 or so frames but make it look even nicer.

Hogwarts Legacy

Hogwarts Legacy at 4K Medium graphics with no upscaling was getting us around 30 FPS, and on Low graphics around 35 FPS. It’s a bit too low for smooth gameplay.

At 1440P Low graphics settings we saw a nice jump to around 60 FPS. You will see some dips below 60, so you can leave it at that or lock the frames to 30.

At 1080P we can go up to Ultra graphics settings and get around 58 FPS. Lock it to 30 if you wanted to. Or if we drop down to High graphics mix settings, we get a solid 60 FPS.

Resident Evil 4 Remake Demo

You can play mostly at 4K on ‘Prioritise Performance’ settings at 60 FPS with some minor dips below now and again.

We can run at 1440P on the ‘Balanced Graphics’ settings locked to 30 Frames Per Second. If you lower to ‘Prioritise Performance’ settings then you will get 60 FPS.

At 1080P on the ’Prioritise Graphics’ settings we get mostly 60 frames per second, with some occasional dips below that. Lowering to ‘Balanced Graphics’ will get you a stable 60 FPS.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty

Wo Long does suffer from some pretty bad performance issues across different PC’s including desktops, handhelds and mini PC’s. 

At 4K and 1440P the game was unplayable. At 1080P standard graphics settings we get around 40 frames per second with dips at random intervals.

Lowering to 720P on standard graphics settings got us 60 frames per second but we still got random dips in performance.

So we locked the frame rate to 30 in hopes that would fix it, but we still got random dips. It’s a poorly optimised game and hopefully it does get fixed some day.

Emulator Performance

As you will probably guess, the MinisForum HX99G will run just about every emulator up to more recent ones with no issues at all on this mini PC. With most, you will be able to upscale graphics and use other mods to improve the visuals. We like to take a look at some of the more higher demanding emulators as part of the MinisForum HX99G review. Don’t forget that these emulators are work in progress so some games may be incompatible or have poor performance.

Xbox 360

We start off with the Xbox 360. Our go to game Vanquish runs at a solid frame rate while at 1080P resolution and below.

We also tried Project Gotham Racing 3 and were burning rubber at full frame rates, something we could not manage with the 6800U based handhelds. Running at 4K resolution will have mixed results with performance, so I recommend keeping it at 1080P.

PlayStation 3

We had no major issues with the PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3. Our ‘go to’ games Tekken 6 and Wipeout HD run at full 60FPS. You may see some rare minor drops when shader caching at the start of levels, but nothing that affects the gameplay on compatible games.

Ryujinx/Yuzu

For the most part we were getting full speed on the many of the games we tried, both first and third party games. You may see some drops below full frame rate now and again but nothing that spoils playing. 

Final Thoughts

Time to wrap up the MinisForum HX99G review with my thoughts. Straight off the bat I have to say this is a very impressive gaming mini PC! While it is a little larger than your usual mini PC, it’s nowhere near the size of the larger NUCX models which are its main competitors. A gaming mini PC should have a small form factor and the MinisForum HX99G fits into this category just fine.

We liked that the Ryzen mini PC can be used with and without the vertical stand at your preference. And even while pushing the gaming mini PC to its limits, the fan noise was fairly quiet. If you have game audio or some noise, you will barely hear it. We also like that it is portable, you can fit it into a small bag or rucksack and combined with the portable monitor you can game just about anywhere there is a power supply.

For 1440P and 4K gaming the HX99G does a respectable job, however if you plan to game at these resolutions then the MinisForum NUCXi7 is definitely what you should be considering. Based on price, the HX99G it is a fair bit cheaper, and at 1080P and below it often beats or comes fairly close to beating the NUCXi7.  Don’t forget that 1080P is still the most popular screen resolution for gaming on a mini PC, if you plan to game at 1080P or even 720P then the HX99G is the perfect choice.

You can learn more about and buy the MinisForum HX99G here. Use the code HX99G5OFF on the Checkout for 5% off! Note that the code is not valid during sales or promotions and will expire after one month.

We hope you have found our MinisForum HX99G review useful. Let us know what you think of it in the comments.