MinisForum EliteMini HX90 Review – SERIOUS Gaming!

Hello and welcome to DroiX. Today we are checking out the MinisForum EliteMini HX90 with an unboxing and overview of the Mini PC’s specs and features. After in our review, we will be performing some system and gaming benchmarks, then testing a few games and emulators.

MinisForum EliteMini HX90 Review Video

MinisForum EliteMini HX90 Unboxing

Let’s get started with the unboxing. Up first we have the user manual which is in multiple languages including English, Chinese and German. Next is the MinisForum EliteMini HX90 which we will show in more detail shortly.

Under the packaging are the power brick and cable. We will include the correct adaptor for your county.

Next is a VESA mount and screws to attach to the back of your TV or monitor. There is a HDMI cable and some foam feet for the stand, as well as some screws and SATA cables for installing two internal drives. And last but not least, there is a stand for the HX90 to position it vertically.

HX90 Overview

The EliteMini AMD Ryzen mini PC measures approximately 7.75 x 7.48 x 2.36 inches (19.7 x 19 x 6 cm) without the stand and weighs 1,190g. On the front there is a USB 3 port, headphone and microphone jacks and a USB Type-C port.

On the back are two sets of DisplayPort and HDMI ports, supporting up to four monitors. Following that are a second set of headphone and microphone jacks There’s a super fast 2 and a half Gigabit Ethernet port. And there are four USB 3 ports.

You can have the HX90 AMD mini PC horizontal like a normal Mini PC, or you can save even more desk space by having it vertical with the included desk stand. When it is in its vertical stand, it measures 8.66 inches (22 cm) tall. 

MinisForum EliteMini HX90 Technical Specifications

	MinisForum EliteMini HX90
CPU	AMD Ryzen™ 9 5900HX
CORES	8
THREADS	16
BASE / MAX FREQUENCY	3.3 GHz / 4.60 GHz
GPU	AMD Radeon™ Graphics
CORES	8
FREQUENCY	2100 MHz
RAM	16GB or 32GB
STORAGE	256GB/512GB/1TB M.2 PCI-e NVMe SSD Space inside for two 2.5″ HDD/SSD
CONNECTIVITY	2.5G Ethernet Adapter (RJ45) 802.11a/ac/b/g/n/ax Module – Dual-Band WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.2

Depending on the configuration from us, you can get 16 or 32GB Dual Channel RAM, and up to 1TB M.2 PCI-E NVMe SSD.

A special mention goes to the Ethernet which is 2.5 Gigabit instead of the usual 1 Gigabit. That’s more than enough bandwidth now!

MinisForum HX90 System Benchmarks

PassMark

We continue the HX90 review with some benchmarks, starting with PassMark. PassMark is an artificial test made to push the CPU, GPU, RAM and Storage to their maximum. 

The MinisForum EliteMini HX90 scores an extremely impressive 6,091 with excellent CPU scores and above average scores for the other tests. This is the highest scoring device for PassMark we have benchmarked so far!

PCMark

PCMark tests computers for the more day to day tasks that you may perform. Real life tasks including  web browsing, using large office documents, media consumption and image or video editing. 

The EliteMini HX90 scores 6,682, again a very good score!

3DMark

3DMark tests the GPU and CPU to see how they perform together for graphics rendering. It’s not just for gaming, which the HX90 is very capable of, but also important for tasks like video decoding and image processing.

The HX90 scores a very impressive 1,699, with the highest scoring performance of similar devices of this specification.

MinisForum HX90 Game Benchmarks

As mentioned, the MinisForum HX90 is a very capable Mini PC for gaming thanks to its AMD Ryzen 9 CPU and GPU. For the HX90 review, the benchmarks are done at maximum settings to fully test, in usual circumstances you would need to run the games at lower settings to have better performance.

Forza Horizon 4

We start with Forza Horizon 4 which is running at 1280×720 resolution on the default Ultra settings.

The benchmark finishes with 56 FPS which is great! Lowering one or two graphics settings down a level from Ultra to High will get you a stable 60 FPS no problem.

Street Fighter V

Next we are running the first match on the Street Fighter V benchmark at 1920×1080 on the Maximum graphics settings.

The match finishes with an average of 38.8 frames per second. By dropping the resolution to 720P or a few graphics settings lowered a little, you could easily reach a stable 60FPS.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

New to our benchmarks is Shadow of the Tomb Raider. We are running at 1280×720 and running the benchmarks on Lowest, Medium and Highest settings to get a range of performance scores.

The scores are 71 FPS on Lowest, 42 FPS on Medium and 36 FPS on the Highest. They are pretty decent results, you should be able to get a stable 60FPS on a mix of Low and Medium settings.

Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker

We finish the benchmarks with Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker running at 1920×1080 with High Desktop settings.

The MinisForum EliteMini HX90 finishes with a score of 4,012, with a standard rating. This means the game will play at high graphics settings with an overall solid performance.

Benchmark Summary

A quick summary of the benchmark results.

PASSMARK	6,091
PCMARK	6,682
3DMARK	1,699
FORZA HORIZON 4	56 FPS
STREET FIGHTER V	38 FPS (average across the first match)
SHADOW OF THE TOMB RAIDER	Lowest Default Settings: 71 FPS Medium Default Settings: 42 FPS Highest Default Settings: 36 FPS
FINAL FANTASY XIV	4,012 (Standard rating level)

The scores are very impressive, with some of the best benchmark results we have seen for PassMark on a Mini PC. And not forgetting the highest on 3DMark for its hardware specification. 

Overall I am very impressed with the MinisForum EliteMini HX90. As a home or office work mini PC it excels. As a gaming machine it does a very good job! If you are a casual gamer then this is a highly considerable option. It would also be ideal in the living room as a second PC for casual gaming or streaming from your main gaming PC. 

You also have the bonus of it supporting two internal 2.5” drives and fast ethernet, so it is great as a NAS for media and storage as an example. I like the HX90 a lot, if you are looking for a high performance gaming mini pc, then look no further, MinisForum have done an amazing job!

Gameplay and Emulator Footage

In our MinisForum HX90 Review video we spend a bit of time playing some Windows games and emulators including PSP, Xbox Original and PlayStation 2.

Mass Effect runs at 60FPS at 1920×1080 with some graphics settings disabled. However by lowering the resolution to 1280×720 and have all the graphics enabled, you get a far improved graphics quality and solid 60 FPS.

For emulation, the PSP emulator PPSSPP works great and you can increase the rendering resolution to 1080P with no frame drops. Xbox games that are compatible with the CXBX Reloaded emulator work great! In many cases you can increase the rendering resolution to higher than the Xbox native resolution. The PlayStation 2 emulator PSCX2 also works very well, again you can increase the resolution and still enjoy full 60 FPS frame rates.

Where to buy the MinisForum HX90

That wraps up this review, you can learn more and buy the MinisForum EliteMini HX90 Mini PC here. Or alternatively you can browse our range of Mini PC’s here.