Chinese company GMKtec is one of the first to put its trust in Intel's Core Ultra 285H processor for its mini-PCs.
Mini-PCs have been on the rise for several years now. Once confined to "second-rate" tasks due to their limited power, these machines have won the hearts of many users since AMD designed processors capable of broadening their horizons. Not only is the computing power of AMD's latest APUs(Accelerated Processing Units) on a par with that of more conventional processors, but these rather unusual chips also incorporate a graphics solution that is far more muscular than traditional iGPUs: even if they can't quite replace a dedicated graphics card, these APUs are more than capable of running even relatively demanding games!
An example of AMD's talent in this field? The explosion in the number of portable hybrid PC consoles released since 2022 and the launch of Valve's Steam Deck, which runs on an AMD Aerith chip that combines Zen 2 CPU cores and RDNA 2 GPU cores for great versatility. We've only been talking about AMD since the beginning of this article, and yet we were referring to Intel in the title and headline. Indeed, AMD is no longer alone, and with the launch of its latest chip generations (Meteor Lake and Lunar Lake), Intel intends to offer APUs with more than adequate graphics power.
Main features of the GMKtec EVO-T1 © GMKtec
So, no, let's respond to the title of our news item: there's no question of competing with AMD solutions just yet. At least, not the most powerful graphics solutions. Nevertheless, the Core Ultra 285H launched a few weeks ago by Intel has a lot going for it. It features 16 cores, divided into 6 performance cores, 8 efficiency cores and 2 low-power efficiency cores: the former can run at 5.4 GHz in boost mode, while the latter still reach 4.5 GHz and the smallest peak at 2.5 GHz. Intel has provided 24 MB of cache to support its chip, and has integrated an ARC 140T GPU with 8 Xe cores, capable of reaching 2.35 GHz. Despite these impressive features, the chip is able to stay within a thermal envelope of 45 watts.
Such a TDP is too high for a portable console, so AMD still has time to see what's coming. On the other hand, it's much easier to design a mini-PC, and manufacturer GMKtec is well aware of this, and will shortly be offering the EVO-T1 for sale, which is remarkably compact and boasts first-rate technical specifications: in addition to the Core Ultra 285H, we're talking about a maximum of 128 GB of DDR5-5600 via two SO-DIMM slots. GMKtec has also paid particular attention to the internal design of a machine that features three M.2 2280 slots for its SSDs. Not to be outdone, there are also USB4 ports and two 2.5 GbE network ports.
GMKtec has not yet announced a price for its machine, which is due to go on sale "soon", but unfortunately we don't know exactly what that means. Knowing the brand, we should know in the next few weeks, and several rumors point to a launch some time before the beginning of September.
