The Best Mini Gaming PCs Worth Buying in 2025

When I archetypal opened up the Asus ROG NUC, I was amazed by however tiny and airy it was. Sure, it's utilizing each mobile-class hardware, but for thing I'm hooking into my TV, it has amazingly small heft to it. Couple that with the information that it looks precisely similar a cablegram box, and this is simply a mini gaming PC that's cleanable for blending into a surviving room. It's large for a media halfway PC already, but the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 means it's nary slouch erstwhile it comes to gaming, up to a constituent astatine least.

The partition I kept moving into again and again erstwhile I reviewed the Asus ROG NUC is that the mobile-class hardware is ever a limiting factor, particularly erstwhile it's connected to a 4K TV. Don't get maine wrong: The ROG NUC perfectly tin powerfulness done immoderate PC crippled connected the market, including demanding ones similar Cyberpunk 2077 and Black Myth: Wukong... astatine 1080p. If you link this to a 4K TV, you volition person to crook down immoderate settings successful immoderate of the flashiest games if you privation to support a coagulated framerate.

It is inactive rather a spot much almighty than the PS5 adjacent with its limitations, and the Nvidia graphics bash let it to usage DLSS to constrictive the spread astatine 4K. Just support successful caput that you're not going to beryllium maxing retired Black Myth: Wukong with afloat ray tracing oregon anything, and you should beryllium fine. To beryllium clear, with however tiny the Asus ROG NUC is, there's nary mode a afloat desktop-class graphics paper would adjacent acceptable inside.

The Asus ROG NUC is astir apt 1 of the champion mini gaming PCs you're going to find anywhere, but conscionable similar immoderate mini gaming PC, you'll person to bash immoderate calculus astir whether oregon not it's worthy conscionable going with a gaming laptop instead.

Ever since Intel archetypal unveiled the NUC signifier origin much than a decennary ago, it's been a blueprint for mini PCs. The Minisform X1-255 is simply a cleanable illustration of that successful practice. Right now, you tin get this tiny small machine with a Ryzen 7 255 CPU – which has an RDNA 3 GPU akin to the Z1 Extreme you'll find successful astir handheld gaming PCs – for conscionable $350. That seems similar a truly bully deal, but determination is simply a catch.

Most fund mini PCs are barebones systems, which means it's a container with a mainboard, a CPU, and not overmuch else. You'll person to proviso the RAM and the retention and instal them yourself. That's not a unspeakable deal, however. In my experience, those components are usually cheaper to bargain yourself anyway, arsenic manufacturers thin to upcharge erstwhile you determination up configuration tiers.

Keep successful caput that I haven't reviewed this strategy myself. However, looking astatine the specs and the chassis, it seems similar a coagulated small machine. The information that it plugs into a partition alternatively of moving disconnected of artillery besides means that you tin astir apt propulsion a spot of other show retired of the Radeon 890M GPU that's built into the processor, but you're going to privation to brace it with decently accelerated memory.

Still, adjacent if you bash brace it with immoderate beauteous bully RAM, you should inactive temper your expectations going in. This volition tally astir games astatine 1080p – conscionable similar its handheld counterparts – but you'll apt person to compromise connected prime settings. But, particularly if you person immoderate other components lying around, this could beryllium the cheapest mode to adhd a mini gaming PC to your setup.

The enactment betwixt desktop hardware and mobile hardware continues to blur, and the GMKTec Evo-X2 shows precisely why. Because portion the AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 – accidental that 10 times accelerated – is simply a spot ostensibly designed for high-end gaming laptops, it's inactive much than almighty capable to beryllium successful a instrumentality that's ever plugged in. This small PC does usage integrated graphics, to beryllium fair, but the Radeon 8060S that's built into the spot is powerful. This is an RDNA 3.5 spot with 40 compute units, which is rather a spot larger than the RDNA 3.5 spot that's built into the Z2 Extreme that powers the Asus ROG Xbox Ally X.

This beefy integrated GPU isn't going to max retired games astatine 4K oregon anything, but erstwhile we reviewed it, we were capable to get 91fps successful Call of Duty Black Ops 6 astatine 1080p with the Extreme preset. The PC was besides capable to tally Cyberpunk 2077 with 47fps with ray tracing enabled, which is highly awesome for a small integrated GPU. You could easy person it break60 fps by conscionable turning ray tracing off.

However, the terms is the elephant successful the room. This instrumentality costs $1,499, which is simply a batch of currency for a 1080p gaming rig. But support successful caput that the GMKTek Evo-X2 is tiny, and you tin easy shove it successful a backpack to determination from spot to place. Also, that Ryzen AI Max+ 395 spot is highly almighty successful productivity workloads and AI, which makes this a large instrumentality if you request thing chiefly to get enactment done, with immoderate gaming connected the side. And honestly, that's however astir radical should look astatine mini gaming PCs anyway.

While astir existent mini gaming PCs volition beryllium moving mobile-class hardware – particularly with today's power-hungry components – determination are inactive machines retired determination that tin find a mode to worldly high-performance components successful a tiny chassis. Clasically, the Corsair One has been 1 of the best. While I haven't reviewed the latest model, I've reviewed plentifulness of them successful the past and they've each been incredible.

The caller 1 is powered by an RTX 5080 and an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, on with 64GB of memory. That's a precocious spec for a full tower, truthful it's awesome that Corsair was capable to physique it into a chassis that's lone 15 inches tall, 11.8 inches long, and 7.2 inches thick. Now, that does marque it the largest strategy connected this database by rather a bit, but this is astir arsenic tiny arsenic you're going to get for this level of show without gathering thing brainsick yourself.

However, with this benignant of show successful specified a tiny chassis, you're going to beryllium paying a premium. At the clip of writing, this PC volition acceptable you backmost $4,499. You could decidedly get akin specs for little money, but it would apt beryllium successful a chassis that'd instrumentality up overmuch much space. Whether oregon not that's a sacrifice you're consenting to marque is up to you, but either way, you're edging person to a afloat gaming PC with the Corsair One.

You mightiness not deliberation of gaming erstwhile you deliberation of the Mac mini M4, but it delivers amazingly bully performance, allowing you to play a wide scope of games astatine a decent framework rate. Given its cost, it’s hard not to see the Mac mini M4 arsenic a susceptible gaming mini PC. With a noticeable show summation implicit the M3 chip, the M4 spot comes with 10 CPU cores and 10 GPU cores, supporting beardown performance, whether you're playing games oregon getting enactment done.

Thanks to its galore ports, the Mac mini M4 supports up to 2 4K displays astatine 120Hz, and due to the fact that the M2 natively supports Thunderbolt, you tin adjacent backmost it up with an outer GPU aboriginal down the line. It besides comes with Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3, truthful you tin program to crippled online, adjacent if Wi-Fi 7 would person been a bully touch.

For axenic gaming performance, a Windows PC is a amended option, but Macs person been getting amended astatine really playing games. More and much crippled developers person been launching games connected macOS, and the Metal API is getting much almighty each year. Still, the Rosetta translation furniture isn't rather arsenic reliable astatine getting things moving arsenic Proton connected Linux, but that apt has much to bash with Apple being much picky astir the games it allows to tally connected its operating system.

Originally posted:

Nov 18, 2025 6:20 pm