[Device Reviews and Information] Jupit3r:
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There’s a lot to like about small form factor PCs, which often deliver desktop-grade performance and connectivity in enclosures that aren’t much bigger than a TV box – and the GEEKOM AS 6, which comes with a mighty AMD 6000 series CPU, tries to push that trend even further.

The good

Compact, neat, and accessible case.

Impressive CPU and graphics performance.

A wide array of ports.

Superb networking.

Easy to upgrade.

The bad

No SD card reader.

Specifications

OS: Windows 11 Pro

Processor: AMD Ryzen 7-6800H, 6nm process, 35W TDP

CPU: 8 cores, 16 threads @3.2-4.7 GHz

GPU: Radeon 680M @2200MHz, 12 CU

RAM: 16/32GB DDR5 4800MHz (dual-channel)

Storage: 2*M.2 2280 PCIe4.0*4 NVMe SSD (up to 2TB)

1* SATA III 2.5-inch HDD/SSD (up to 2TB)

Wireless: WiFi 6, Bluetooth 5.2

Ports: USB4*2, USB 3.2 Gen1 Type-A*5, HDMI 2.1*2, DisplayPort 1.4*1, 3.5mm Audio Jack*1, 2.5Gbps Ethernet*1, DC-in*1

Dimensions: 120*130*58 mm

Weight: 0.9 kg

What’s in the box

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GEEKOM AS 6 Mini PC * 1

150W Power Adapter * 1

User Guide * 1

VESA Mount Bracket * 1

HDMI Cable * 1

The AS 6 is a product of the global partnership of GEEKOM and ASUS, that’s why you will find the branding of both companies on the front of the retail packaging. The mini PC is available with two CPU options: AMD Ryzen 7 6800H or Ryzen 9 6900HX, the unit that I received comes with the former. Along with the AS 6 mini PC, you will also find a 150W (20V-7.5A) power adapter, an HDMI cable, a user guide, a bunch of screws, a VESA mount bracket for attaching the mini PC to the back of a monitor, and a greeting card from GEEKOM.

Design and build

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The AS 6 is basically a clone of the ASUS PN53, in fact, you can argue it is literally a rebranded PN53. The mini PC is noticeably larger than the Intel NUC 12 Pro, it measures 120*130*58 mm, and weighs 900g. Fortunately, the larger housing also means more room for cooling, and a wider array of ports.

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There are two USB4, five USB3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, two HDMI2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4, one 3.5mm audio jack, as well as a DC-input. USB4 and DisplayPort 1.4 support 8K@60Hz video output, and HDMI2.1 supports 4K@60Hz, you can connect the AS 6 to as many as 4 monitors. Each USB4 port supports 40Gbps traffic on its own and is compatible with Thunderbolt 3 protocols, which means you can even connect the AS 6 to an external graphics card.

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The hardware expansion in the AS 6 consists of two M.2 Type-2280 slots for PCle4.0*4 NVMe SSDs, a traditional 2.5-inch drive bay, and two laptop-style SO-DIMM slots for the DDR5-4800 RAM. The M.2 2230 wireless card, which supports WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, is also accessible. GEEKOM only sells the AS 6 as preconfigured units, there are no barebones versions available, at least not for now. My review unit features 32GB dual-channel DDR5-4800 RAM (in the form of Crucial brand RAM sticks), and a 1TB Kingston PCIe4.0x4 NVMe SSD, onto which a licensed copy of Windows 11 Pro is preinstalled.

The build quality of the GEEKOM AS 6 is simply amazing. It feels extremely robust in my hands, and the internal components are neatly arranged.

OS and Software

The AS 6 ships with a licensed copy of Windows 11 Pro operating system which, compared to Windows 10, brings upgrades including a more aesthetically pleasing UI, improved multiple desktops, built-in XBOX gaming, and better security features. Since this is the Pro Edition of Windows OS, you also get a few extra IT and business features such as Hyper-V for virtualization, BitLocker whole disk encryption, enterprise mode Internet Explorer, and Remote Desktop.

The Windows 11 Pro here is a completely clean version, with no pre-installed 3rd party applications or bloatware. Besides regular Windows software, you can also load the Android subsystem and Linux subsystem on the latest Windows 11 build. If open source is more of your thing, the AS 6 is compatible with numerous Linux distributions. You can even choose to triple-boot the mini PC since it supports three storage drives.

Performance

The AS 6 is a beast when it comes to performance. It is powered by the mighty AMD Ryzen7-6800H processor, which runs at a 3.20 GHz base frequency and can increase its speed to 4.70 GHz when necessary. It bundles 8 Zen3+ CPU cores, 16 threads, 16MB L3 Cache, and has a TDP of 35 Watts. This SoC also features an extremely powerful iGPU: the Radeon 680M. Based on the RDNA2 architecture, the Radeon 680M has 12 CUs (=768 shaders) clocked at 2,200 MHz, and offers performance equivalent to entry-level desktop graphics cards.

Benchmarks

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As for CPU performance, Zen 3+ has proven to be only a minor upgrade from last year’s Zen3. In the Cinebench R23 CPU-crunching test, the AS 6 scored 1413 in CPU single-core, and 11795 in multi-core. While slightly edging out the 5800H powered Beelink SER5 Pro and i5-1240P version of Intel NUC 12 Wall Street Canyon, it is nowhere near the Beelink GTR7 and Lenovo Xiaoxin mini. The performance still has plenty of room for improvement, as the GEEKOM limits the cTDP of the 6800H CPU to 35W at the moment to keep the noise down, but the CPU can be configured to 45W.

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PCMark 10 assesses overall system performance by simulating different real-world productivity and content-creation workflows like word processing, spreadsheet jockeying, web browsing, and video conferencing. The test generates a proprietary numeric score, and higher numbers are better. The 6743-point finish from the AS 6 is well above the 4,000 points we consider excellent, and it's a very respectable showing for a PC this small.

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3DMark measures relative graphics performance of a PC by rendering sequences of highly detailed, gaming-style 3D graphics that emphasize particles and lighting. I ran two different 3DMark subtests on the AS 6: Fire Strike and Time Spy. The former is a DirectX 12 benchmark which tests how well a system can handle DirectX 12 games, while the latter is a DirectX 11 benchmark that tests the PC’s capability of running older gaming titles. The Radeon 680M iGPU proves to be a huge leap from Radeon Vega iGPU, as the AS 6 scored 2580 in Time Spy, and 6212 in Fire Strike.

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The AS 6 also features dual-channel DDR5-4800MHz RAM. According to AIDA64 memory & cache benchmark, the read, write and copy speeds of the memory were more than decent. The integrated GPU also benefits from DDR5 RAM as shared VRAM, the numbers in GPGPU benchmark look quite good.

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The 1TB NVMe solid-state drive used by the mini PC isn’t the fastest PCIe Gen4 SSD I’ve seen, in fact it doesn’t do much better than high-end PCIe Gen3 SSDs in CrystalDiskMark. However, it still offers decent read and write speeds. Booting into Windows 11 only took a few seconds, launching big applications and games was also quite fast.

Productivity

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With such impressive hardware, the AS 6 obviously has no problem of seeing us through common home and office chores. It was also perfectly competent when dealing with relatively demanding creativity tasks.

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Editing multiple layers of 4K video footages in Power Director 20, the AS 6 stayed fast and responsive the whole time. Producing a 10-minute high-bitrate 4K video via hardware encoding with GPU acceleration, The mini PC took 7 minutes, 25 seconds. Not a bad result, but it is somehow outshined by the 4 minute and 30 seconds time taken by the Beelink GTR7.

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Using the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.4 to convert a 3min video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution, the AS 6 took 96 seconds.

Gaming

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The Radeon 680M is the best iGPU in the world for a reason. Running League of Legend at 1080P and medium quality setting, we saw an average of 156 fps, which looks super smooth on my 144Hz gaming monitor. Even when I switched to 4K and high quality settings, the game still averaged 91 fps.

Genshin Impact was extremely smooth. At 1080P and medium setting, the AS 6 averaged 59 fps. After switching to high quality setting, it still averaged 52 fps.

Playing Witcher 3 on the AS 6 was also a fun and smooth experience, at 1080P and medium quality settings, we saw an average of 47 fps. Even in those intense fighting scenes, there were no noticeable hiccups.

Conqueror’s Blade has proven to be too much of a challenge for Ryzen 5000 mini PCs, but not so much for the AS 6. At 1080P and medium quality setting, the mini PC averaged 43 fps, even though there were noticeable dips in intensive battle scenes, we didn’t see any real delays. Switching to low quality setting could bump up the average frame rate of the game to 49 fps.

Even though the AS 6 is still not going to compete with desktop tower PCs with top-of-the-line graphics cards, but its gaming performance is decent enough for most people.