Asus’ newest gaming NUC mini PC is powered by a Ryzen X3D chip
The Intel NUC household of tiny mini PCs was forward of its time in some ways—and Asus apparently agreed, on condition that the corporate took the model off Intel’s fingers in 2023. The brand new ROG NUC collection underneath Asus’ gaming model is sort of a alternative for Intel’s gaming-focused NUC Excessive, albeit with out the discrete graphics possibility. And humorous sufficient, the latest Asus NUC has a shock inside: an AMD processor.
We heard from Asus again at CES 2025 that the corporate was trying to broaden its NUC (“Subsequent Unit of Computing,” for those who’re questioning) choices with AMD choices. The ROG NUC 2025 (also referred to as the ROG Magic 9 Mini) has already been accessible for some time, however a brand new variant is coming with a well-recognized processor: the Ryzen 9 9955HX3D. That is technically a laptop computer chip, like all NUC machines and most mini PCs use, nevertheless it’s additionally a phenomenally highly effective one, hanging out in a few of the strongest workstation laptops and mini PCs.
And sure, it’s a bit unusual to see a tool with the “NUC” branding with an AMD processor. It jogs my memory of the primary time I noticed a Sonic the Hedgehog recreation on a Nintendo console. (In the event you’re studying this and your beginning yr begins with “2”, that was an enormous deal again within the day, I promise.)
This new AMD-powered ROG NUC seems to be a China-only launch for the time being, in response to VideoCardz. It’s paired to an Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU (the laptop computer model to slot in the tiny dimensions of the NUC case), 16GB of reminiscence (DDR5-5600, barely slower than different fashions) and a 1TB SSD. At launch it prices 15,000 yuan (roughly $2,100 USD).
Whether or not we’ll see this come to different international locations isn’t identified for the time being—there’s numerous speak about “financial local weather” each time anybody asks about availability or costs, together with Asus, once I talked to representatives final week. “Financial local weather” is company communicate for Trump tariffs, by the way in which.
