Beelink GTR7 mini-PC Review: A Complete AMD Phoenix Package at 65W
by Ganesh T S on August 24, 2023 8:00 AM ESTSystem Performance: UL and BAPCo Benchmarks
Our 2022 Q4 update to the test suite for Windows 11-based systems carries over some of the standard benchmarks we have been using over the last several years. While UL's PCMark makes the list, we have opted to temporarily suspend reporting of BAPCo's SYSmark scores (pending fixture of the energy consumption aspect). Instead, BAPCO's CrossMark multi-platform benchmarking tool has been added to the set along with UL's Procyon suite. While CrossMark employs idle time compression and processes all workloads in an opaque manner, UL's Procyon processes real-world workloads with user interactions (like BAPCo's SYSmark). We have augmented the UL Procyon suite benchmark with our own custom energy measurement setup.
UL PCMark 10
UL's PCMark 10 evaluates computing systems for various usage scenarios (generic / essential tasks such as web browsing and starting up applications, productivity tasks such as editing spreadsheets and documents, gaming, and digital content creation). We benchmarked select PCs with the PCMark 10 Extended profile and recorded the scores for various scenarios. These scores are heavily influenced by the CPU and GPU in the system, though the RAM and storage device also play a part. The power plan was set to Balanced for all the PCs while processing the PCMark 10 benchmark. The scores for each contributing component / use-case environment are also graphed below.
| UL PCMark 10 - Performance Scores | |||
Discounting the DeskMeet B660, the GTR7 outscores the competition on the back of its lead in the productivity, gaming, and digital content creation workloads. The Essentials workload sees the Arena Canyon NUC enjoy a slight edge, but the sustained 65W configuration of the Ryzen 7 7840HS possesses way too much horsepower for the rest of the systems to match.
UL Procyon v2.1.544
PCMark 10 utilizes open-source software such as Libre Office and GIMP to evaluate system performance. However, many of their professional benchmark customers have been requesting evaluation with commonly-used commercial software such as Microsoft Office and Adobe applications. In order to serve their needs, UL introduced the Procyon benchmark in late 2020. There are five benchmark categories currently - Office Productivity, AI Inference, Battery Life, Photo Editing, and Video Editing. AI Inference benchmarks are available only for Android devices, while the battery life benchmark is applicable to Windows devices such as notebooks and tablets. We presents results from our processing of the other three benchmarks.
| UL Procyon - Office Productivity Scores | |||
The GTR7 manages a narrow victory in the Powerpoint workload, but the NUCs based on the Core i7-1360P emerge with slightly better overall scores.
From an energy consumption viewpoint, the 4nm fabrication process for the Ryzen 7840HS seems to help the GTR7. While raw performance scores see it slightly behind the Raptor Lake-based systems, the absolute values are fairly similar. However, the GTR7 gets the job done with minimal power consumption, and as a result, lesser overall energy consumption.
Moving on to the evaluation of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom, we find the GTR7 coming out with a slightly better score compared to the systems using the Core i7-1360P. The flow utilizes some of the iGPU functionality, and the improvements in the Radeon 780M show up here along with the higher sustained power budget. Interestingly, the photo editing workload was the one that refused to complete with GPU drivers supplied initially by Beelink, but AMD's first public driver release for Phoenix resolved the issue.
The energy efficiency of the Phoenix SoC again comes to fore here, with the GTR7 being the most energy efficient by a huge margin.
UL Procyon evaluates performance for video editing using Adobe Premier Pro.
The GTR7 emerges as the best system among those not equipped with a discrete GPU. Its performance is within the realms of run-to-run variations with the souped up Core i7-1360P in ASRock Industrial's NUC BOX-1360P/D5.
On the energy front, the ability to get the job done fast helps in placing the GTR7 in the top half of the pack. The system comes second, falling slightly behind the ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-1360P/D5 with its CPU operating mode set to 'Performance' in the BIOS. However, similar to the raw performance scores, the gap is quite small.
BAPCo CrossMark 1.0.1.86
BAPCo's CrossMark aims to simplify benchmark processing while still delivering scores that roughly tally with SYSmark. The main advantage is the cross-platform nature of the tool - allowing it to be run on smartphones and tablets as well.
| BAPCo CrossMark 1.0.1.86 - Sub-Category Scores | |||
The use of idle time compression favors Intel-based systems, but that is not indicative of real-world performance. Based on these results, it would appear that scripting and automating workloads to keep the system busy all the time would probably be better on the Intel-based PCs. It is also possible that there could be BIOS tweaks and further tuning from Beelink to help the GTR7 perform better under such circumstances. Since CrossMark attempts to consolidate different workloads together without idle time intervals and play it back in a non-real-time environment, it is not entirely representative of real-world performance like PCMark 10 and UL Procyon. Therefore, tasks requiring frequent user interaction are better represented by those other benchmarks.
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Gm2502 - Friday, August 25, 2023 - link
Games, productivity or anything else the VAST majority of the world does when they don't have to run on a proprietary, non-upgradable glorified mobile phone. This Miniforum is superior in EVERY metric mate, so take your fan boy rubbish elsewhere.darkswordsman17 - Friday, August 25, 2023 - link
"Glorified mobile phone" despite this not being in a phone, and the reason the AMD chip isn't is because its literally incapable of being put in such a form factor due to the power and thermal limits still exceeding what a phone could deal with. And the M2 chip is still competitive enough that its not ridiculous to compare them.There's definitely flaws (and plenty of legitimate criticisms of Apple/Apple product), but anyone acting like there aren't flaws with the PC side is just delusional. Acting like you can't do anything more than run a few proprietary apps on Apple stuff is so ridiculously nonsensical at this point that you really need to look in the mirror. Yes, lemurbutton is ridiculously nonsensical, but going the total opposite direction is just as pointless and biased.
Heck, is no one going to call out the proprietary power connector on this? That alone stopped me from considering this over its competition, and is just absurd in this market space.
Further, Apple could make the Mini even smaller (there is a YouTube where someone does exactly that, I think it ended up roughly 3/5 the size, maybe even smaller) with no real performance loss. That'd put it roughly 1/4 the size of this box. Try putting Phoenix in such and the M2 would probably outperform it.
Gm2502 - Saturday, August 26, 2023 - link
Roflol, so ARM architecture isn't synonymous with mobile technologies? Literally accounts for over 95% of ARM sales, so my statement about it being a glorified mobile phone isn't far off. The M2 Chip is not even close to be competitive, with cpu performance difference from Tomshardware - "The Ryzen 7 7840U was anywhere from 15-71% faster than the M2" and The Ryzen 7 7840U was anywhere from 35 - 180% faster than the M2" in graphics testing. So again, if it wasn't for the stupid propietry OS optimised for the iPhone reject chip, it wouldnt even be a comparison.As for size, again your lying about a mac mini being 1/4 the size. M2 Mini - 197mm x 197mm x 36mm, this GTR7 box is 168mmx120mmx49mm, so cut the crap there. This thing is roughly the same size as the Mac Mini. You complain about design choices, well you literally have hundreds of designs for tens of companies to choose from, each with different hardware (like use a DIN plug is a big deal, but fanboyz have to clutch at straws), all of which can be upgraded and user repaired. Want more RAM or storage on a M2, go buy a new PC.
Want freedom of choice to run any application and game, go windows. If you go apple, pray it works if its not on the very specific optimised for MacOS list, and good thing most games don't run in it becuase the god awful IGPU of the M2 won't be able to produce much more then a slide show, unless I look to double or quadruple the price and look at M2 Pro or ultra equiped M2 machine, which will be roughly 5-10 x the price is this machine...
So again, calling you and your "facts" as fanboyism not grrounded in any reality. Especially stuoid when you comment on a single PC manafacturer design choices knowing full well that PC allows choice across multiple manafacturers while Apple if wholly proprietary. Stupid argument across the board.
Samus - Thursday, August 24, 2023 - link
You can upgrade it to Windows 10 and it'll be solid.mode_13h - Thursday, August 24, 2023 - link
The M2 has 4x P-cores and 4x E-cores. Is that really faster than 8x dual-threaded Zen 4 cores?> has AI inference
Phoenix features AMD's new "Ryzen AI" accelerator. I don't know how they compare, but if you're running Windows or Linux, you'll probably find AMD's solution better supported than Apple's.
I think that's the key. If you *want* to run MacOS, then you'll do better with the M2 mini. If you'd rather run Linux or Windows, then it's really no contest. Recent benchmarks of the M2 running Linux have shown that its Linux support has a long ways to go, before it's remotely competitive.
https://www.phoronix.com/review/apple-m2-zen4-mobi...
dontlistentome - Thursday, August 24, 2023 - link
Have you any concept of how bored we are of these comments about Macs?Qasar - Thursday, August 24, 2023 - link
keep in mind lemurbutton is paid by apple to post how great their products are, while posting no proof or anything.you wouldnt want him to get punished by his apple overlords, would you???
bji - Thursday, August 24, 2023 - link
Do you have proof of that or are you just talking out of your ass?Qasar - Thursday, August 24, 2023 - link
have you seen his other posts ? nothing but pro apple, amd and intel suck and cant compete with m1/m2/m3/ etc on any levelhe mostly talks out of his ass when it comes to apple
PeachNCream - Friday, August 25, 2023 - link
Not a paid shill, I would think, but someone just having fun with the bags of hammers that read Anandtech that fall for trolling every. single. time.Wouldn't you keep that up if you didn't need to change tactics and could "outsmart" your audience while gaining imaginary internet attention to feel good about yourself?