Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 Review - A Gaming mini-PC Done Right
by Ganesh T S on September 28, 2015 8:00 AM ESTPerformance Metrics - I
The Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 was evaluated using our standard test suite for mini / industrial PCs. Not all benchmarks were processed on all the machines due to updates in our testing procedures. Therefore, the list of PCs in each graph might not be the same.
Futuremark PCMark 8
PCMark 8 provides various usage scenarios (home, creative and work) and offers ways to benchmark both baseline (CPU-only) as well as OpenCL accelerated (CPU + GPU) performance. We benchmarked select PCs for the OpenCL accelerated performance in all three usage scenarios. These scores are heavily influenced by the CPU in the system. The issue for the MAGNUS EN970 is the fact that it comes with a U-series CPU, while the gaming mini-PCs from the competitors use the non-U CPUs. For example, the extra thickness of the ASRock VisionX series units allows them to integrate Core i7-4712MQ CPUs in the VisionX 471D and 420D systems. The GIGABYTE GB-BXi5G-760 uses a Core i5-5200H.
Miscellaneous Futuremark Benchmarks
3D Rendering - CINEBENCH R15
We have moved on from R11.5 to R15 for 3D rendering evaluation. CINEBENCH R15 provides three benchmark modes - OpenGL, single threaded and multi-threaded. Evaluation of select PCs in all three modes provided us the following results. The surprising aspect is the OpenGL results - the previous generation GTX 760 seems to perform better than the GTX 960. As we shall see further on in the review, this issue persists in a few other benchmarks as well. The other results can easily be explained by the low power CPU (Core i5-5200U) in the system.
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SpartyOn - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
Apparently you either don't know what I'm talking about or have never used Steam In-Home Streaming. I'm not saying don't have a PC in the living room - in fact, I'm saying just the opposite - but make it an inexpensive media streaming box rather than a full-blown gaming system.I have two SFF media PC's, one in my living room and one in my basement, so I understand the need that these boxes fill. All I'm saying is that with Steam In-Home Streaming, that HTPC doesn't need to be a full-fledged gaming machine and your money can be better appropriated elsewhere.
donthatethesun - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
I think this is more for people that don't necessarily want to have a desktop or multiple systems. It can function as their go to in the living room and for when they travel.lmcd - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
Can't bring the desktop on a plane easily. There's your niche.tarak73 - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
I am waiting for the same solution with DDR4 setup...rtho782 - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
The 970m is a GM204 (desktop 970/980) with 1280 shaders instead of 1024 in the desktop 960 (gm206), 48 rops instead of 32, and, crucially, a 192bit memory bus instead of 128bit, so it should be a nice chunk faster than the desktop 960. The review seems to indicate that it being a 970m is a negative?KateH - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
Yeah I was confused by that too. The only advantage I can see of the 960 vs 970m is that GM206 supports hardware decoding of some additional codecs that GM204 doesn't.rhx123 - Monday, September 28, 2015 - link
The lack of DisplayPort is a deal breaker. Very silly omission, with 4 HDMI Ports, it's not like space was at a premium.lmcd - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
I likewise found this very disappointing. Particularly when none seem to be HDMI 2.0 (or am I wrong?).KateH - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
All GM20x GPUs support HDMI 2.0 AFAIK, so I presume they are.meacupla - Tuesday, September 29, 2015 - link
Lack of DP is disappointing, but why is it a deal breaker?Did you want to use this with a G-sync monitor?