GIGABYTE BRIX Gaming UHD GB-BNi7HG4-950 mini-PC Review

Benchmarking the GPU

The GB-BNi7HG4-950 sports a GTX 950, but, it is very obvious from the size of the system as well as internal layout that we are not looking at the traditional desktop GTX 950. Our first task after setting up the system was to check out what GPU-Z thought of the GPU. At first glance, it did appear to be a standard desktop GTX 950.

However, a closer look revealed a few discrepancies. The first was the number of shaders - 1024 in the report, compared to the 768 in the standard desktop GTX 950. The second was the base/boost clocks (935/1150 MHz vs. 1024/1188 MHz), and, finally, the 4GB memory configuration (compared to the standard 2GB in the desktop version). A little more sleuthing into the AIDA64 report (that revealed a GM206M HD audio controller) led us to the GeForce GTX 965M. In effect, the 'GTX 950' in the GB-BNi7HG4-950 is nothing but a rebadged GTX 965M that can stay closer to the boost clocks for longer durations compared to notebook implementations. This is in part due to the form factor and thermal design of the system.

The GPU benchmark numbers are divided into two sections - in the first one, we will look at the gaming numbers compared to other mini-PCs that we have discussed in the previous sections. In the second, we will take a look at how the system compares to the various gaming notebooks in some selected benchmarks.

In the first section, we chose four different games (Sleeping Dogs, Tomb Raider, Bioshock Infinite and DiRT Showdown) at three different quality levels. Note that the main aim here is not to show that the 'GTX 950' can play the latest and greatest games at 1080p with high-quality settings (which it can do). Rather, it is to compare against other gaming-focused mini-PCs that we have evaluated before.

Sleeping Dogs

Tomb Raider

Bioshock Infinite

DiRT Showdown

The Talos Principle

GRID Autosport

The GTX 980-equipped Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN980 easily wins all the benchmarks. The 'GTX 950' / 'GTX 965M' comes second in most benches, except a few where the GTX 970M-equipped Zotac ZBOX MAGNUS EN970 comes out in front. That ZBOX is hobbled on the CPU-side by a U-series processor, which is probably the reason why the 965M-based BRIX is able to surpass its performance in most games.