Beelink GTR7 mini-PC Review: A Complete AMD Phoenix Package at 65W
by Ganesh T S on August 24, 2023 8:00 AM ESTHTPC Credentials
The 2022 Q4 update to our system reviews brings an updated HTPC evaluation suite for systems. After doing away with the evaluation of display refresh rate stability and Netflix streaming evaluation, the local media playback configurations have also seen a revamp. This section details each of the workloads processed on the Beelink GTR7 as part of the HTPC suite.
YouTube Streaming Efficiency
YouTube continues to remain one of the top OTT platforms, primarily due to its free ad-supported tier. Our HTPC test suite update retains YouTube streaming efficiency evaluation as a metric of OTT support in different systems. Mystery Box's Peru 8K HDR 60FPS video is the chosen test sample. On PCs running Windows, it is recommended that HDR streaming videos be viewed using the Microsoft Edge browser after putting the desktop in HDR mode.
YouTube Streaming Statistics
The GPU in Beelink GTR7 supports hardware decoding of VP9 Profile 2, and we see the stream encoded with that codec being played back. The streaming is perfect, thanks to the powerful GPU and hardware decoding support - the dropped frames observed in the statistics below are due to mouse clicks involved in bringing up the overlay.
The streaming efficiency-related aspects such as GPU usage and at-wall power consumption are also graphed below.
The NUC BOX-1360P/D5 RPL-P system is the most energy efficient of the tested lot by a huge margin, but the Phoenix and Rembrandt systems (GTR7 and GEEKOM AS 6) slot in right behind.
Hardware-Accelerated Encoding and Decoding
The transcoding benchmarks in the systems performance section presented results from evaluating the VCE encoder within Handbrake's framework. The capabilities of the decoder engine are brought out by DXVAChecker.
Video Decoding Hardware Acceleration in Beelink GTR7
On paper, this codec list is quite comprehensive and should cover most home consumer and digital signage requirements
Local Media Playback
Evaluation of local media playback and video processing is done by playing back files encompassing a range of relevant codecs, containers, resolutions, and frame rates. A note of the efficiency is also made by tracking GPU usage and power consumption of the system at the wall. Users have their own preference for the playback software / decoder / renderer, and our aim is to have numbers representative of commonly encountered scenarios. Our Q4 2022 test suite update replaces MPC-HC (in LAV filters / madVR modes) with mpv. In addition to being cross-platform and open-source, the player allows easy control via the command-line to enable different shader-based post-processing algorithms. From a benchmarking perspective, the more attractive aspect is the real-time reporting of dropped frames in an easily parseable manner. The players / configurations considered in this subsection include:
- VLC 3.0.18
- Kodi 20.2
- mpv 0.35.1 (hwdec auto, vo=gpu-next)
- mpv 0.35.1 (hwdec auto, vo=gpu-next, profile=gpu-hq)
Fourteen test streams (each of 90s duration) were played back from the local disk with an interval of 30 seconds in-between. Various metrics including GPU usage, at-wall power consumption, and total energy consumption were recorded during the course of this playback.
All our playback tests were done with the desktop HDR setting turned on. It is possible for certain system configurations to automatically turn on/off the HDR capabilities prior to the playback of a HDR video, but, we didn't take advantage of that in our testing.
The GTR7 turns out to be the most energy efficient of all the compared AMD systems. All codecs play back well, except for the AV1 clip. VLC doesn't take advantage of the GPU hardware decoding capabilities for that codec.
The GTR7 continues to impress with energy efficiency for Kodi playback also. Like with VLC, AV1 hardware acceleration is again unused. Since the Kodi GUI is kept active at the main screen between the playback of different streams, the GPU remains active and continues to render the UI. This results in the energy numbers creeping up when the full playback period is considered.
AV1 decode acceleration is utilized by mpv, contributing to the excellent energy efficiency numbers. Unlike our experience with a previous driver release in the Rembrandt-based systems, playback is perfect without any dropped frames./p>
Setting the playback profile to 'gpu-hq' results in a lot more work for the shaders. We find that the 8Kp60 AV1 clip decode and presentation is not able to keep up with the real-time requirements because of the extra loading. This results in choppy playback as almost half the frames (2632 out of 5388) are dropped prior to presentation.
Compared to the default playback profile, the energy consumption numbers are slightly higher for this workload set because of the added shader work and extra GPU loading.
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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?