GEEKOM A5 mini-PC Review: Affordable Cezanne Zen 3 at 35W
by Ganesh T S on December 8, 2023 9:15 AM ESTGPU Performance: Synthetic Benchmarks
The integrated GPU in Cezanne is weak compared to the ones in the Rembrandt (Zen 3+) and Phoenix (Zen 4) APUs. It was great for 2021, but is only passable for 2023. We first take look at the GPU's capabilities from AIDA64 and GPU-Z.
The RX Vega 8 iGPU is based on the Vega architecture. Since then, AMD has already shipped RDNA2 and RDNA3-based iGPUs in this segment. GPU performance evaluation typically involved gaming workloads, and for select PCs, GPU compute. We take a look at a few of them below.
GFXBench
The DirectX 12-based GFXBench tests from Kishonti are cross-platform, and available all the way down to smartphones. As such, they are not very taxing for discrete GPUs and modern integrated GPUs. We processed the offscreen versions of the 'Aztec Ruins' benchmark.
The results are largely along expected lines, ordered by iGPU generation. The Cezanne systems are bunched together towards the middle of the pack.
UL 3DMark
Four different workload sets were processed in 3DMark - Fire Strike, Time Spy, Night Raid, and Wild Life.
3DMark Fire Strike
The Fire Strike benchmark has three workloads. The base version is meant for high-performance gaming PCs. It uses DirectX 11 (feature level 11) to render frames at 1920 x 1080. The Extreme version targets 1440p gaming requirements, while the Ultra version targets 4K gaming system, and renders at 3840 x 2160.
UL 3DMark - Fire Strike Workloads | |||
The graphs above presents the overall score for the Fire Strike Extreme and Fire Strike Ultra benchmarks across all the systems that are being compared.
3DMark Time Spy
The Time Spy workload has two levels with different complexities. Both use DirectX 12 (feature level 11). However, the plain version targets high-performance gaming PCs with a 2560 x 1440 render resolution, while the Extreme version renders at 3840 x 2160 resolution.
UL 3DMark - Time Spy Workloads | |||
The graphs above present both numbers for all the systems that are being compared in this review.
3DMark Wild Life
The Wild Life workload was initially introduced as a cross-platform GPU benchmark in 2020. It renders at a 2560 x 1440 resolution using Vulkan 1.1 APIs on Windows. It is a relatively short-running test, reflective of mobile GPU usage. In mid-2021, UL released the Wild Life Extreme workload that was a more demanding version that renders at 3840 x 2160 and runs for a much longer duration reflective of typical desktop gaming usage.
UL 3DMark - Wild Life Workloads | |||
3DMark Night Raid
The Night Raid workload is a DirectX 12 benchmark test. It is less demanding than Time Spy, and is optimized for integrated graphics. The graph below presents the overall score in this workload for different system configurations.
The relative performance of the GEEKOM A5 across all of the 3DMark workloads is the same as what was observed in the GFXbench workloads. The comparison is between systems with integrated GPUs based on different architectures. As a result, the order is just based on the generation, rather than the minor differences in the iGPU clock rates and/or power budgets.
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meacupla - Monday, December 11, 2023 - link
It's a mini desktop PC. I think the assumption is 99% of end users won't care how portable it the power brick is.If it was a laptop, then yeah, I would prefer a >100W GaN3 USB-C PD power brick.
stephenbrooks - Thursday, December 14, 2023 - link
If they don't care how portable the power brick is, why do they care how small the desktop is? It puzzles me why product combinations like this even exist.At least they could have given the brick and the desktop the same footprint so you could stack them neatly or something.
hMunster - Tuesday, December 12, 2023 - link
Does Linux run well on it?t.s - Friday, December 15, 2023 - link
yes.trisct - Tuesday, December 12, 2023 - link
Yeah, a Phoenix chip version of one of these would definitely be nice. Even as a backup/second PC