In the first part of the review, we’ve already checked out the specs, gone through an unboxing and a teardown of the GEEKOM A6 mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H CPU with up to 32GB DDR5 and a 1TB SSD, before quickly booting the preinstalled Windows 11 Pro.
We’ve now had time to test the GEEKOM A6 in detail, so we’ll report our experience with the Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC with Windows 11 Pro. We’ve tested the features, ran benchmarks, evaluated storage and networking performance, stress-tested the device to see how it performs under load, and measured fan noise and power consumption. We’ll also compare it to the previous GEEKOM A5 and A7 mini PCs.
Software Overview and Feature Testing
Going to System->About in the Windows settings confirms we have an A6 mini PC powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H processor clocked at 3.20 GHz (base frequency) and equipped with 32GB of RAM running the latest Windows 11 Pro 24H2 build 26100.2894
HWiNFO 64 provides more details about the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H octa-core/16-thread processor, the motherboard, and AMD’s Radeon 680M Rembrandt mobile GPU.
We can get even more information about the integrated GPU in TechPowerUp’s GPU-Z utility.
PL1 and PL2 power limits are set to 45W (PBP) and 60W (MTP) following the 45W TDP advertised on AMD’s website.
HWiNFO 64 program reports two 16GB DDR5-5600 SODIMM modules based on Micron CT16G56C46S chips clocked at 2800 MHz for a total capacity of 32 GB.
However, Task Manager reports 32GB of RAM via two SO-DIMM modules with (only) 4800 MT/s speed. That’s because while we have DDR5-5600 modules, the motherboard is limited to 4800 MT/s as advertised by GEEKOM..
Let’s check the “Network adapters” section in Device Manager. It shows a RealTek Gaming 2.5GbE controller, a WiFi 6E MT7922 module, and Bluetooth.
HWinFO 64 allows us to see more details an GEEKOM A6 Mini PC relies on a “RealTek Semiconductor RTL8125 Gaming 2.5GbE Family Ethernet Controller” for 2.5Gbps Ethernet networking.
We found an “Azurewave AW-XB591NF” inside the device during GEEKOM A6’s teardown. HWiNFO 64 does not report the name of the module directly but indicates it’s a module based on a MediaTek MT7922 chipset. The maximum link speed is reported to be 2999 Mbps.
Let’s come back to Device Manager to check the Bluetooth version in the MediaTek Bluetooth Adapter->Advanced tab.
LMP 12.xx looks up to Bluetooth 5.3. We also transferred a file over Bluetooth between Khadas Mind and GEEKOM A6.
But let’s now test all USB ports to confirm the specs and markings on the mini PC. We’ll use an ORICO M234C3-U4 M.2 NVMe SSD enclosure for testing the USB4/3.2 ports along HWiNFO 64 to check the USB version and speed, and CrystalDiskMark to confirm the speed. A USB 3.0 hard drive backward compatible with USB 2.0 will be used to test the single USB 2.0 port on the GEEKOM A6 computer.
Results for the left USB 3.2 Type-A port on the front panel:
For the USB4 port on the rear panel:
For the USB 2.0 port:
Here’s a summary of the results for the USB ports from left to right
- Front panel (See note below)
- USB-A #1 – USB 3.2 – USB 3.1 SuperSpeedPlus (10 Gbps) – Read speed: 932 MB/s; write speed: 975 MB/s
- USB-A #2 – USB 3.2 – USB 3.1 SuperSpeedPlus (10 Gbps) – Read speed: 932 MB/s; write speed: 976 MB/s
- Rear panel
- USB-C #1 – Thunderbolt/NVMe 8GT/s – Read speed: 3162 MB/s; write speed: 2756 MB/s
- USB-A #1 (top) – USB 3.2 – USB 3.1 SuperSpeedPlus (10 Gbps) – Read speed: 944 MB/s; write speed: 927 MB/s
- USB-A #2 (bottom) – USB 3.0 (HDD) – USB 2.0 High-speed – Read speed: 44 MB/s; write speed: 36 MB/s
- USB-C #2 – USB 3.2 – USB 3.1 SuperSpeedPlus (10 Gbps) – Read speed: 944 MB/s; write speed 928 MB/s
All port performance as advertised. But we had to test several times for the front panel as in the first test the read/write speed was just over 300 Mbps only. We then tested one of the USB-C ports and then re-tested the USB-A ports on the front panel. The speed was over 900 Mbps each time. We have no explanation for this behavior…
GEEKOM A6 supports up to 4 separate displays via two HDMI 2.0 ports plus a USB4 port and a USB 3.2 Type-C port both of which support DisplayPort Alt. mode.
So we connected all four ports to monitors and TVs as follows: two KTC A32Q8 4K Smart Monitors to one of the HDMI ports and the USB 3.2 Type-C port, the GAOMON PD2200 21.5-inch Pen Display to the other HDMI port, and CrowVi 15.6-inch portable monitor to the USB4 port, and it worked fine as expected.
GEEKOM A6 benchmarks on Windows 11
We set the Power mode to “Best performance” before running the benchmarks. Note that all benchmarks were run in a room between 24°C to 28°C, and results may differ when compared to other mini PC reviews tested at lower ambient temperatures.
Let’s start GEEKOM A6 benchmarks with PCMark 10…
The AMD Ryzen 7 6800H mini PC achieved 6,672 points in PCMark 10
The score in 3DMark Fire Strike was 6,630 points. But since we inadvertently tested it at 4K resolution, we tried against it at 1080p60, and the score was slightly higher but still in the same range within the margin of error.
You can find the full results at 1080p60 on the 3DMark website.
PassMark PerformanceTest 11 more and less confirms we have a mid-range range mini PC here with a PassMark score of 6,066 points. The Disk Mark is on the high side without being outstanding, so let’s double-check with CrystalDiskMark.
CrystalDiskMark reports a 4064 MB/s sequential read speed and a 3202 MB/s sequential read speed for the 1TB NVMe SSD that ships with the mini PC. Not too bad.
Cinebench R23 will allow us to check the single-core and multi-core performance of the AMD Ryzen 7 6800H and get a first feel about the cooling ability of the system.
The GEEKOM A6 achieved 1,511 points in the single-core test, and 11,750 points in the multi-core benchmark, or an MP Ratio of 7.78x, for an octa-core/16-thread processor.
Unigine Heaven Benchmark 4.0 was used to test the GPU and the GEEKOM A6 got 1769 points rendering the scene at 70.2fps on average at the standard 1920×1080 resolution.
Time to test YouTube 4K and 8K video playback. Note that we did this at 3840×2160 resolution (using 150% scaling) since we used a 4K monitor this time around instead of a Full HD display.
4K 30FPS playback was fine with no dropped frames after a little over 5 minutes.
4K 60FPS YouTube video playback was fine too with only 8 frames dropped out of 34887 when playing the video for over 9 minutes.
Still no issue at 8K 30FPS with only 6 frames dropped after about 6 minutes.
It was another story for a YouTube 8K 60 FPS video which was unwatchable with most frames dropped (6361 out of 6394). So we tried to play the video in Chrome, but the result was about the same.
In summary, the GEEKOM A6 can play 4Kp30, 4Kp60, and 8Kp30 videos without issues on a 4K monitor, but 8Kp60 videos are unwatchable on either Firefox or Chrome. It’s the same if we switch to a Full HD (1080p60) monitor.
Comparison of GEEKOM A6 Windows 11 benchmarks results against other mid-range mini PCs
Let’s compare the benchmark results of the GEEKOM A6 on Windows 11 against other mid-range mini PCs namely the GEEKOM A5 (AMD Ryzen 7 5800H), GEEKOM A7 (AMD Ryzen 9 7840HS), and Maxtang T0-FP750 (AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS). We haven’t reviewed mid-range Intel Core i5/i7 mini PCs for several years, but only more expensive and powerful models, so we added the Khadas Mind Premium with an Intel Core i7-1360p even though it sells for over $1,000.
Here are the basic specs for the four models under test.
| GEEKOM A6 | GEEKOM A5 | GEEKOM A7 | Maxtang T0-FP750 | Khadas Mind Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SoC | AMD Ryzen 7 6800H | AMD Ryzen 7 5800H | AMD Ryzen 9 7840HS | AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS | Intel Core i7-1360P |
| CPU | 8-core/16-thread @ up to 4.7 GHz (Turbo) | 8-core/16-thread @ up to 4.4 GHz (Turbo) | 8-core/16-thread @ up to 5.1 GHz (Turbo) | 8-cores/16-Threads @ up to 5.1 GHz (Turbo) | 12-core/16-core @ up to 5.00 GHz (Turbo) |
| GPU | AMD Radeon 680M Graphic | AMD Radeon Vega 8 Graphics | AMD Radeon 780M Graphics | AMD Radeon 780M Graphics | 96 EU Intel Iris Xe Graphics |
| Memory | 32GB DDR5-5600 | 32GB DDR4-3200 | 32GB DDR5-5600 | 32GB DDR5-5600 | 32GB DDR5-5200 |
| Storage | 1TB NVMe SSD | 512GB NVMe SSD | 2TB NVMe SSD | 512GB NVMe SSD | 1TB NVMe SSD |
| Default OS | Windows 11 Pro | Windows 11 Pro | Windows 11 Pro | Windows 11 Pro | Windows 11 Home |
| Price as of February 2025) | $449 | $399 (AMD Ryzen 7 5825U) | $749 | $629 | $1,099 |
Benchmark results.
| GEEKOM A6 | GEEKOM A5 | GEEKOM A7 | Maxtang T0-FP750 | Khadas Mind Premium | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PCMark 10 | 6672 | 6485 | 7516 | 7198 | 5904 |
| - Essentials | 10323 | 11007 | 11528 | 10785 | 11038 |
| - Productivity | 9292 | 9850 | 10370 | 10173 | 7589 |
| - Digital content creation | 8403 | 6829 | 9639 | 9225 | 6667 |
| 3DMark (Fire Strike) | 6630 | 4157 | 8534 | 7889 | 5427 |
| PerformanceTest 11.0 | 6066 | 4526.8 | 8058.2 | 8098 | 5378 |
| - CPU Mark | 24747 | 21493.6 | 30719.8 | 29145 | 21786 |
| - 2D Graphics Mark | 601 | 751.7 | 931.9 | 876 | 631 |
| - 3D Graphics Mark | 5160 | 3186.1 | 7226.1 | 7953 | 3622 |
| - Memory Mark | 2870 | 2876.3 | 3391.4 | 3297 | 3642 |
| - Disk Mark | 27191 | 21094.1 | 38590 | 33299 | 42395 |
| Cinebench R23 | |||||
| - Single Core | 1511 | 1397 | 1831 | 1739 | 1878 |
| - Multi Core | 11750 | 10146 | 15231 | 14985 | 9384 |
The GEEKOM A6 offers a nice performance upgrade over the A5 in almost all aspects. The CPU performance is not that much different, but 3D graphics are faster and so is storage. It’s not quite up to the level of the GEEKOM A7 or Maxtang T0-FP750 but those cost several hundred dollars more. More surprisingly it fares well against the Khadas Mind Premium in benchmarks except for NVMe storage and single-core performance and that costs over twice as much in the same memory/storage configuration. Although to be fair, it doesn’t have the slick design, built-in battery, and Mind Link PCIe expansion connector of the Khadas mini PC.
2.5GbE and WiFi 6 network performance
We tested the 2.5GbE port on the GEEKOM A6 with iperf3 and the UP Xtreme i11 Edge mini PC on the other side.
- Download
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PS C:\Users\aey\downloads\iperf3.18_64\iperf3.18_64> .\iperf3.exe -t 60 -c 192.168.31.12 -i 10 -R Connecting to host 192.168.31.12, port 5201 Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.31.12 is sending [ 5] local 192.168.31.63 port 64267 connected to 192.168.31.12 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 10.00-20.01 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 20.01-30.01 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 30.01-40.00 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 40.00-50.01 sec 2.77 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 50.01-60.00 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00-60.05 sec 16.6 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec 0 sender [ 5] 0.00-60.00 sec 16.6 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec receiver iperf Done. |
- Upload
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PS C:\Users\aey\downloads\iperf3.18_64\iperf3.18_64> .\iperf3.exe -t 60 -c 192.168.31.12 -i 10 Connecting to host 192.168.31.12, port 5201 [ 5] local 192.168.31.63 port 50143 connected to 192.168.31.12 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-10.00 sec 2.77 GBytes 2.38 Gbits/sec [ 5] 10.00-20.01 sec 2.77 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 20.01-30.01 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 30.01-40.01 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 40.01-50.01 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 50.01-60.01 sec 2.76 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-60.01 sec 16.6 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec sender [ 5] 0.00-60.07 sec 16.6 GBytes 2.37 Gbits/sec receiver iperf Done. |
Perfect! Let’s switch to WiFi 6 5GHz testing adding the Xiaomi Mi AX6000 router to the mix.
- Download
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PS C:\Users\aey\downloads\iperf3.18_64\iperf3.18_64> .\iperf3.exe -t 60 -c 192.168.31.12 -i 10 -R Connecting to host 192.168.31.12, port 5201 Reverse mode, remote host 192.168.31.12 is sending [ 5] local 192.168.31.69 port 50051 connected to 192.168.31.12 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-10.01 sec 1.41 GBytes 1.21 Gbits/sec [ 5] 10.01-20.02 sec 1.59 GBytes 1.37 Gbits/sec [ 5] 20.02-30.02 sec 1.62 GBytes 1.39 Gbits/sec [ 5] 30.02-40.01 sec 1.72 GBytes 1.48 Gbits/sec [ 5] 40.01-50.01 sec 1.76 GBytes 1.51 Gbits/sec [ 5] 50.01-60.01 sec 1.71 GBytes 1.47 Gbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate Retr [ 5] 0.00-60.06 sec 9.81 GBytes 1.40 Gbits/sec 5219 sender [ 5] 0.00-60.01 sec 9.81 GBytes 1.40 Gbits/sec receiver iperf Done. |
- Upload
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PS C:\Users\aey\downloads\iperf3.18_64\iperf3.18_64> .\iperf3.exe -t 60 -c 192.168.31.12 -i 10 Connecting to host 192.168.31.12, port 5201 [ 5] local 192.168.31.69 port 50018 connected to 192.168.31.12 port 5201 [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-10.01 sec 1.84 GBytes 1.58 Gbits/sec [ 5] 10.01-20.01 sec 1.78 GBytes 1.53 Gbits/sec [ 5] 20.01-30.01 sec 1.89 GBytes 1.63 Gbits/sec [ 5] 30.01-40.01 sec 1.88 GBytes 1.62 Gbits/sec [ 5] 40.01-50.00 sec 1.85 GBytes 1.59 Gbits/sec [ 5] 50.00-60.01 sec 1.77 GBytes 1.52 Gbits/sec - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [ ID] Interval Transfer Bitrate [ 5] 0.00-60.01 sec 11.0 GBytes 1.58 Gbits/sec sender [ 5] 0.00-60.06 sec 11.0 GBytes 1.57 Gbits/sec receiver iperf Done. |
1.57 Gbps uploads and 1.40 Gbps downloads are both excellent in our testbed. The GEEKOM A6 has great networking performance under Windows 11 Pro.
Stress test and thermal performance
We checked the cooling performance of the GEEKOM A6 on Windows 11 with 3Dmark’s Fire Strike benchmark for a CPU+GPU workload using HWiNFO 64 for monitoring purpose. The CPU temperature reached up to 95.5°C, but no CPU thermal throttling was detected by the utility.
We did a similar test with the Cinebench R23 multi-core benchmark, and the CPU temperature reached up to 95.2°C. Again not CPU throttling was detected.
Fan noise
As usual with most actively-cooled mini PC, the GEEKOM A6’s cooling fan is quiet when idle or running lightweight tasks, but it becomes louder under heavier loads. We measured the noise with a sound level meter placed approximately 5 cm from the top of the device:
- Light web browsing – 39.3 – 40.0 dBA
- 3DMark Fire Strike – 41.3 – 45.2 dBA
The sound level meter measures 37-38 dBA in a quiet room.
GEEKOM A6 power consumption
Power consumption was measured with a wall power meter as follows:
- Power off – 1.3-1.5 Watts
- Idle – 4.2 to 4.9 Watts
- Video playback (YouTube 8K 60 FPS in Firefox) – 22.7 – 30.1 Watts
- CPU stress test with Cinebench R23 multi-core
- First few seconds – 86-87 Watts
- Longer run – 62.7 – 63.3 Watts
The mini PC was connected to WiFi 6, an RF dongle for a wireless mouse and keyboard combo, and a KTC A32Q8 HDMI monitor with its own power.
Conclusion
The GEEKOM A6 works well with Windows 11 Pro and everything we tested worked as expected. With 32GB of RAM and a 1TB M.2 SSD, it will be suitable for most users. We were especially pleased with 2.5GbE and WiFi 6 performance on this mid-range mini PC, support for four independent displays (tested with 2x 4K and 4 Full HD monitors), and expansion capability with five USB ports (USB4, 3x USB 3.2, and USB 2.0).
It also delivers a nice performance upgrade to the low-cost GEEKOM A5 Ryzen 7 5800H mini PC in almost all aspects, but especially in terms of GPU performance thanks to the Ryzen 7 6800H with Radeon 680M Graphics, networking, and storage while remaining good value selling well under $500. While YouTube videos played fine up to 4K 60 FPS and 8K 30 GPS, the 8K 60 FPS was unwatchable (as in a slideshow) in both Firefox and Chrome. Our first tests of both USB front ports were working with CryustalDiskMark only reporting 300+ Mbps transfer, but we could not reproduce the issue later on with constant 900+ Mbps speed compatible with 10 Gbps USB ports.
Thermal throttling did not occur, but the CPU temperature still reached over 95°C in 3Dmark Fire Strike and Cinebench R23. As an actively cooled mini PC, the GEEKOM A6 becomes noisier under loads as its fan rotates faster, but we didn’t find it too annoying. In the final and third part of the review, we will test the performance of the GEEKOM A6 mini PC on Ubuntu 24.04.2 to find out how it works on Linux.
We would like to thank GEEKOM for sending us the A6 mini PC for review with 32GB RAM and a 1TB SSD. The test configuration can be purchased for $427 on the GEEKOM US store or Amazon with the 5% discount code CNXA65OFF. You’ll also find the mini PC on GEEKOM UK for 499 GBP before using the same coupon code.
CNXSoft: This article is a translation – with some additional insights – of the original review on CNX Software Thailand by Suthinee Kerdkaew.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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