GEEKOM Mini IT13 Review: Core i9-13900H in a 4x4 Package

System Performance: UL and BAPCo Benchmarks

Our 2022 Q4 update to the test suite for Windows 11-based systems carries over some of the standard benchmarks we have been using over the last several years. While UL's PCMark makes the list, we have opted to temporarily suspend reporting of BAPCo's SYSmark scores (pending fixture of the energy consumption aspect). Instead, BAPCO's CrossMark multi-platform benchmarking tool has been added to the set along with UL's Procyon suite. While CrossMark employs idle time compression and processes all workloads in an opaque manner, UL's Procyon processes real-world workloads with user interactions (like BAPCo's SYSmark). We have augmented the UL Procyon suite benchmark with our own custom energy measurement setup.

UL PCMark 10

UL's PCMark 10 evaluates computing systems for various usage scenarios (generic / essential tasks such as web browsing and starting up applications, productivity tasks such as editing spreadsheets and documents, gaming, and digital content creation). We benchmarked select PCs with the PCMark 10 Extended profile and recorded the scores for various scenarios. These scores are heavily influenced by the CPU and GPU in the system, though the RAM and storage device also play a part. The power plan was set to Balanced for all the PCs while processing the PCMark 10 benchmark. The scores for each contributing component / use-case environment are also graphed below.

Almost all of the 40W Raptor Lake-based systems and the 42W Ryzen-based systems enjoy a significant edge over the 35W PL1 configuration of the Core i9-13900H in the Mini IT13. In certain cases, the two extra performance cores seems to help. Overall the Mini IT13 emerges as an average performer in the Futuremark PCMark benchmark.

UL Procyon v2.1.544

PCMark 10 utilizes open-source software such as Libre Office and GIMP to evaluate system performance. However, many of their professional benchmark customers have been requesting evaluation with commonly-used commercial software such as Microsoft Office and Adobe applications. In order to serve their needs, UL introduced the Procyon benchmark in late 2020. There are five benchmark categories currently - Office Productivity, AI Inference, Battery Life, Photo Editing, and Video Editing. AI Inference benchmarks are available only for Android devices, while the battery life benchmark is applicable to Windows devices such as notebooks and tablets. We presents results from our processing of the other three benchmarks.

The results from the UL Procyon Office Productivity Suite are similar to what was seen for the Essentials suite in PCMark. The Raptor Lake-P systems with a 40W TDP outperform the others (including the Mini IT13 with its 35W processor). The system is able to hold out against the rest, though - including the 65W Phoenix one.

From an energy consumption viewpoint, the Mini IT13 loses out to the Intel NUC (Arena Canyon). For the same energy consumption as the 35W Ryzen 9 6900HX in the GEEKOM AS6, the Mini IT13 is able to deliver better scores. The new Phoenix-based GTR7 with a 65W power limit for the APU ends up with approximately the same score as the Mini IT13, but performs much better on the efficiency front.

Moving on to the evaluation of Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom, we find that the GPU is utilized more heavily compared to the office workloads. The new RDNA3 iGPU coupled with a 65W power limit catapult the Beelink GTR7 to the top, with the Raptor Lake-P / -H systems following behind. DDR4 vs. DDR5 memory / available memory bandwidth also appears to have a bearing on the ordering in this benchmark.

The GEEKOM Mini IT13 manages to make it to the middle of the pack in the energy consumption aspect. Both the Beelink GTR7 and the ASRock Industrial NUC BOX-1360P/D5 deliver better scores with lesser energy consumption. In this context, the two additional CPU cores and a lower package power limit appear to be responsible for this ordering.

UL Procyon evaluates performance for video editing using Adobe Premier Pro.

The video editing scores depend on the GPU capabilities and the available power budget. It is no surprise that the Beelink GTR7 with its RDNA3 iGPU and 65W package limit is on top of the charts. With two additional CPU cores compared to the Core i7-1360P in the RPL-P units in a similar power budget (and thus reducing the amount available for the iGPU), the Mini IT13 marks its presence in the lower half of the pack.

The power consumption of the system at load is similar to the other RPL-P systems. As a result, the additional time taken to complete the workload due to the aforementioned reasons contributes negatively to the energy efficiency.

BAPCo CrossMark 1.0.1.86

BAPCo's CrossMark aims to simplify benchmark processing while still delivering scores that roughly tally with SYSmark. The main advantage is the cross-platform nature of the tool - allowing it to be run on smartphones and tablets as well.

The presence of two additional high-performance cores (relative to the RPL-P systems) help the Mini IT 13 emerge with top honors despite the lower power budget. Since CrossMark workloads involve idle time compression, the short bursts of higher power also helps the Mini IT13 over other systems with its higher PL2 setting.