Minisforum 895D7 With RX 9060 XT Shows Major SteamOS Performance Gains

Small-form-factor gaming PCs can combine desktop-class hardware with a compact design, making them well-suited for SteamOS and PC gaming. Minisforum 895D7 pairs a 16-core Zen 4 CPU with a low-profile Radeon RX 9060 XT featuring 16GB of VRAM. Its hardware delivers more performance than the official Steam Machine, especially at higher resolutions.

This is the all-new Minisforum 895D7. We previously looked at it in its stock form factor with Windows 11 installed. Given this system's specifications, we expected it to deliver performance in SteamOS as well. It is not as small as the official Steam Machine, but it packs more performance.

Minisforum 895D7 Hardware and SteamOS

This system has a 16-core, 32-thread Zen 4 CPU. You can add up to 96GB of RAM, although we have 16GB installed here. In terms of CPU performance, this system will outrun the Steam Machine. The biggest part of the system, however, is the GPU. It is the world's first low-profile, dual-slot Radeon RX 9060 XT GPU with 16GB of VRAM.

Many people have been interested in this, and it is a good fit for SteamOS. Getting SteamOS installed on this machine was simple. We went over to Valve's website, downloaded the SteamOS recovery image, and flashed it to a USB drive. On this system, we had to enter the BIOS and disable Secure Boot.

We also disabled the iGPU. With the Ryzen 9 8945HX, we have an iGPU, and it usually shows two GPUs if it isn't disabled. We disabled it because a few games, such as Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered and Ratchet & Clank, always try to use the iGPU instead. That results in much lower performance.

There is no TDP or GPU clock control because the BIOS controls everything. The low-profile RX 9060 XT can use up to 140W, while Minisforum states that the CPU can use up to 100W in this system. With the overlay enabled, we have 16 cores and 32 threads. Going up to 100W gives the CPU room to deliver performance.

SteamOS Configuration and Specifications

The system is running SteamOS 3.10 with an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HX clocked up to 5.46 GHz. It has 16 cores and 32 threads, along with 16GB of DDR5 memory running at 5200 MT/s. We are using a single stick of RAM. Remember, this system uses SODIMM RAM. The system could have been upgraded to 32GB, but we wanted to keep it close to stock.

The GPU is an AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT low-profile model with 16GB of VRAM. In SteamOS, the system delivers the performance expected from this hardware. You do not have to use it only for gaming. You also have access to the Desktop. You can go to Power and switch to Desktop, and from there, you can basically do anything that you can do on another operating system.

A mouse and keyboard are the way to go with the desktop environment. We tested the Minisforum 895D7 against the official Steam Machine in several games. We ran each game at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K on the highest settings, with no scaling. This gives us an idea of the raw performance these two machines can produce.

The first game is Cyberpunk 2077 using the Ultra preset with no scaling. At 1080p Ultra, the official Steam Machine averages around 74fps. The Minisforum 895D7 reaches 106fps, about a 43% increase in performance. At 1440p Ultra, the Steam Machine averages around 45 fps, while the 895D7 reaches 65 fps. That is a 44% increase in performance.

The difference comes down to having more VRAM and a more powerful GPU.

At 4K Ultra, both systems fall significantly without FSR. The Steam Machine comes in at only 19 fps, while the Minisforum reaches around 28 fps. On Windows 11, Cyberpunk 2077 at 4K Ultra with no scaling averages around 34 fps on the Minisforum 895D7. Next up is Shadow of the Tomb Raider using the Very High preset with no scaling.

At 1080p, the Steam Machine manages 118 fps, which is playable. Minisforum 895D7 reaches 143 fps. At 1440p, the Steam Machine drops to an average of 86 fps, while the 895D7 reaches 119 fps. At 4K Very High, the Steam Machine achieves 44 fps, while the Minisforum reaches 78 fps.

That is a 77% increase in performance over the Steam Machine at 4K resolution. Minisforum 895D7 shows a clear performance advantage over the Steam Machine, especially at 1440p and 4K. With a 16-core Ryzen 9 8945HX, RX 9060 XT, and 16GB of VRAM, it provides the hardware needed for higher SteamOS gaming performance while retaining access to a desktop environment.