The mini PC instantly becomes a gaming powerhouse with the Zero刻 EX graphics card dock experience.
In recent years, mini computers have gained increasing popularity among users due to their compact design and powerful performance.
However, due to size limitations, many mini PCs often struggle to support dedicated graphics cards, which inevitably restricts gaming performance.
How can we enhance the gaming experience of mini PCs without sacrificing portability?
The EX graphics card dock launched by Zero刻 may provide a good answer.
Innovative Concept, Flexible Expansion
The Zero刻 EX graphics card dock adopts an innovative design concept, achieving “seamless connection” between mini PCs and dedicated graphics cards through a PCIe x8 interface.
Users only need to connect the dock to the mini PC and the dedicated graphics card to achieve “plug and play” without complicated hardware installation and software setup.
The dock is equipped with a built-in 600W power supply, which can fully meet the power requirements of mainstream gaming graphics cards, allowing mini PCs to easily handle high-end graphics cards.
In addition to supporting external dedicated graphics cards, the Zero刻 EX dock also offers a rich array of expansion interfaces.
Users can add PCIe 4.0 M.2 solid-state drives as needed to create a high-speed gaming data storage array; they can also connect a Wi-Fi 6 wireless network card for a faster and more stable network experience.
The 4-pin fan interface on the top and the USB 2.0 interface on the side provide more options for cooling and peripheral connections.
Though small, the Zero刻 EX dock is impressively comprehensive in its expandability and flexibility.
Performance Exceeds Expectations
To verify the actual performance of the Zero刻 EX dock, I chose a Zero刻 GTi14 Ultra mini PC and a Mingxuan RTX 4060 Ti graphics card for testing.
Originally, the GTi14 Ultra features a Core i7-1255U processor and an Arc A370M integrated graphics, scoring 1.41 million points in the Lu Master benchmark, suitable for daily office work and light gaming.
However, after connecting the EX dock and installing the RTX 4060 Ti, the Lu Master score soared to 1.69 million, with the graphics score jumping from 160,000 to 450,000, showing a significant performance improvement.
The 3DMark Time Spy test further confirmed the powerful capabilities of the EX dock.
The RTX 4060 Ti achieved a graphics score of 13,442 in the dock, which is comparable to the results on a dedicated platform, fully demonstrating the “near-lossless” design advantage.
In actual gaming, the experience was even more surprising.
In “Black Myth: Wukong,” the frame rate remained stable at 70-80 under 1080p cinematic quality, and even at 1440p resolution, it faced no pressure.
In “7 Days to Die,” the frame rate under 1080p high settings even broke the 100 FPS barrier.
This small mini PC, combined with the EX dock, delivers such outstanding gaming performance that the “true fragrance warning” is inevitable.
Minor Drawbacks, Bright Prospects
Although the Zero刻 EX dock performs excellently overall, there are still some shortcomings.
Firstly, the supported models are relatively limited; currently, it is only compatible with certain models of the Zero刻 GTi series, but I believe that with product iterations, more models will join the compatible lineup.
The dock currently only provides one USB interface, and it would be even better if high-speed interfaces like Thunderbolt 4 or USB 4.0 could be added.
Since the dedicated graphics card is fully exposed, the overall appearance of the setup is somewhat unconventional; future designs could consider creating a protective shell for the graphics card to balance aesthetics and safety.
The Zero刻 EX graphics card dock is an excellent and innovative product that cleverly balances performance and portability, allowing mini PCs to enjoy desktop-level gaming experiences.
For users of the GTi series mini PCs, upgrading to the EX dock is undoubtedly a worthwhile choice.
I believe that with Zero刻’s continuous exploration, the gaming potential and applicable scenarios of mini PCs will continue to expand, bringing surprises to more users.
Looking forward to the improved evolution of the EX dock and the flourishing development of the mini PC gaming ecosystem.