If we judge the current performance of the Zero刻 mini PC based on whether it is on sale, then the Zero刻 GTR7, equipped with the Ryzen 7840HS processor, can be said to be the best choice. Of course, besides its good performance, the Zero刻 GTR7 has many other commendable design features, such as: 65W TDP, fingerprint unlocking support, VC heat spreader design, and magnetic power supply, etc.

However, in this article, I am not going to explain the various designs of the Zero刻 GTR7 in detail, but rather discuss its gaming performance. After all, I personally believe that the gaming performance is also part of the overall experience for a mini PC. Furthermore, the official Zero刻 has also crowned the GTR7 as a “gaming mini PC,” which shows that they are quite confident in its gaming capabilities. Now, let’s get back to the main topic and see the gaming performance of this domestic mini PC, the Zero刻 GTR7.

A Brief Overview of the Zero刻 GTR7’s Exterior Design

I will first take a brief look at the exterior design of the Zero刻 GTR7, as some friends may be seeing it for the first time. The Zero刻 GTR7 features an all-metal design and uses CNC technology. Personally, I feel that the overall design and workmanship of the machine are quite good, especially the “GT” pattern in the metal mesh cover, which greatly enhances the recognizability of the Zero刻 GTR7.

The black square in the lower right corner of the metal mesh cover of the Zero刻 GTR7 is the fingerprint unlocking area mentioned at the beginning of the article.

The magnetic power connector of the Zero刻 GTR7 is shown here. This magnetic power design should also be adopted in other models of Zero刻 in the second half of this year, such as the upcoming Zero刻 SER6 MAX.

The rear interface of the Zero刻 GTR7 is shown here. Along with the three ports on the front, it has a total of 14 ports, which can basically meet various daily connection needs.

Performance Testing of Zero刻 GTR7 in Playing Online and AAA Games

Let’s take a simple look at the hardware parameters of the Zero刻 GTR7 I have on hand. First, the processor is well-known, which is the Ryzen 7840HS; the graphics card is the 780M integrated graphics; the memory is 32GB (composed of two 16GB DDR5 5600MHz); and the hard drive is a 1TB solid-state drive. Through the performance test of Ludu Master, you can see that the score is 1430949. From this score alone, the overall performance of the Zero刻 GTR7 is not bad, but the score does not fully represent the gaming performance.

In the comments of the articles I have reviewed about mini PCs, games like “Dungeon Fighter” and “League of Legends” have been asked about by readers multiple times. So, let’s look at the performance of the first game, “Dungeon Fighter.” With all the graphics quality settings maxed out, I “ran” a 26-minute test, and the FPS of the Zero刻 GTR7 was basically above 200, even when releasing a lot of skills with animations, the FPS remained good.

The above image shows the average FPS of 218 for the Zero刻 GTR7 after playing “Dungeon Fighter” for 26 minutes.

When playing “League of Legends,” because my monitor is 23.8 inches with a resolution of 2560*1440, I played at 2560*1440 resolution with all graphics settings maxed out.

After playing for 26 minutes on the Zero刻 GTR7, the average FPS was 151, which I personally feel is quite good.

Keeping the resolution at 2560*1440 and playing “Honkai: Star Rail” in high quality for 15 minutes, the FPS performance of the Zero刻 GTR7 was still good, basically close to 60.

After playing for 15 minutes, the average FPS was 59.

Similarly, while playing “CS:GO” at 2560*1440 resolution with all settings on high for 19 minutes, because I am not very skilled at this type of game and didn’t want to “let my teammates down,” I played in bot mode, and the FPS performance of the Zero刻 GTR7 was between 100 and 110, occasionally dropping to around 90, but this situation was relatively rare.

The average FPS performance after playing “CS:GO” for 19 minutes was 107. From the above gaming tests, it is clear that the Zero刻 GTR7 can handle online games without much pressure, enough to be described as “smoothly playable.” To be honest, the performance of the Zero刻 GTR7 in playing these games is completely comparable to my current desktop PC at home. It is truly impressive how fast the performance of mini PCs has improved.

So, how does the Zero刻 GTR7 perform in playing AAA-level PC games? While playing “Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End” at 1920*1080 resolution with medium settings for texture, shadow, etc. (there are four levels: low, medium, high, ultra), and with FSR balanced mode enabled, while skipping cutscenes, the FPS performance of the Zero刻 GTR7 was between 50 and 60.

After playing for 1 hour and 9 minutes under these settings, the average FPS performance was 56, and you can also see that the usage rate of the integrated graphics was basically full.

Some friends may not quite understand what “FSR” is. This is a technology from AMD. You can understand that this technology reduces the game’s rendering resolution to improve FPS performance. The improvement varies depending on the FSR level set. For example, you can set it to prioritize image quality, which means rendering resolution but not focusing too much on FPS performance, or vice versa.

When I usually play AAA games on the Zero刻 GTR7, I mostly use the balanced mode and set the FSR clarity to about 90, and overall the game graphics effect is still acceptable.

If you turn off the FSR mode while keeping the previous resolution and quality settings, the FPS performance of the Zero刻 GTR7 drops to between 30 and 40.

After playing for 59 minutes under the above settings, the average FPS performance was 38.

When playing “Ghostwire: Tokyo” on the Zero刻 GTR7 at 1920*1080 resolution with low or off settings for shadow mapping quality, and also enabling FSR balanced mode, the FPS performance was around 40 to 50.

After playing for 26 minutes, the average FPS performance was 49.

Final Thoughts

From the above content, I believe you can see that the Zero刻 GTR7 can play some online games without any pressure, even at 2560*1440 resolution, and there is even room for improvement, for example, by switching to a higher resolution monitor for gaming. If you are inclined to play some online games, the Zero刻 GTR7 can basically meet your needs.

If you want to use the Zero刻 GTR7 to play AAA-level PC games, based on personal experience, the Zero刻 GTR7 can definitely handle it. If we consider 30 FPS as the qualification line, then for most AAA games, the Zero刻 GTR7 can play at 1920*1080 resolution with low/medium quality. However, if you want to improve FPS performance, you can only enable FSR or lower the resolution and quality. Therefore, I feel that the Zero刻 GTR7 does have some pressure when playing AAA-level PC games, and its performance is not as good as online games. Of course, for a mini PC that does not come with a dedicated graphics card but rather integrated graphics, this gaming performance is still acceptable.

This concludes the content regarding the gaming performance of the Zero刻 GTR7. If you have more questions or want me to test any games on the Zero刻 GTR7, feel free to let me know, and I will test them when I have time.