If you have spent any time testing high-powered mini PCs over the last couple of years, you already know the biggest catch with cramming 54W to 65W mobile workstation silicon into a tiny box: heat. Plenty of compact rigs look great on a spec sheet, only to hit a thermal wall two minutes into a heavy workload.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been putting the VZMORE AX9 Max through a full suite of synthetic benchmarks, AI workloads, storage stress tests, and 30 hours of real-world gaming. This system packs AMD's "Gorgon Point" Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 (12 cores / 24 threads), the Radeon 890M integrated GPU, and a 55 TOPS Ryzen AI NPU into a 135 x 131.8 x 57.7 mm (777.5 g) aluminum chassis. To keep those components under control, VZMORE built the system around its V-Cooling thermal design, which pairs a full-coverage VC Vapor Chamber with active fan cooling to support up to 65W (V-Boost Pro).

Across 73.22 minutes (2,197 telemetry samples) of HWiNFO64 hardware logging and 30 hours of gaming, the cooling setup did not record a single thermal throttling event (PROCHOT or HTC) or Windows Hardware Error (WHEA). We did, however, uncover a quirk with wireless input stability when the system is pinned at 100% load, which VZMORE's engineering team is already addressing via an upcoming BIOS update.

Quick Specs & Test Unit Configuration

Our review unit arrived pre-configured with Windows 11 Pro (64-bit), 32 GB of dual-channel DDR5-5600 RAM, and a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. Below is the full breakdown of the official specs alongside what HWiNFO64 and Geekbench detected inside our test machine:

Ports & Connectivity Highlights

• Quad-Monitor Support Out of the Box: Between the dual rear HDMI 2.1 ports (rated up to 8K at 60Hz) and two rear 40Gbps USB4 ports supporting DisplayPort 2.0 Alt Mode, you can run four monitors without a dock. One of the rear USB4 ports also accepts Power Delivery (PD) input if you want to power the PC over USB-C.
• Plenty of High-Speed USB-A & Dual 2.5GbE: You get four USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) Type-A ports right on the front panel (one with S5 power-off charging), plus another USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A and a USB 2.0 Type-A port on the back. Add in a side-mounted SD 4.0 card reader, Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4, and dual Realtek 2.5GbE RJ45 ports, and the port selection easily covers creator desks and homelab setups alike.

V-Cooling Vapor Chamber & Thermal Performance

The main reason this mini PC performs as consistently as it does comes down to its V-Cooling architecture. Instead of relying solely on narrow copper heatpipes that can saturate when both the Zen 5 cores and the 16-CU Radeon 890M are pulling power simultaneously, VZMORE uses a wide VC Vapor Chamber paired with active fan cooling.

To see if the vapor chamber lives up to the marketing, I logged 2,197 samples (73.22 minutes) of HWiNFO64 sensor data across six distinct torture and benchmark runs
HWiNFO Combined CPU + iGPU + SSD Burn-In (hwinfo burnin.CSV): 389 samples over 13.01 minutes (780.6 seconds) pinning all 12 cores at 100.00% median CPU usage (mean 89.57%), 88.00% median iGPU utilization, and 629.08 MB/s median NVMe read load.
Extended FurMark GPU Burn-In #2 (furmark burnin 2.CSV): 739 samples over 24.65 minutes (1,478.7 seconds) holding the Radeon 890M at 100.00% median utilization and a 3,053.00 MHz median clock.
Baseline FurMark GPU Burn-In #1 (Furmark burnin.CSV): 261 samples over 8.68 minutes (520.7 seconds) at 100.00% median iGPU load.
Geekbench 7 & AI Benchmark Suite (Geekbench 7 tests.CSV): 702 samples over 23.42 minutes (1,405.0 seconds) covering single-core, multi-core, OpenCL GPU, and AI inference runs.
CrystalDiskMark NVMe Stress Log (ssd bench.CSV): 96 samples over 3.17 minutes (190.5 seconds) tracking SSD temperatures during heavy sequential and random read/write passes.
Under-Load Wireless Input Diagnostic Log (HWinfo64 log Wireless input under load.CSV): 10 samples over 18.02 seconds capturing a simultaneous CPU (95.85% median / 100.00% max) and GPU (93.50% median / 97.00% max) spike at 64.43W median / 65.01W max package power.

Complete HWiNFO64 Thermal & Power Breakdown

What Stood Out in the Thermal Logs

• Spot-On Power Management (54W Balanced + 65W V-Boost Pro): With Windows set to the Performance power plan, the AX9 Max immediately lets CPU Package Power boost to 64.92W to 65.01W (CPU Core Power SVI3 TFN peaking at 77.15W), matching VZMORE's V-Boost Pro Up to 65W spec. After roughly 90 seconds of continuous torture load, the APU STAPM controller settles cleanly at a 54.00W median (54.06W max), while Total System Power tops out at 94.69W, leaving plenty of headroom on the included 120W power brick.
• Wide Heat Spreading Across the Die: While the instantaneous CPU (Tctl/Tdie) hotspot sensor briefly touches AMD's 95.00 C boost ceiling during initial 65W bursts, it settles to an 85.00 C median (mean 83.47 C) during the 13-minute combined CPU+GPU+SSD torture test. Even better, the physical CPU Cores (Avg) sensor holds a 71.40 C median (mean 69.62 C, max 78.40 C) and the L3 Cache averages 63.70 C. That 13.6 C to 15.4 C gap between the Tctl/Tdie hotspot and the physical core average shows how effectively the vapor chamber spreads heat away from the cores.
• Rock-Steady 25-Minute FurMark Temps: During the 24.65-minute FurMark Burn-In #2, the Radeon 890M iGPU and CPU (Tctl/Tdie) sit at a flat 73.40 C and 73.80 C median, while physical CPU cores average 58.73 C (median 59.60 C).
• Fast Cooldown & Ice-Cold VRMs: Once the 100% load in the HWiNFO Combined Burn-In ended at second 726.5s (89.90 C), CPU (Tctl/Tdie) dropped to 47.10 C by second 780.6s, shedding 42.80 C in 54.1 seconds (0.79 C/sec). Meanwhile, the motherboard's VDDCR_VDD VRM never exceeded 57.30 C (median 51.90 C to 53.30 C under torture), and the dual DDR5 SO-DIMMs peaked at 59.20 C / 57.00 C.

CPU Performance: Geekbench 7.0.0 Single-Core & Multi-Core

The AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 pairs 4 full-sized Zen 5 cores (Cluster 1) with 8 dense Zen 5c cores (Cluster 2), backed by 12 MB of L2 cache and 16 MB of shared L3 cache. In our HWiNFO64 logs, Zen 5 Cores 0, 2, and 3 boosted up to 5,240.5 MHz (5,150.7 MHz on Core 1), beating the 5.2 GHz rated boost clock, while all eight Zen 5c cores hit 3,294.1 MHz. Under 100% all-core load in hwinfo burnin.CSV, the chip maintained a 3,585.20 MHz median average clock (3,627.50 MHz median effective clock).
In Geekbench 7.0.0 for Windows AVX2, the AX9 Max posted a Single-Core Score of 2,664 and a Multi-Core Score of 17,051, giving it a 6.40x multi-core scaling ratio:

Heavy multi-threaded tasks scale impressively across all 24 threads: Ray Tracer jumps 13.24x (from 679.7 Ksamples/sec to 9.00 Msamples/sec), Asset Compression scales by 10.74x (from 57.4 MB/sec to 616.9 MB/sec), and Clang compilation speeds up by 8.90x (from 11.9 Klines/sec to 106.1 Klines/sec).

Local AI Performance: Geekbench AI 1.7.0 (CPU ONNX vs. GPU DirectML)

Alongside the dedicated 55 TOPS Ryzen AI NPU (which clocks between 0.2 MHz at idle and 800.0 MHz under load in Geekbench 7 tests.CSV), we benchmarked both the Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 CPU (using ONNX with AVX2/AVX-512) and the Radeon 890M iGPU (using ONNX DirectML) in Geekbench AI 1.7.0.
The results show why having both strong AVX-512 VNNI CPU cores and a 16-CU RDNA 3.5 iGPU in the same box is so useful for local AI workflows:

• Use DirectML on the Radeon 890M for FP16 and FP32: In Half Precision (FP16), the Radeon 890M scores 15,143 vs. 1,937 on the CPU, making it 7.82x faster (+681.8%) overall, with a 16.27x speedup in Pose Estimation (HP) and a 10.00x speedup in Depth Estimation (HP). In Single Precision (FP32), the GPU also leads by 2.04x (8,356 vs. 4,106).
• Use the Zen 5 CPU for Quantized INT8 Inference: Thanks to native AVX512-VNNI and AVX-VNNI support, the CPU scores 7,732 in Quantized (INT8) workloads compared to 6,045 on the GPU (1.28x faster overall), beating the GPU by 3.88x in Object Detection (Q) and 3.46x in Image Classification (Q).

Radeon 890M Graphics: OpenCL & 30-Hour Gaming Test

Equipped with 16 RDNA 3.5 Compute Units (1,024 Stream Processors) and a rated boost clock of 3,100 MHz (observed peaking at 3,096.0 MHz in HWiNFO64), the AMD Radeon 890M (gfx1150) has access to a 4 GB dedicated UMA buffer plus 14.4 GB of shared device memory in OpenCL.

Geekbench 7.0.0 OpenCL GPU Score: 35,031

In Geekbench 7.0.0 OpenCL, the Radeon 890M hit an overall score of 35,031, led by Super Resolution (70,665 / 130.4 Kimages/sec), Particle Physics (55,705 / 9,986.9 FPS), and Background Blur (46,523 / 120.2 images/sec):

30 Hours of Real-World Gaming (1440p & 4K)

With AMD's HYPR-RX global profile enabled in Adrenalin, I logged 30 hours of gameplay across three titles at 1440p and 4K:

Holding 66.6 FPS at 1440p Ultra in The Sims 4 over 16 hours and 93.8 to 108.9 FPS at native 4K in Mewgenics and Cosmoteer makes this a very capable casual, indie, and strategy gaming box without needing a discrete graphics card.

NVMe Storage Speeds & Thermals

The primary M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 x4 slot comes populated with a 1 TB Lexar SSD NQ7A1 (RC1191R001242P2237) running at a full 16.0 GT/s PCIe 4.0 link speed. Tested in CrystalDiskMark 9.0.3 x64 (3 passes, 1 GiB test size, 18% drive fill at 176/953 GiB), it delivered fast Gen4 numbers while staying cool:

During the 190.5-second CrystalDiskMark run (ssd bench.CSV), the drive's composite sensor averaged 50.05 C (median 50.00 C, min 41.00 C, max 59.00 C, SD = 5.25 C), while the ASIC controller sensor (Drive Temperature 3) briefly touched 66.00 C during sequential writes before dropping right back to its baseline. Even during the 24.65-minute FurMark GPU burn-in, the SSD sat at a cool 40.00 C median, showing zero heat soak from the APU.

Testing Note: Wireless Connections Under Heavy Load (BIOS Fix Incoming)

During our stress testing, we noticed an issue affecting wireless connections (specifically wireless mouse input and receiver stability) when the system is pushed to maximum combined CPU and GPU load (HWinfo64 log Wireless input under load.CSV, where CPU load hits 95.85% median / 100.00% max and GPU load hits 93.50% median / 97.00% max at 64.43W median / 65.01W max package power).
To isolate the behavior, we captured polling intervals in MouseTester across wired and wireless configurations both at idle and under heavy system load:

• What Happens Under Load: With a wired mouse, polling remains rock-solid at both idle (hovering tightly between 7.5 ms and 8.5 ms) and 100% system load (averaging 8.00 ms with a tiny 0.77 ms standard deviation and 0.0% of updates exceeding 12 ms). A wireless mouse at idle also tracks near the 125 Hz target at a 7.87 ms mean (7.54 ms median) with only occasional ~15 ms intervals. However, when the system is hammered by a 100% combined CPU+GPU load, wireless update intervals jump to an average of 10.90 ms in the capture window (11.42 ms across the full log, pulling the effective polling rate down to 90.4 Hz), with 32.4% of updates exceeding 12 ms and latency spikes reaching 33 ms to >41 ms.
• Fix on the Way: We shared our HWiNFO64 and MouseTester telemetry directly with VZMORE's engineering team. The manufacturer's technicians have already reproduced the behavior and are currently building a BIOS update to resolve the under-load wireless resource/interrupt contention, so this issue will be fixed shortly.

Final Verdict: Pros, Cons & Should You Buy It?

The Good:

• Legitimate Vapor Chamber Cooling: The V-Cooling VC Vapor Chamber holds a rock-solid 54.0W sustained STAPM (65.0W V-Boost Pro peak) with zero thermal throttling, keeping physical CPU cores at a 71.4 C median under combined torture, FurMark iGPU temps at a 73.4 C median over 25 minutes, and VRM temps below 57.3 C.
• Strong Zen 5 + Zen 5c Compute: Hits 5,240.5 MHz on Zen 5 cores to post 2,664 Single-Core and 17,051 Multi-Core in Geekbench 7.0.0.
• Flexible Local AI Hardware: Gives you a 55 TOPS Ryzen AI NPU, Radeon 890M DirectML (15,143 FP16 score, 7.82x faster than CPU), and Zen 5 AVX-512 VNNI (7,732 INT8 quantized score, 1.28x faster than GPU).
• Great 1440p & 4K Casual/Strategy Gaming: Scores 35,031 in Geekbench 7 OpenCL and averages 66.6 FPS at 1440p Ultra in The Sims 4 and 93.8 to 108.9 FPS at 4K in Mewgenics and Cosmoteer across 30 hours of play.
• Loaded Port Selection & Fast Gen4 SSD: Dual 40Gbps USB4, dual HDMI 2.1, dual 2.5GbE LAN, Wi-Fi 7, SD 4.0 reader, six USB-A ports, and a 1 TB Lexar Gen4 SSD hitting 4,810.91 MB/s read / 5,099.54 MB/s write.

The Trade-Offs:

• Secondary M.2 Slot is 2230: While the primary M.2 2280 slot takes up to a 4 TB drive, the second PCIe 4.0 x4 slot uses the shorter M.2 2230 form factor (up to 1 TB).
• Wireless Jitter Under 100% Torture Load (Fix Pending): Wireless peripherals currently experience polling spikes when the APU is pinned at 100% load, though wired peripherals are completely unaffected and VZMORE's technicians are rolling out a BIOS update to resolve it soon.

Overall, if you are looking for a compact Ryzen AI 9 HX 470 mini PC that actually has the thermal engineering to sustain its 54W to 65W power budget without cooking its VRMs or SSD, the VZMORE AX9 Max is an impressive piece of hardware, and once that BIOS update lands for under-load wireless stability, it will be firing on all cylinders.