GMK NucBox K9 mini PC review: Core Ultra 5 125H with Arc 7 graphics
After having just reviewed the GMK NucBox K6 a few months ago, we're now ready to tackle the NucBox K9 complete with the newer AI-enabled Meteor Lake-H processor. Other than the CPU swap from AMD to Intel, however, the chassis remains identical between the two models and so we recommend checking out our review on the NucBox K6 to learn more about the physical features of the system.
Our test unit comes equipped with the Core Ultra 5 125H CPU, 1 TB SSD, and 32 GB of RAM for approximately $860 or $570 if on sale. Users can configure with no RAM or SSD at all for a barebones setup, but the Core Ultra 5 CPU is fixed across all options.
Alternatives include other performance mini PCs like the Beelink SER8, Bosgame M1, or Geekom AX8 Pro.
More GMKtec reviews:
Potential Competitors in Comparison
Rating | Version | Date | Model | Weight | Height | Size | Resolution | Price |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
67.3 % | v8 | 09 / 2024 | GMK NucBox K9 Ultra 5 125H, Arc 7-Core | 528 g | 47 mm | x | ||
83.6 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 04 / 2024 | GMK NucBox K6 R7 7840HS, Radeon 780M | 514 g | 47 mm | x | ||
63.6 % | v8 | 07 / 2024 | GMK NucBox M6 R5 6600H, Radeon 660M | 526 g | 48 mm | x | ||
74.9 % | v8 | 07 / 2024 | Beelink SER8 R7 8845HS, Radeon 780M | 776 g | 50 mm | x | ||
v (old) | 12 / 2022 | Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U i5-1235U, Iris Xe G7 80EUs | 465 g | 42 mm | x | |||
84.5 % v7 (old) | v7 (old) | 05 / 2024 | BOSGAME M1 R7 7840HS, Radeon 780M | 766 g | 51 mm | x |
Note: We have recently updated our rating system and the results of version 8 are not comparable with the results of version 7. More information is available here .
Case — A Change Of Color
The plastic and metal chassis remains identical to the AMD-powered NucBox K6 albeit in a matte gray/silver color.
Connectivity — Faster USB Ports
While port options and positioning have not changed from the NucBox K6, the USB ports have been upgraded. All USB-A ports are now USB4 instead of 2.0 or 3.2. Meanwhile, the USB-C port officially supports Thunderbolt 4.
Third-party USB-C AC adapters can power the system in lieu of the barrel AC adapter if it can provide enough power. Performance and compatibility with all USB-C adapters, however, are not guaranteed.
Communication
An Intel AX201 comes standard instead of the MediaTek RZ616 for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. Wi-Fi 6E and Wi-Fi 7 are not included to save on costs.
Networking | |
iperf3 transmit AXE11000 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
iperf3 receive AXE11000 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
iperf3 transmit AXE11000 6GHz | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
iperf3 receive AXE11000 6GHz | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox M6 |
Maintenance
Upgradeable components are identical to the NucBox K6.
Sustainability
The manufacturer advertises a "Sustainably made" system without going into detail about what that implies. The packaging itself is mostly cardboard with a bit of plastic wrapping.
Accessories And Warranty
The retail box includes a VESA mounting bracket and HDMI cable alongside the usual paperwork and AC adapter. A one-year manufacturer warranty applies if purchased in the US.
Performance — Meteor Lake Standard
Testing Conditions
We set Windows to Performance mode prior to running the benchmarks below.
Processor
CPU performance is where we expect it to be relative to other PCs in our database with the same Core Ultra 5 125H processor. The Meteor Lake CPU is neck-to-neck with the last generation Core i9-13900H which sounds great on paper until you remember that the AMD-powered NucBox K6 with the older Ryzen 7 7840HS is even faster than either Intel solution. Thus, the lack of a Core Ultra 7 option is strange considering that the NucBox K9 is the newer box.
While an integrated AI is included, it is not compatible with Co-Pilot+.
Cinebench R15 Multi Loop
Cinebench R23: Multi Core | Single Core
Cinebench R20: CPU (Multi Core) | CPU (Single Core)
Cinebench R15: CPU Multi 64Bit | CPU Single 64Bit
Blender: v2.79 BMW27 CPU
7-Zip 18.03: 7z b 4 | 7z b 4 -mmt1
Geekbench 6.3: Multi-Core | Single-Core
Geekbench 5.5: Multi-Core | Single-Core
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2: 4k Preset
LibreOffice : 20 Documents To PDF
R Benchmark 2.5: Overall mean
Cinebench R23: Multi Core | Single Core
Cinebench R20: CPU (Multi Core) | CPU (Single Core)
Cinebench R15: CPU Multi 64Bit | CPU Single 64Bit
Blender: v2.79 BMW27 CPU
7-Zip 18.03: 7z b 4 | 7z b 4 -mmt1
Geekbench 6.3: Multi-Core | Single-Core
Geekbench 5.5: Multi-Core | Single-Core
HWBOT x265 Benchmark v2.2: 4k Preset
LibreOffice : 20 Documents To PDF
R Benchmark 2.5: Overall mean
* ... smaller is better
AIDA64: FP32 Ray-Trace | FPU Julia | CPU SHA3 | CPU Queen | FPU SinJulia | FPU Mandel | CPU AES | CPU ZLib | FP64 Ray-Trace | CPU PhotoWorxx
Performance Rating | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / FP32 Ray-Trace | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (8430 - 13639, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / FPU Julia | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (43652 - 70880, n=6) | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / CPU SHA3 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (2047 - 3404, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / CPU Queen | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (77892 - 79986, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / FPU SinJulia | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (6588 - 7851, n=6) | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / FPU Mandel | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (21210 - 35321, n=6) | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / CPU AES | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (45524 - 108402, n=6) |
AIDA64 / CPU ZLib | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (594 - 994, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / FP64 Ray-Trace | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (4345 - 7221, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / CPU PhotoWorxx | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (45724 - 49844, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
Stress Test
When initiating Prime95 stress, the CPU would boost to 2.3 GHz and 45 W and then maintain those values throughout the duration of the stress test. Core temperature would plateau at 80 C which is slightly cooler than what we recorded on the faster AMD-powered NucBox K6.
When running Cyberpunk 2077 to represent gaming stress, core temperature would stabilize at 72 C to be similar to the NucBox K6 even though the NucBox K9 runs games slower as our Gaming Performance section below will show.
Average CPU Clock (GHz) | GPU Clock (MHz) | Average CPU Temperature (°C) | |
System Idle | -- | -- | 40 |
Prime95 Stress | 2.3 | -- | 79 |
Prime95 + FurMark Stress | 2.2 | 1150 | 79 |
Cyberpunk 2077 Stress | 0.9 | 1600 | 72 |
System Performance
CrossMark: Overall | Productivity | Creativity | Responsiveness
WebXPRT 3: Overall
WebXPRT 4: Overall
Mozilla Kraken 1.1: Total
PCMark 10 / Score | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU (6194 - 6463, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
PCMark 10 / Essentials | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU (9427 - 10697, n=6) |
PCMark 10 / Productivity | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU (7042 - 8000, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
PCMark 10 / Digital Content Creation | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU (8198 - 9506, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
CrossMark / Overall | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU (1522 - 1633, n=5) | |
GMK NucBox M6 |
CrossMark / Productivity | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU (1432 - 1594, n=5) |
CrossMark / Creativity | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU (1683 - 1765, n=5) | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
CrossMark / Responsiveness | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU (1171 - 1520, n=5) |
WebXPRT 3 / Overall | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU (245 - 263, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox M6 |
WebXPRT 4 / Overall | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU (227 - 240, n=5) | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
GMK NucBox M6 |
Mozilla Kraken 1.1 / Total | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H, Intel Arc 7-Core iGPU (560 - 595, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
Beelink SER8 |
* ... smaller is better
PCMark 10 Score | 6463 points | |
Help |
AIDA64 / Memory Copy | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (67482 - 87473, n=6) | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / Memory Read | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (70520 - 76803, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / Memory Write | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (63162 - 72443, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
AIDA64 / Memory Latency | |
Average Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (127.3 - 184.8, n=6) | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox M6 |
* ... smaller is better
DPC Latency
LatencyMon reveals DPC issues related to ntoskrnl.exe when opening multiple tabs of our homepage. 4K video playback at 60 FPS is otherwise perfect with no dropped frames recorded.
DPC Latencies / LatencyMon - interrupt to process latency (max), Web, Youtube, Prime95 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
GMK NucBox M6 | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
Beelink SER8 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U |
* ... smaller is better
Storage Devices
GMK utilizes the same 1 TB MasonSemi MC7000 PCIe4 x4 NVMe SSD for both its NucBox K6 and K9 models. Performance is fast and comparable to the Samsung PM9A1 series commonly found on high-end PCs despite the lesser-known brand name. We can observe no notable performance throttling when running DiskSpd in a loop.
Drive Performance Rating - Percent | |
GMK NucBox K6 | |
GMK NucBox K9 | |
Beelink SEi12 Core i5-1235U | |
Beelink SER8 | |
BOSGAME M1 | |
GMK NucBox M6 |