- Asus will launch the ROG NUC 2025 this year, using Nvidia’s RTX 5080 laptop GPU
- Your laptop’s GPU will use 16 GB of GDDR7 VRAM
- It is expected to have a high cost compared to the current ROG NUC 970
Nvidia’s RTX 5000 series of graphics cards were officially unveiled at CES 2025 earlier this month, and while we still don’t know when the RTX 5080 laptop GPU will start appearing in gaming laptops, Asus has confirmed one of its mini- next generation games. The PC will run on new Team Green hardware.
As reported by Edge Up Asus, the Asus ROG NUC 2025 gaming mini PC will use Nvidia’s RTX 5080 laptop GPU along with the Intel Core Ultra 9 (Series 2) ARL-HX processor with 24 cores and 24 threads. This is a version for a top-tier mini-gaming PC, which should surpass Apple’s Mac mini M4 when it comes to gaming, but probably at a high cost.
The current ROG NUC comes equipped with RTX 4000 series GPUs, and this year’s model will take performance to a new level – we’ll see benchmarks of the desktop RTX 5080 and 5090 series GPUs later this month, with the laptop. GPUs will likely arrive shortly after.
What can we expect in terms of its price?
I’ve never been a punter, but I’m almost certain that the new Asus ROG NUC will be an expensive offering with configurations now offering up to the RTX 5080 and 64GB of DDR5 RAM – the 2023 NUC 970 uses the RTX 4070 with a starting price from $1,399 / £1,629, so expect this year’s model to be around the same figure… or even a lot more.
Compared to the Mac mini M4, the ROG NUC 2025 will excel in terms of performance, but this doesn’t mean it’s a direct hit for the NUC. The Mac mini M4 will undoubtedly be a lot cheaper, starting at $599 / £599 / AU$999, and the performance it offers at that price is hard to beat.
A more realistic comparison between Apple’s Mac devices with the upcoming ROG NUC is the MacBook Pro M4, especially the model that comes with the M4 Pro chip with a 14-core CPU and a 20-core GPU, along with 24GB of memory unified, but Of course, it is not a mini PC. Even with this, you’d still lose out as Asus’ system runs Windows 11, while the MacBook uses macOS, and Apple still has a long way to go with gaming on its OS in terms of optimizations (especially at higher resolutions ).
The ROG NUC will also benefit from Nvidia’s new generation DLSS 4 Multi-Frame, which will dramatically improve performance in multiple games, in addition to the raw performance of the GPU alone, so while it will be an expensive mini PC, It will probably continue to be a better one. choice for gaming compared to the Mac mini M4 and MacBook Pro.
Should you buy it? I would say no, as it will probably be too expensive compared to much cheaper full-size gaming PCs, which are powerful enough for smooth performance.
