Asus ROG NUC 970

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The venerable NUC brand, now presided over by Asus rather than Intel (and open to several other PC OEMs, like MSI), is home to a host of appealing mini desktops for different use cases. Most are general-purpose or lower-power kiosk systems, but Asus is trying its hand at a gaming-centric take with the Republic of Gamers NUC 970 (starts at $1,399; $1,799 as tested). The ROG 970 is a very compact box—smaller than a laptop—that uses mobile CPU and GPU chips to jam in the power. Our test model touts an Intel Core Ultra 9 185H processor and a GeForce RTX 4070 laptop GPU, which posted similar performance to full-size entry-level gaming desktops in our testing. That's an appealing offer if you're seeking a space-saving solution that, if not fully upgradable, at least allows memory and storage swaps. You can get more gaming bang for the buck with a traditional tower, but for small-form-factor shoppers, this is a highly capable package.

Design: Compact Versatility

While the NUC 970 isn't as configurable as a larger gaming desktop, it isn't a one-model solution, either. Asus' base version costs $1,399 and combines an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU, 16GB of DDR5-5600 memory, a 512GB M.2 solid-state drive, and Nvidia's GeForce RTX 4060 laptop GPU.

Our review unit raises the ante: For $1,799, it packs a Core Ultra 9 185H processor (configured to 65 watts), doubles the RAM and storage to 32GB and 1TB respectively, and steps up to a GeForce RTX 4070 laptop GPU (115 watts, plus 25 watts dynamic boost). In other words, it delivers a component set roughly equal to a high-end gaming laptop at about the same price.

Of the many small-form-factor PCs we’ve seen over the years, this is one of the smallest—a 2.5-liter chassis measuring 1.96 by 10.6 by 7.1 inches (HWD), with a vertical stand provided if you'd rather put the system upright. To repeat the obvious, this is possible only by using a mobile GPU rather than a full-size desktop graphics card; if that's a non-starter for you, check out one of the many conventional gaming desktops we've reviewed.

The case is all black, but the top features a semi-obscured RGB logo, which we've seen on past NUC models when the brand was still under Intel's care. There's more connectivity than you might expect: The front edge is home to two USB Type-A ports, an audio jack, and an SD card slot. Around back are four more USB-A ports, a USB-C Thunderbolt 4 connector, HDMI and two DisplayPort video outputs, and an Ethernet jack. This is an impressive array, though I was surprised to find only one USB-C port.

As far as maintenance and internal access, the ROG NUC sports a pretty simple solution. A rear latch lets you slide the case cover open, exposing one captive screw, which you can then loosen. This next part was unclear and required more force than I expected, but pulling the whole upper portion of the casing toward me (arrows on the side with a "pull" label indicate the direction) freed it from the base, letting me lift it away from the chassis. Note that a small cable connects the two pieces, so don't rip the cover free without disconnecting the pins.

From here, the tiny motherboard is exposed, letting you easily access the SO-DIMM memory and M.2 SSD. Given the laptop-class CPU and GPU, only the RAM and storage are intended to be readily user-accessible—the chips are locked down and facing toward the cooling system that occupies the other half of the case.

In total, that means the system is more accessible than some mini PCs, but not as flexible or upgradable as a traditional tower. At least with the system opened up, you can easily clean out the case and deploy your compressed air of choice to keep the fans running efficiently—more than you can say for some other small-form-factor PCs.

Testing the Asus ROG NUC 970: A Surprising Match for Mainstream Desktops

To gauge how this unique box performs, we put it through our comprehensive benchmark suite. Since we recently updated our testing regimen, we don't have as many past systems to compare against as usual, but here are the gaming-ready desktop competitors we'll be using:

You'd expect these systems' full-size desktop GPUs to outperform the Asus' mobile silicon, but two of them—the Lenovo Legion Tower 5i Gen 8 and MSI Codex R2—tilt toward the entry-level side with Nvidia's more modest RTX 4060 rather than 4070, so it may be a tossup. The Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 is a higher-end configuration.

Productivity and Content Creation Tests

We run the same general productivity benchmarks across both mobile and desktop systems. Our first test is UL's PCMark 10, which simulates a variety of real-world productivity and office workflows to measure overall system performance and also includes a storage subtest for the primary drive.

Three more benchmarks stress the CPU, using all available cores and threads to rate a PC's suitability for processor-intensive workloads. Maxon's Cinebench 2024 uses the company's Redshift engine to render a complex image, while Geekbench 6.3 Pro from Primate Labs simulates popular apps ranging from PDF rendering and speech recognition to machine learning. We run the multi-core and single-core CPU tests for both. Our last CPU benchmark is the open-source video transcoder HandBrake 1.8, which converts a 12-minute video clip from 4K to 1080p resolution; lower times are better.

Next, we run one cross-platform content creation benchmark: Adobe Photoshop 2024, using the 1.2.20 version of PugetBench for Creators by workstation maker Puget Systems. This test rates a PC's performance for multimedia applications. PugetBench is an automated extension that executes a variety of general and GPU-accelerated Photoshop tasks ranging from opening, rotating, resizing, and saving an image to applying masks, gradient fills, and filters.

On the processing side, the ROG NUC held up pretty well against these systems. Its Core Ultra 9 H-series mobile chip can't quite push the same top-end power as the others, particularly the Core i9, but it sits alongside or ahead of the (admittedly cheaper) Core i5 processors in most of these tests. What this translates to is a fast and efficient desktop that's more than capable of serious office work and gaming alike. (Within reason: It's not close to workstation-class, so users planning on CGI rendering or crunching enormous datasets should look for a larger desktop.)

Graphics and Gaming Tests

We challenge all desktops' graphics with a quartet of animations or gaming simulations from UL's 3DMark test suite. Wild Life (1440p) and Wild Life Extreme (4K) use the Vulkan graphics API to measure GPU speeds, while Steel Nomad's regular and Light subtests focus on APIs more commonly used for game development, like Metal and DirectX 12, to assess gaming geometry and particle effects.

Our real-world game testing comes from the in-game benchmarks of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Cyberpunk 2077, and F1 2024. These three games—all benchmarked at full HD (1080p), 2K (1440p), and 4K (2160p) resolution—represent competitive shooter, open-world, and simulation games, respectively. We run each at high detail or the highest available settings: Extreme for Call of Duty, Overdrive for Cyberpunk, and Ultra High for F1 24.

As expected, the ROG NUC's laptop-grade GPU couldn't put up numbers with the best desktop GPU here, but it did outperform the desktop RTX 4060 machines, yielding solid numbers for the NUC 970 as a whole. This box can push 60fps in both F1 and Call of Duty on the highest settings—even at 2K resolution in the case of the latter. Cyberpunk on these settings is a bridge too far (the 4K run wouldn't complete and is thus absent), and F1 at higher resolutions is pushing your luck, but there’s plenty of graphics power for gaming in this system...at least as much as in a higher-end gaming laptop.

Verdict: Asus Rewrites the Book on NUC

The Asus ROG NUC 970 is an uncommon little rig that can solve the needs of space-strapped users, even if it isn't broadly recommendable for the average gamer. You can get more performance per dollar from entry-level and mid-tier alternatives built with desktop, rather than mobile, components. That said, the NUC form factor is the biggest part of the ROG NUC 970's appeal. If you want solid midrange gaming performance in an extra-small package, the NUC 970 will scratch that itch.