The Minisforum MS-02 Ultra is now confirmed as a viable mini PC for 1440p gaming — not just office work or light media playback.
YouTuber ETA Prime installed a low-profile AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT into the MS-02 Ultra’s PCIe x16 5.0 slot and ran it through a suite of modern titles. That’s notable because most mini PCs either omit full-width PCIe slots entirely or cap out at x4 or x8 lanes. The MS-02 Ultra’s x16 5.0 support means it can take advantage of current-gen GPUs without bandwidth throttling.
In Forza Horizon 6, the system averaged over 80 FPS at 1440p with ‘Extreme’ settings and no FSR. Doom: The Dark Ages hit the same mark, 80+ FPS. At 1440p with ‘Ultra’ settings and no image upscaling. That’s rare for a device measuring just 4.8 litres.
Crimson Desert required FSR 4.1 ‘Quality’ to land above 60 FPS at 1440p with ‘Ultra’ settings. Cyberpunk 2077 went further: with Frame Generation enabled, the RX 9060 XT pushed past 130 FPS at 1440p on ‘Ultra’ graphics.
Thermals stayed under control. ETA Prime measured peak CPU and GPU temps at 78°C and 69°C respectively. Average loads were cooler still: 63°C for the CPU, 61°C for the GPU.
The MS-02 Ultra ships barebones, no RAM or storage included. Two SKUs are available: one with Intel Core Ultra 5 235HX for $599, another with Core Ultra 9 285HX for $1,159. Both require users to source their own DDR5 SO-DIMMs and M.2 NVMe SSDs.
This isn’t theoretical. ETA Prime’s test confirms that compact doesn’t have to mean compromised. If you’re willing to build it yourself.
Mini PC buyers looking for ‘mini pc gaming’ setups have long faced trade-offs: lower power, limited cooling, or no discrete GPU support. The MS-02 Ultra sidesteps all three. Its chassis fits a dual-slot, low-profile GPU while retaining room for robust airflow, and its motherboard supports the latest PCIe spec.
That makes it relevant not just to enthusiasts but also to space-constrained creators and developers who need desktop-class performance without a tower.
No official Indian pricing was reported. The $599 and $1,159 figures apply to global markets, per Notebookcheck’s reporting of ETA Prime’s test unit.
Minisforum has not announced a formal launch date for prebuilt configurations with GPUs installed. As of October 2026, the MS-02 Ultra remains a barebones platform. Meaning buyers must assemble it themselves or rely on third-party integrators.
The next step? Wider availability of compatible low-profile RX 9060 XT units, which remain niche outside of workstation and embedded channels. Until then, this remains a proof point, not a plug-and-play solution.
CDFiled by The Computing Desk
Laptops, desktops, processors, graphics cards and the operating systems that run on them.
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