AceMagician AD15 Initial Impressions

[dd_milkshake]

Here are some performance testings that I’ve done when asked to test drive the unit.

First things first, in the BIOS settings, the default BIOS from AM capped both PL1 and PL2 to 40W, but it is tunable by the user. I have two sets of numbers for the performance benchmarks, one is the default 40W, and the other is 45W for PL1 and 65W for PL2. I will specify each configuration in the following benchmarks.

All tests are done with Windows 11, OS build 22000.1936

TL;DR: The CPU performance is on-par with Intel i7-6950X or AMD 6800HS while in 40W default TDP. After unlocking the power limit, the CPU will gain some performance to match up against Ryzen 5 5600X, or Intel's own i5-11500 desktop class CPU. As for the GPU side, there's nothing special. I will say it is a very capable iGPU solution for even the most demanding office work, but not for gaming.

###CPU-Z
####Hardware Validation:
[https://valid.x86.fr/i1rx87]

###Cinebench R23
####40W Default:
ST: 1677
MT: 9053

####45/65:
ST: 1681
MT: 9851

###Geekbench 6 CPU
####40W Default:
ST: 2201
MT: 7792
[https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/1261782]

####45/65:
ST: 2199
MT: 8567
[https://browser.geekbench.com/v6/cpu/1269054]

###Geekbench 6 GPU
####40W Default: 8426
####45/65: 8473

As you can see, increasing the PLs to 45/65 could yield better multithreaded performance, but it does very little to single threaded and GPU performance. Thus, I do not think there’s the need to increase the power cap. However, it is the power to the users to explore whether 10% of performance or lower operating temperature and noise will be suitable for their usage.

###Heaven Benchmark
I know this GPU isn’t gaming-oriented, but I still would like to see how it will perform in a standard 3D benchmark.

####DX9, 720p, basic:
FPS: 40.7
Score: 1025

####DX11, 720p, low:
FPS: 109.3
Score: 2753

####DX11, 720p, medium:
FPS: 52.9
Score: 1332

####DX11, 1080p, low:
FPS: 55.8
Score: 1405

####DX11, 1080p, medium:
FPS: 30.8
Score: 775

###Temperature:
This unit has a pretty good thermal solution. The fan remains quiet even when the load gets heavy. Here is an aggregate temperature chart when I was stressing the system with Cinebench R23.

cinebench-temp-aggregate.jpg (45.86 KiB) Viewed 8747 times

As we can see, the thermal solution can manage the 40W default TDP quite well, with temperature topped at 80C throughout the Cinebench R23 run. As for unlocking the PL limits, the system first boosted the CPU to use all 65W of power, resulted temps getting as high as 100C while in PL2, and hovered at the low 90s to high 80s after 45W PL1 kicked in. After that, I took the system apart and repasted with Arctic MX-6 TIM. While the highest recorded temperature can still be at the 90s, when PL2 expired and the CPU was conforming to the 45W PL1, the temperature was basically the same, or slightly better, than the stock TIM with 40W power limits.

Nonetheless, during these tests, the fan stayed relatively quiet. It is certainly more quiet than the AM06 Pro I’ve tested. Please be aware, the AM06 Pro uses a 35W chip, while this i5-12450H chip can pull 65W and can maintain 45W. This is impressive to say the least.

[admin]

Nice post!

[carey934]

Hi all,

Just did my review of the AceMagician AD15 on my YouTube channel and this forum is the only place I can find any info on it. Thanks to the previous poster for their revelations and thanks to AceMagician for sending me the unit for review.

AceMagician advertises HIGH PERFORMANCE PC on the box of this unit, yet here are my concerns:

This 'High Performance Unit' has dual channel memory and a great motherboard and CPU to meet that description - HOWEVER
It only comes with an M2 SATA drive, even though the motherboard M2 slot supports NVMe Gen4 (and Gen3 of course). Yes, an 8TB NVMe Gen4 drive at 8000+MBPS works in this unit! (though it quickly overheats!)

The included WiFi is WIFI5 (4 years old) and Bluetooth 4.2 (also many years old). This should have been WIFI6e or at least WIFI6 and BT5 at a minimum if this were to be true to the claim of HIGH PERFORMANCE PC as advertised. The cost difference for AceMagician would have been minimal, and possibly even cheaper to go with modern parts. A 500GB NVMe M2 Gen3 drive typically costs less than the same capacity M2 SATA and runs 4-6 times faster in read/write performance. Why AceMagician put a heatsink the M2 SATA drive makes no sense as that drive would NEVER over heat at 500MBPS top speed.

The other issue I have is with drivers. Good luck to anyone who needs to reinstall Windows 11 finding all the missing device drivers with generic descriptions. I've spoken with AceMagician about this concern and they assure me they are adding the links to their web-site (as they did with the AM06 at my request).

In the mean time, here is the link they provided me privately for the drivers for the AD15
AD15 Drivers

Here is hoping they add them to the support side of their web-site soon.

I've also encouraged my YouTube viewers to come here to MiniPCUnion and register for a free account if they wish to pursue more info on these Mini PCs. I think you guys do a great job here!

Thank you!
Carey Holzman

[admin]

Thank you very much for your reply. Our AD15 still has many aspects that can be improved. As the first version, it can be said that such a configuration is not very attractive. Of course, it may be reasonable if the price is under $450.

We will promptly convey your feedback and suggestions to our product department, and they should improve. We hope more and more friends can discover this community and participate in forum activities.

Thanks.

[cmillar6]

I added a Western Digital SN570 NVMe Gen 3 drive to my AD15 today as they were a great price on Amazon. Even with a properly fitted heatsink it idles at 51C but doesn't get much hotter than that when stress tested. The issue appears to be from my testing a lack of air flow along the side of the AD15 that encloses the RAM and SSD. While the CPU cools wonderfully with a silent fan, it starves the other side of the mini PC for air flow causing the RAM and SSD to run hot. Perhaps future revisions of the AD15 could improve on this. If you do upgrade the SSD on this unit and clean install windows just export the drivers using the DISM command in the powershell before you replace the drive and add them to a USB drive. You are then back up and running in 3 minutes with the proper drivers when you do a clean install of Windows 11.

[atepej]

Today is day 3 of using my AD15. I had problems that my bluetooth headphones keeps disconnecting and it was resolved with bluetooth driver update via windows update.