GMKtec EVO-X5 Pro breaks the 128GB ceiling with Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495

Every Strix Halo mini PC we have covered this year has topped out at 128GB of unified memory. GMKtec’s EVO-X5 Pro breaks that ceiling. Built around AMD’s new Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495, the Gorgon Halo chip, it takes unified memory to 192GB, and for a specific kind of photographer and video professional that changes what a machine this size can do. Details are on the official GMKtec EVO-X5 Pro page.

What is new versus the EVO-X3

The chip is the headline. The Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 is a refresh of the Strix Halo platform, same 16 Zen 5 cores and 32 threads, same 40-compute-unit Radeon graphics architecture, but with two meaningful changes. Boost clock rises to 5.2GHz, and, far more importantly, the supported memory ceiling jumps from 128GB to 192GB of LPDDR5X-8533. The integrated graphics are now the Radeon 8065S, with an XDNA 2 NPU rated at up to 55 TOPS.

That memory increase is the entire reason to pay attention. On this unified architecture, up to 160GB can be assigned to the GPU as video memory — a figure no discrete consumer graphics card comes close to, and one that lets the machine hold very large AI models entirely in memory. GMKtec claims it can run 300-billion-parameter models locally, using INT4 quantisation.

Why a photographer might care, and why many will not

Let us be honest about who this is for. For editing photographs and cutting 4K or even 6K video, this is overkill. The EVO-X2 and EVO-X3 already handle Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve comfortably, and the extra memory here does nothing for those tasks that 128GB did not already do. If editing is your work, save your money.

Where the 192GB earns its keep is local AI run on your own hardware, and that is a genuinely relevant proposition for a certain kind of professional. If you want to run large language models, generative image tools or AI-assisted culling and keywording entirely offline, without sending client images to a cloud service, the memory pool is what makes the largest models practical. GMKtec explicitly pitches it at sectors, healthcare, finance, legal, that cannot legally send sensitive data to the cloud, and a photographer handling confidential client work sits closer to that logic than to the gaming crowd.

The rest of the machine

Storage is generous: a triple M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4 array taking up to 8TB each, for 24TB total, enough to keep a large catalogue and active projects entirely on internal drives. Connectivity runs to two front USB4 ports and two rear USB4 V2 ports, all supporting external GPUs and, unusually, the linking of multiple EVO-X5 Pro units into a distributed cluster. There is 8K video output.

Cooling is a vapour chamber with triple fans and three power modes, the chip running between 45W and 120W. On the enterprise side there is a dTPM 2.0 security chip and AMD DASH remote management, features aimed at IT departments rather than photographers, but they signal where GMKtec is positioning this.

Our take

This is the most capable machine in GMKtec’s line, and the memory ceiling is a real advance rather than a marketing number. But it is also the clearest example yet of a mini PC that has moved beyond what photography and video editing actually need, into dedicated local-AI territory.

Our honest guidance: if you edit, the EVO-X2 remains the value benchmark and even the EVO-X3 is more than most need. Consider the EVO-X5 Pro only if running large AI models locally, offline, on your own hardware is a genuine part of your work — in which case the 192GB and the 160GB VRAM allocation are currently unmatched at this size. GMKtec has not confirmed final pricing, but on the evidence of the EVO-X3’s positioning this will be a premium machine, and the networking remains the same 2.5G-class limitation we keep flagging rather than 10GbE.

GMKtec EVO-X5 Pro: Specifications

Processor: AMD Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 (Gorgon Halo), 16 Zen 5 cores / 32 threads, up to 5.2GHz, 64MB cache, 45-120W configurable.
Graphics: AMD Radeon 8065S, RDNA 3.5, 40 compute units, up to 3.0GHz, hardware ray tracing.
AI: AMD XDNA 2 NPU up to 55 TOPS.
Memory: up to 192GB unified LPDDR5X-8533, with up to 160GB configurable as VRAM; approximately 273GB/s bandwidth.
Storage: triple M.2 2280 PCIe Gen4, up to 8TB each (24TB total).
Connectivity: two front USB4, two rear USB4 V2, external GPU dock support, multi-system clustering, 8K output.
Security and management: dTPM 2.0, AMD DASH with RJ45 DASH adapter, out-of-band remote management; validated for 24/7 operation.
Cooling: vapour chamber with triple-fan control and three power modes.
Chassis: CNC all-metal.

GMKtec EVO-X5 Pro: Price and availability

GMKtec unveiled the EVO-X5 Pro at IFA 2026 in Berlin. Full configurations and pricing had not been finalised at the time of writing, and GMKtec has not confirmed whether the 192GB configuration will be the standard retail option. UK pricing and availability are to be confirmed, we will update this story once details are announced.