Chinese PC maker FEVM has unveiled the FA-EX9 mini PC, marking a significant leap in compact workstation design by harnessing AMD´s new Ryzen AI MAX+ 395 ´Strix Halo´ processor. This high-performance chip delivers 16 Zen 5 CPU cores, 40 RDNA 3.5 graphics compute units, and an XDNA 2 neural engine capable of achieving 50 TOPS, all within a 2-liter chassis measuring 192 × 190 × 55 mm. The FA-EX9 is configured to sustain up to 120 W, placing it in performance contention with the Ryzen 9 9955HX and RTX 4070 Laptop GPU combination.
The system features 128 GB of LPDDR5X memory on a 256-bit bus, with as much as 96 GB assignable as video memory—suiting it well for large-model inference in Artificial Intelligence workloads. For storage, the FA-EX9 includes dual M.2 PCIe 4.0 SSD slots, accommodating up to 2 TB onboard and supporting up to 16 TB in total. Connectivity is robust with one HDMI 2.1, one DisplayPort 1.4, two USB4 Type-C ports enabling up to four 8K displays, and an OCuLink connector for external GPU expansion, catering to both edge Artificial Intelligence applications and creative professionals.
Inspiration for the FA-EX9 appears drawn from NVIDIA´s DGX Spark, a palm-sized Artificial Intelligence solution built around the GB10 Grace Blackwell superchip. The DGX Spark leverages a 20-core Arm CPU cluster and Blackwell GPU to achieve up to 1,000 FP4 Artificial Intelligence TOPS, supported by 128 GB unified LPDDR5X memory and up to 4 TB of secure NVMe storage in a 1.24-liter case consuming ~170 W. The FA-EX9, by contrast, delivers a more general-purpose platform with an emphasis on flexible expansion and wide-ranging usability, spanning Artificial Intelligence, workstation, and gaming tasks. While release dates and pricing for the FA-EX9 remain under wraps, the device is poised to become a versatile competitor in the burgeoning compact Artificial Intelligence hardware segment.
