ASUS ROG NUC 16 is a $4,500 gaming mini PC smaller than a PS5 with an RTX 5080 and Intel Core Ultra 9

ASUS is back with what might be its most over-the-top gaming mini PC yet. Three years after taking charge of the Intel NUC division, the company continues to push the format with the ROG NUC 16, available in black or white with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 GPU and Intel's Arrow Lake-HX platform.

The ROG NUC 16 is ASUS's fastest NUC and arguably the most console-like in terms of design. It keeps the same basic shell and 3-liter chassis of the NUC 15 but steps up to an Intel Core Ultra 9 290HX with 24 cores (8 Performance, 16 Efficient), 40 MB L2 cache, 36 MB L3 cache, and an onboard NPU with 13 TOPS.

The ROG NUC 16 offers a modest performance boost over the NUC 15. ASUS's benchmarks show a 2.3% improvement in 3DMark Time Spy over the previous generation, using the same RTX 5080 16GB GPU. Depending on the workload or game you are running, the gains may be more noticeable in practice. GPU options are confirmed to include the RTX 5080, 5070 Ti, 5070, and 5060, all paired with the same CPU, though the product page has not yet listed all variants.

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On the memory and storage side, the ROG NUC 16 supports up to 128GB of DDR5 RAM running at 6,400 MT/s and includes a 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD. It features one M.2 PCIe 5.0 slot and two PCIe 4.0 slots, supporting up to 4 TB per drive for a total of 9 TB. A dedicated SSD heatsink is also included, which ASUS claims can reduce SSD operating temperatures by 18.5%.

Connectivity covers Thunderbolt 4, DisplayPort 2.1 UHBR20, HDMI 2.1, 2.5GbE, and USB 3.2 Gen 2, with support for up to five 4K displays simultaneously. Power delivery has been upgraded to a 380W adapter, 15% higher than the ROG NUC 15. Cooling is handled by three fans, a vapor chamber with 72% thermal coverage, and the dedicated SSD heatsink, with CPU thermal coverage expanded by 12% over the previous generation. ASUS says noise stays below 38 dBA under sustained load.

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The ROG NUC 16 also includes a removable stand for vertical or horizontal placement, with a built-in G-sensor that detects orientation and adjusts thermal settings accordingly. For size reference, it is smaller than both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, measuring 282.4 x 189.5 x 56.5mm. Pre-orders are open today at a pre-release price of 29,999 RMB or $4,400 US, with a final retail price of 30,999 RMB or $4,500 US. A Moonlight White Edition is expected in June.