Test Setup
Please read our testing methodologies and benchmarks and review format for an explanation on our procedures.
Testing Goals
Upfront, we do not have an Intel NUC 9 kit to use for testing, or a small chassis build at the moment. In a perfect world that would be a testing scenario, we would want to test. At this time, we do not have the components to do so. We can, therefore, test the video card in terms of its gaming performance and overclocking potential on our standard open-air test bench. We can also test it against a reference NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Founders Edition video card to see how it compares in many different aspects.
We can also bring in the price comparable competing video card from AMD just to have as reference performance comparisons to see how that lines up. However, keep in mind that with the AMD price comparable video card there is no AMD equivalent that matches this video card in its form factor size.
Our video card comparison setup will be as follows:
GeForce RTX 2070 Founders Edition – We will include a reference NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Founders Edition video card, which has a higher MSRP of $599 when it launched. The GPU Boost on this video card is 1710MHz, which is higher than the ASUS DUAL RTX 2070 MINI O8G. Therefore, we expect it to perform faster.
It isn’t so much about that though, what we are looking for is to see how close in performance the ASUS DUAL RTX 2070 MINI O8G is to it and if the small size compromises performance or not. We are also looking at how the GPU Frequency while gaming compares, how the power and temp also compares.
AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT – We are also including a reference AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT. This may sound like it is not the right comparison at first, but remember that the MSRP at the launch of the Radeon RX 5700 XT was $399. The ASUS DUAL RTX 2070 O8G MINI we are reviewing has an MSRP of $419.99. Therefore, the Radeon RX 5700 XT is actually the right price comparable comparison from AMD. You can find AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT’s online right now at this price point, and some are even under $400, making it cheaper.
The thing to remember about the Radeon RX 5700 XT though is that there are no video cards based on that GPU as small as the ASUS DUAL RTX 2070 MINI is in form factor. So, from a size/package comparison, there is nothing comparable. You cannot get a Radeon RX 5700 XT as small as this, and thus it will not fit into the same scenerios.
This is very important to keep in mind as you read through the review. Even though we have it in here for performance comparison, to see how it lines up, there are no situations in which you can use it in the same form factor as the ASUS DUAL RTX 2070 MINI will fit. The Radeon RX 5700 XT is a long 11 inches. So, it DOES NOT match in size. Very important to remember.