It has been a few months since the latest Asus ROG NUC mini gaming PC was unveiled on the CES 2025 show floor, but it looks like it’s gearing up for a release. According to recent reports, the next-gen ROG NUC is set to launch by the end of the month, with updated specs that include a laptop-grade Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 gaming GPU.
Asus has been making its own mark on the NUC lineup since it took over from Intel, and given the specs we’ve seen, it’s fair to say that this is a gaming rig that is likely to join the best mini gaming PCs out there. Asus isn’t reinventing the wheel with this one, however, with a chassis that looks a lot like last year’s model, although with an expected boost in the specs department.
Thanks to Asus, plus our own Asus ROG NUC 2025 hands-on at CES, we already knew a lot of what to expect. It’s set to launch with an Intel Core Ultra 200HX gaming CPU, and while the specific processor isn’t confirmed, Asus does mention a 24-core CPU with eight P-cores and 16 E-cores and a top 5.5GHz clock speed on its launch page.
Along with the laptop RTX 5080 with 16GB GDDR7 VRAM, the ROG NUC will also support DDR5-6400 RAM with capacity “up to” 96GB, although 32GB of RAM is expected to be included.
It will also come with support for PCIe 4.0 SSDs up to 2TB in size, along with plenty of external I/O, including several USB-A and USB-C ports, two HDMI 2.1 ports, a DisplayPort 2.1 connection, and a 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port, with WiFi 7 support also included. All that lot will fit inside a three-liter chassis with dimensions of 11.1-inches by 7.38-inches by 2.22-inches (28.24cm x 18.77cm x 5.65cm), and weighing just 6.87lbs.
Given these specs, expect to pay a hefty premium. According to a recent report by Videocardz, the Chinese launch price is expected to be 24,399 RMB (approximately $3,320) for a model with 32GB of RAM and 1TB storage, while a model with 2TB storage is set to cost 24,999 RMB (approximately $3,400). Pricing for the US or Europe hasn’t been confirmed so far, however, but Videocardz is reporting that this new ROG NUC is set to launch later this month.
We’ll be keen to get our hands on this latest Asus ROG NUC for ourselves to give it a test run and see if it can come close to justifying those rumored prices. In the meantime, if you’re looking for an even more portable (and potentially much cheaper) option, you can check out our best Asus gaming laptops guide.
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