Image: Gamers Nexus
Graphics cards are getting so big that they’re bigger than some computers now. A tired joke, perhaps, but it’s absolutely true. There’s plenty of room inside a modern desktop GPU (at least in terms of pure volume, with the chunky cooler) to fit all the parts you need to run a full PC… and one company did just that. Weird, but fascinating.
Gamers Nexus took a break from their hard-hitting investigation work to check out this goofy little one-off project. Boutique desktop builder CherryTree (who are clearly fellow Star Trek fans, living their best, longest, and most prosperous lives) hollowed out a Gigabyte RTX 5070 card. Then they stuffed it full of Asus mini PC parts, re-assembled the shroud and working fans, and got all the necessary ports to go where you usually stick your monitor cables. The thing runs, all by itself, and with the fans and RGB lights still working.
As Steve points out, you could install this PC inside a regular desktop PC, since all the power and connection stuff comes out the back. It’ll mount into a regular PCI Express slot, though it won’t draw power or interact with the “host” PC in any other way without some further modification. If you’re wondering, the mini PC runs a Core i7-1360P processor, 64GB of RAM, and 2TB of storage in the M.2 slot.
This “graphics card PC” is a one-off design, not for sale and presumably made just so the builders could see their goofy little project on Gamers Nexus. (Mission accomplished!) But my favorite bit is that they designed and made a GPU-style retail box for it, christening the computer the “GEEFARCE 5027 POS.” It also gets “UC” and “OR” suffixes, for “underclocked and overrated.”
I like these folks. They’re fun. Check out the Gamers Nexus video for a full and exhaustive benchmark of this thing.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he’s the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop “battlestation” in his off hours. Michael’s previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he’s covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he’s always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.