GMKtec M7 and M7 Pro Mini PCs - Ryzen 9 vs Ryzen 7

I've been testing these two mini PCs—the M7 with a Ryzen 7 and the M7 Pro with a Ryzen 9—to see if the jump to the Ryzen 9 is really worth it. I’ve run them through all the usual benchmarks like Cinebench, Geekbench, and Superposition, plus I’ve thrown in some demanding games like Cyberpunk 2077, Baldur’s Gate 3, and even Frostpunk 2. The idea is to find out if the Ryzen 9 actually gives a noticeable boost over the Ryzen 7, or if it’s more of a marginal improvement when it comes to real-world performance.

Looking at these specs, the Ryzen 9 PRO 6950H in the M7 Pro runs up to 4.90GHz, while the Ryzen 7 PRO 6850H in the standard M7 is slightly slower at 4.70GHz. Both have the same Radeon 680M integrated graphics, so the performance difference mostly comes down to the extra frequency or maybe the ram speed.

They also share a lot of features: DDR5 memory (up to 32GB), 1TB NVMe SSD storage, USB 4 support, and Wi-Fi 6E. The only real difference on paper is that higher clock speed with the Ryzen 9, but the question is whether that translates to better performance in everyday use or gaming.