19-05-2025
Meet the weirdest gaming PC I've ever seen — desktop GPU with a laptop CPU!?
Computex 2025 has plenty of surprises up its sleeve, and Asus just revealed one of the strangest one's yet — a gaming PC with a desktop GPU and a laptop CPU.
The Asus TUF Gaming T500 is a new gaming desktop that pairs an Nvidia RTX 5060 Ti desktop GPU and an Intel Core i7-13620H CPU. Notably, that's a mobile processor made for laptops, but it somehow found its way into this gaming PC.
As with all Intel CPUs, that "H" in the CPU model name indicates that its a high-performance mobile chip, typically used in gaming laptops and for notebooks made for demanding productivity tasks. It isn't new, as it released back in 2023, but it's still used in more budget-friendly machines.
Asus' TUF devices focus on value, and this certainly appears to be the case with the TUG Gaming T500. Whether its to cut costs or to fit its components into a smaller chassis (despite that RTX 5060 Ti taking up space anyway), the desktop gaming PC boasts a mobile processor — and it's set to be priced around $1,300.
It's the weirdest desktop I've seen, and yes, there was audible confusion during the breifing when Asus said "this has a laptop chip." But the Asus TUF Gaming T500's peculiar Intel mobile chip does offer higher wattage going through it as part of a desktop, as an Asus representative said.
Otherwise, this is your usual gaming PC with a mech anime-inspired aesthertic and full Aura sync support for RGB lighting. You'll also find up to 64GB of DDR5 RAM, PCIe Gen 4 storage, custom heatsinks with copper heatpipes, a 90mm cooling fan and MIL-STD-810H military standard durability.
There's no explanation as to why there's an Intel mobile processor in the TUF Gaming T500, but I bet it will have something to do with its cost. While there's no official word on when it will be available yet, this Asus desktop is sure to cater towards budget gaming, like the MSI Codex R2 (around $1,230).
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We got a chance to see it on the showfloor, although not in action. It's a compact gaming PC, and with its RTX 5060 Ti onboard, it will deliver strong performance for 1080p gaming — especially with boosts from DLSS 4. It makes it ideal for single-player games, with frame rates going beyond 100 FPS at max settings thanks to Multi Frame Gen.
How it will perform with a Intel Core i7-13620H laptop CPU? We're unsure, but if it pulls off the solid, pocket-friendly performace as with the MSI Cyborg 15 we tested (which currently sits in our list of best gaming laptops), then Asus may be onto something.
Once we get a chance to try out this odd mix in the TUF Gaming T500, it may make it as a budget pick in our list of the best gaming PCs. Or, you may just want to opt for a desktop CPU that will generally offer better raw peformance. Either way, this is not a desktop I expected to see at Computex 2025, and neither was Acer's first-ever smart ring.
