RTX 5090: Handheld Gaming PC Powerhouse

RTX 5090: Handheld Gaming PC Powerhouse

Sean Hollister, a senior editor at The Verge, details building a powerful handheld gaming PC using an RTX 5090.

The setup involved using an RTX 5090 and a 1000-watt power supply with a Minisforum DEG1 external GPU enclosure. This was connected via Oculink to a GPD Win Max 2 handheld, which features an AMD Ryzen 8840U mobile CPU and four lanes of PCIe 4.0 bandwidth.

Impressive Performance

Despite bandwidth limitations, the system delivered surprisingly high frame rates. Cyberpunk 2077 ran at over 100 frames per second at 4K resolution and Ultra settings. Most demanding games were playable at 4K with near-maximum settings.

While slightly slower than a comparable desktop setup with a top-tier CPU, performance significantly outpaced an RTX 3080 in a similar desktop configuration and was far faster than the handheld’s integrated GPU.