What are the Minisforum MS-S1 Max-P495 and N5 Max-P495?

The Minisforum MS-S1 Max-P495 is a compact AI workstation built on AMD’s new Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 with up to 192GB of unified LPDDR5X-8533 memory. It was announced at IFA 2026 in Berlin (September 4 to 8) alongside a second system, the AI Agent NAS N5 Max-P495, which puts the same chip and memory ceiling into a network-attached storage box rated for up to 200TB of local storage.

Both are refreshes rather than new designs. The MS-S1 Max-P495 is the Gorgon Halo update of the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 MS-S1 Max that shipped in late 2025; the N5 Max-P495 gives the N5 Max NAS the same treatment. Chassis, ports, 320W internal PSU and PCIe slot carry over. What changes is the silicon and, above all, the memory: 192GB instead of 128GB, with up to 160GB assignable to the GPU.

Neither machine is shipping, and Minisforum has published a price teaser but no price. We separate what is confirmed from what is not below.

What’s confirmed: MS-S1 Max-P495 specs

The Minisforum store page and press release, cross-checked against Tom’s Hardware and HotHardware, agree on:

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495, 16 Zen 5 cores / 32 threads, 3.1GHz base, up to 5.2GHz boost
  • GPU: Radeon 8065S, 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units at up to 3.0GHz
  • NPU: XDNA 2, rated at up to 55 TOPS; Minisforum quotes 131 TOPS for CPU + GPU + NPU combined
  • Memory: up to 192GB LPDDR5X-8533 on a 256-bit bus, soldered; up to 160GB allocatable as VRAM
  • Storage: two M.2 2280 NVMe slots (one PCIe 4.0 x4, one PCIe 4.0 x1), up to 8TB each, RAID 0/1
  • Expansion: one full-length PCIe x16 slot, electrically PCIe 4.0 x4
  • Rear I/O: 2x 10GbE, 2x USB4 V2 (80Gbps), 2x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2x USB 2.0, HDMI 2.1 FRL
  • Front I/O: 2x USB4 (40Gbps), 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 3.5mm audio
  • Wireless: Wi-Fi 7 (MediaTek MT7925), Bluetooth 5.4
  • Power: internal 320W PSU; 120W sustained / 160W peak PPT; 120W / 95W / 60W performance profiles
  • Size and weight: 222.1 x 206.3 x 77.1mm, 2.8kg; Windows 11 Pro preinstalled

Minisforum also repeats the rack pitch from the 395 model: four units fit in a 2U tray, with cascade power-on for clusters.

What about the N5 Max-P495 AI NAS?

The press release is thinner on the NAS. Confirmed: the same Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495, up to 192GB memory with 160GB usable as graphics memory, 131 TOPS, and up to 200TB of local storage. Minisforum calls it “a centralized backend for data, models, knowledge, and long-running AI workloads” and ships it with OpenClaw preinstalled, so agents such as OpenClaw or Hermes Agent run on the storage box next to the data they use. The 200TB figure matches the current 395-based N5 Max (five 3.5-inch SATA bays plus five M.2 slots), so the bay layout very likely carries over, but no full P495 NAS spec sheet exists yet.

What’s improved over the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 version

The enclosure is unchanged, so the upgrade case rests on chip and memory. The delta, from Minisforum’s spec sheets for both generations and its own comparison slide for the benchmark rows:

  • Memory capacity: 192GB vs 128GB
  • Memory speed: 8533 MT/s vs 8000 MT/s (roughly 7% more bandwidth on the same 256-bit bus)
  • Max GPU-allocatable memory: 160GB vs 96GB
  • CPU boost clock: 5.2GHz vs 5.1GHz
  • GPU: Radeon 8065S at 3.0GHz vs Radeon 8060S at 2.9GHz, same 40 CUs
  • NPU: 55 TOPS vs 50 TOPS; combined figure 131 vs 126 TOPS
  • Cinebench R23 multi-core (Minisforum’s numbers): 38,178 vs 36,650, about 4%
  • Qwen3.5-122B Q4_K_M (Minisforum’s numbers): about 27 tok/s vs about 25 tok/s on a single unit
  • DeepSeek V4 Flash 284B Q4 (~144GB, Minisforum’s numbers): loads on one P495 at about 12 tok/s; does not fit on a single 395 unit, which needs two nodes and reaches about 9 tok/s
  • Sustained power profile: the P495 sheet lists 120W performance mode, where the 395 sheet listed 130W; peak stays at 160W

The story is memory, not compute. Zen 5, RDNA 3.5 and XDNA 2 are the same silicon as the 395, as covered in our AMD Ryzen AI Max 400 “Gorgon Halo” explainer, and compute gains are single digits. The 192GB pool and 160GB VRAM ceiling let a ~144GB quantized model run on one box instead of a two-node cluster. That is the reason to care.

What’s still unknown

  • Price. Not announced. The EU store shows a “€7???” surprise-price teaser with the digits hidden; the US store says “Price Reveal Coming Soon”. Technetbook’s headline says “over $7,000” and other outlets extrapolate roughly €7,000 (about $7,600). Treat those as unconfirmed third-party readings of a teaser, not a list price. For context, the 395-based MS-S1 Max launched at $2,299 pre-order and now lists at $3,799 for 128GB/2TB.
  • Ship date. Tom’s Hardware had no availability at publication. The store page takes email sign-ups and Discord pre-orders only.
  • Independent benchmarks. Every token-per-second figure above comes from Minisforum. Nobody outside the company has tested a P495 unit.
  • Memory configurations. Only 192GB has been shown; a cheaper 128GB Pro 495 SKU has not been ruled in or out.
  • N5 Max-P495 details. Bay count, networking, PSU and price for the NAS are all unpublished.

What it means for mini PCs

The MS-S1 Max-P495 is the first announced 192GB Strix Halo-class box from a mini PC brand, and it moves the single-node ceiling for local LLMs from roughly 96GB of VRAM to 160GB. Anyone squeezing 120B-class models onto a 128GB EVO-X2 or Framework Desktop knows how tight that fit is; 192GB makes 200B+ MoE models at Q4 a single-machine job.

The bandwidth caveat stays. LPDDR5X-8533 on a 256-bit bus is around 273GB/s, the same class as the NVIDIA DGX Spark, so token generation stays in the low double digits for very large models however much memory sits behind it. The PCIe slot is still x4 electrically, which caps what a discrete GPU in it can add. Expect GMKtec, Beelink and Framework to follow with their own Ryzen AI Max+ 495 refreshes, and the same pricing question to hang over all of them.

Brand history readers should weigh

A neutral spec rundown is not a recommendation. The 395-based unit this replaces is the subject of our Minisforum MS-S1 Max review, which covers the measured weaknesses of that chassis, and Minisforum’s track record on warranty and after-sales handling is documented in our support unresponsiveness pattern file. At a likely price north of $7,000, both belong in the decision.

Expected timeline and price outlook

No price and no ship date have been announced. The EU teaser implies a four-figure euro price starting with 7, roughly double the current 128GB MS-S1 Max and in the bracket of two DGX Spark-class machines. We will review it once a unit ships and independent numbers exist. Related: our MS-S1 Max-P495 price coverage and our analysis of whether the Ryzen AI Max+ PRO 495 is worth buying.

Sources and caveats

Specifications come from Minisforum’s IFA 2026 press release and the MS-S1 Max-P495 store listing, with Tom’s Hardware (Jowi Morales, September 4, 2026) and HotHardware (Paul Lilly, September 5, 2026) as independent confirmation of the headline numbers. The 395 baseline is from Minisforum’s MS-S1 Max listing and Liliputing’s launch coverage. One conflict: Tom’s Hardware and Minisforum’s EU listing both say “Radeon 8060S” for the P495 unit; AMD’s Ryzen AI Max+ Pro 495 carries the Radeon 8065S, which is what the US store page and HotHardware list, so we use that. All performance figures are vendor-supplied and unverified.