It always depends. For hardware-decoding of video in 4K, the importance of AOMedia Video 1 (AV1) has been steadily on the rise, and High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is in decline. World's first iGPU that can hardware-decode AV1 video streams on a Windows PC was the Intel Iris Xe that can be found in Tiger Lake-U, like, e.g., the Core i5-1135G7 CPU, which is a mobile (laptop) CPU, released on 2 September, 2020. (I have it in my older laptop that I expect will probably be retired soon-ish, as I recently bought a new one.)
By comparison, Intel 11th Gen desktop CPUs such as, e.g., the Core i5-11400 do not support this capability, as their iGPU is the UHD 730, which is inferior to the Iris Xe. It should also be noted that Intel desktop CPUs ending with an "F" (e.g., the Core i5-12600F) do not have an iGPU. AMD didn't support AV1 hardware-decoding until finally, they released RDNA 2 with the release of Rembrandt, i.e., the Radeon 660M/680M (on Ryzen 6000/7035 series), which were launched on 4 January, 2022.
That said, if you don't care about AV1 hardware-decoding, and you only want to watch online video streaming content in 4K, then you can refer to this FAQ: FAQ
Even so, if you buy a new Mini PC that lacks AV1 hardware-decoding right now, then you might later regret having not paid that little bit of extra money that would've gotten you AV1 hardware-decoding when you had the chance. Or you might not regret. Like I said, it always depends. The HDMI port of my new laptop can actually even support 8K, BUT... my 4K TV from Sony can not. There's always something new on the horizon. The moment when you start to talk about it, it will already be outdated.
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My Computers
System One System Two
-
- OS
- 11 Home
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Asus TUF Gaming F16 (2024)
- CPU
- i7 13650HX
- Memory
- 16GB DDR5
- Graphics Card(s)
- GeForce RTX 4060 Mobile
- Sound Card
- Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Supreme; Emotiva UMC-200; Astell & Kern AK240
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Sony Bravia XR-55X90J
- Screen Resolution
- 3840×2160
- Hard Drives
- 512GB SSD internal
37TB external
- PSU
- Li-ion
- Cooling
- 2× Arc Flow Fans, 4× exhaust vents, 5× heatpipes
- Keyboard
- Logitech K800
- Mouse
- Logitech G402
- Internet Speed
- 20Mbit/s up, 250Mbit/s down
- Browser
- FF
-
- Operating System
- 11 Home
- Computer type
- Laptop
- Manufacturer/Model
- Medion S15450
- CPU
- i5 1135G7
- Memory
- 16GB DDR4
- Graphics card(s)
- Intel Iris Xe
- Sound Card
- Eastern Electric MiniMax DAC Supreme; Emotiva UMC-200; Astell & Kern AK240
- Monitor(s) Displays
- Sony Bravia XR-55X90J
- Screen Resolution
- 3840×2160
- Hard Drives
- 2TB SSD internal
37TB external
- PSU
- Li-ion
- Mouse
- Logitech G402
- Keyboard
- Logitech K800
- Internet Speed
- 20Mbit/s up, 250Mbit/s down
- Browser
- FF
