Gaming PC in 2022: no graphics, launches mobile games

When we talk about personal computers, we are talking about the categories of office computers, media center computers, and of course - gaming computers. Although it has been possible to play PC games for years without having a separate graphics card in your bucket, such configurations are rarely presented as gaming PCs. But here we are in 2022 and MSI has just launched a gaming PC without a graphics card.

The MSI MAG Trident S 5M is designed as a device that locally emulates mobile games for Android, and performs more demanding PC games via cloud gaming services such as Xbox Cloud and GeForce Now. It is powered by an octa-core AMD Ryzen 5700G APU, comes with two SSDs, and can be upgraded very easily - by inserting additional components. If it didn't run Windows, we'd say it's a console.

Specifically, MSI promotes this gaming PC practically as a console - for use in combination with a gamepad and TV. To this end, they have developed their Game Stadium software, which includes an emulator for Android games. There's even a Multi-Instance Manager feature to run multiple different games at once.

MSI is aware that a good experience of streaming games from the cloud is crucial for this device, so they created LAN Manager, software that gives priority to network traffic for gaming. It certainly doesn't do anything that isn't already feasible, but it shows that MSI has worked hard on its console, sorry - gaming PC. In addition, they give each customer a 30-day subscription to the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.