Falcon Northwest Tiki (Intel, RTX 5080) Review: The Thin Reaper Has Arrived

When people get word the words desktop computer , many reckon of a monolithic titan . The visual gets a heaping portion of RGB when you confound the word “ gaming ” into the commixture . But not all gaming screen background have to be monolithic . Want test copy ? Take a flavor at the Falcon Northwest Tiki , a succinct powerhouse that can take hold its own with the enceinte boys . In the slight confines of the Tiki look an Intel Core Ultra 9 mainframe and a Nvidia RTX 5080 GPU waiting to let loose hell upon your enemies , be they computer generated or physique and bone . It ’s the perfect solution for those who want maximum gaming power but are short on space . The only problem ? The cost .

Falcon Northwest Tiki

The Falcon Northwest Tiki crams a load of brawny components into a earnestly svelte chassis

Shot Falcon Northwest Tiki connected to a monitor on a wooden desk

©Photo: Charles Anthony Davis/DreamSmith LLC

Pros

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Pricing and Configurations

Despite its small frame , Falcon make certain you ’re spoiled for pick on the configurations for the Tiki . However , Falcon and every other OEM are being hit with tariffs , which intend they ’re pass it on to you , dear reviewer . At the sentence of this writing , it ’s a 5 % price increase . Which does n’t seem like much . But if you ’ve ever build your own PC , you hump that sourcing components can quickly become a pricy affaire .

So that means the Tiki infrastructure model outfitted with an Intel Core Ultra 7 265 processor costs $ 5,407 . It also has an Intel Laminar RH1 Cooler , a couplet of 16 GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR4 6,000MHz RAM , a Asus ROG Strix Z890 - vitamin E Gaming WiFi Motherboard , a Kingston Fury Renegade 2 TB PCIe M.2 SSD , a Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU with 16 GB of VRAM , and a SilverStone SX SFX - L Platinum 1,000W PSU .

The AMD Ryzen 5 9600X CPU bag model is a little cheaper at $ 5,354 . Outside of the processor swap , you also get the Noctua NH - L9a - AM5 Chromax Black Air Cooler . And there ’s my actual review build , which cost $ 5,740 , has a 2.5 - GHz Intel Core Ultra 9 285 CPU , a dyad of 32 GB Kingston Fury Beast RGB DDR4 6,000MHz RAM , and a Crucial T705a 2 TB PCIe M.2 Gen 5.0 SSD . My configuration also has an RGB - backlit Falcon emblem along with a three - sided customs duty UV mark . Each build use Microsoft Windows 11 Pro as an operating organisation and has a 3 - year parts & labor warranty .

Left side shot of Falcon Northwest Tiki on wooden table

©Photos: Charles Anthony Davis/DreamSmith LLC

Design/Build Quality

I love a good SFF ( Small Form Factor ) organisation , and Falcon Northwest makes some of the in effect . The thickset frame is made from disastrous anodized Al , with a thick pedestal that ensures the organization is n’t tiptoe over or slue aside easily . As the pictures show , I do n’t have a regular - schmegular figure . Falcon snare me up with one of its custom UV prints , which are available for $ 149 for the front or a single side jury or $ 399 for all three sides . The companionship pride itself on having the “ highest resolution ultraviolet illumination printer in the industry ” at 600 dpi . Just send over your image idea and the company can publish on your organisation – just check that it ’s a mellow - resolution persona for the best resultant .

My Tiki has one of the company ’s pre - made print . uncommitted in several colors , the photographic print mimics a massive circuit instrument panel . The green blusher that pass water up the circuit is semi - glossy , giving a cool embossed look . And of trend , there ’s the company ’s nominal Falcon mascot on both position looking imperil and badass . And like I mentioned in the configurations section , the cut - out allegory of the mascot on the PC ’s front panel is RGB backlit .

The top panel is almost all geometric vent cutout . But there ’s also a USB - C 3.2 Gen 2 port and two USB - A 3.2 Gen 1 ports . You also have the power and devotee button . Take a gander around the back of the Micro - Tower , and you have the usual gather , such as a pair of Thunderbolt 4 port , a USB - C 3.2 port , two USB - A 2.0 port , two USB - A 3.0 ports , and a couplet of USB - A 3.2 ports . There ’s also an HDMI 2.1 port , an Ethernet diddly , a pair of connexion for a Wi - Fi antenna , and the AC input jack for the fatheaded power cord .

Shot of Falcon Northwest Tiki opened from the right resting on wooden table

©Photo: Charles Anthony Davis/DreamSmith LLC

Opening the case is a breeze . You just unscrew the two orotund screw oblige the correct - side panel in place and slue it off to reveal the heavily feng shui - erectile dysfunction portion . The GPU takes up the top quartern of the space leaving the rest to the CPU , motherboard , and beam RGB RAM . Not an inch of space is wasted , and astonishingly you ’ve got enough slot to increase the RAM to 96 GB if you so desire .

value 4 x 13.6 x 13 inches , the Tiki ’s slim frame is the answer to many apartment dwellers ’ prayers , or anyone who does n’t have a lot of space to spare . It can well slide into a tight speckle and still be the epicenter of your gaming experience . Just be sure to lift with your knees , as the subject set out at 18 pounds with the base . The free weight can change drastically depending on what ingredient are admit in the build .

Gaming/Graphics

In many ways , the Tiki has a lot in usual with box legend Tommy “ The Hit Man ” Hearns . They both have small skeletal system but pack a hell of a biff . gird with a Nvidia RTX 5080 Founders Edition GPU , there is n’t much that the Tiki ca n’t do . Despite that slim inning , it ’s not to be trifled with . And while I was really tempted to drop excessive time of day playing through the new Hades 2 update , I was an grownup and play some more taxing fare . Then I went and play undue hours of Hades 2 .

I start things off with another game that I ’ve died in prison term and sentence again : Black Myth Wukong . For these benchmarks , I kept the secret plan running at its high setting , Cinematic , and adjusted settlement and result accordingly . So when I ran the secret plan at 1080p , I saw an average frame charge per unit of 76 frame per second . Turning on DLSS stir the frame rate to 116 fps , while bringing ray tracing in the mix dropped it to 89 fps . Compare that to theCyberPowerPC Gamer SupremeI latterly brush up which also has a RTX 5080 , only its an MSI Ventus 3X OC card . On that same discharge of tests , I saw results of 83 , 127 , and 92 Federal Protective Service , severally .

The Falcon continues having a good showing at 4 K with 69 fps without DLSS , 108 fps with the feature film , and 84 fps with re tracing enable . Those are great numbers , but not a match for the Gamer Supreme , which give me 74 fps sans DLSS 118 with and 95 fps with ray trace .

Front shot of Northwest Falcon Tiki with green and white Xbox Scuf controller on wooden table with Gizmodo sign in the back

©Photo: Charles Anthony Davis/DreamSmith LLC

Next up , I ran the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark on Ultra configurations , which is notoriously tax . But the Tiki , powerhouse that it is , handled it graciously . For our 1080p resolution , I got an mediocre 189 Federal Protective Service with no effect , a nonsensical 371 fps with DLSS , and 361 Federal Protective Service with light beam trace . This was a tight race with the Gamer Supreme , as it only reached 187 Federal Protective Service without effects , 211 Federal Protective Service with DLSS , and 202 Federal Protective Service with ray tracing added .

At 4 kelvin , the Falcon Tiki got 143 fps on the non - effect run , 270 Federal Protective Service with DLSS , and 267 with electron beam tracing on top . Meanwhile , the Gamer Supreme produced 114 , 143 and 139 Federal Protective Service , severally .

And finally , I start the Hitman 3 Dartmoor Benchmark on High at 1080p . Sans special sauce , the Tiki notched 122 fps , which rose to 327 Federal Protective Service with DLSS enabled and only gained a frame with ray trace added to the premix . The Gamer Supreme manducate up the bench mark , starting with 190 sans effects , launching into an unheard of 427 Federal Protective Service with DLSS and 420 Federal Protective Service with shaft tracing .

Top-down shot of Falcon Northwest Tiki on wooden desk

crank up things up to 4 G , the Tiki bring out 159 , 190 , and 191 Federal Protective Service to the CyberPowerPC ’s 121 , 225 , and 224 fps .

Performance

There come a meter in every gamer ’s lifetime when they have to put down the controller and practice that black eye for something other than headshotting their foes . When that time add up , screw that Tiki has you cover with its 2.5 - GHz Intel Core Ultra 9 285 processor and its 64 GB of RAM . The svelte system seemed to give a sarcastic snort as I unleashed my 70 Google Chrome tabs with an unruly premix of G - Suite apps , societal medium page , tidings web site , and videos . It even kept its cool when I started blue-pencil loading of videos . Did the fans get a little loud ? Sure , but not so much it was a misdirection .

So let ’s get into some synthetical benchmarks where the Tiki ’s Intel CPU duked it out with the CyberPowerPC ’s AMD Ryzen 9800X3D central processing unit . It was a faithful fight on the PCMark 10 exam , but the Gamer Supreme inched out a narrow-minded triumph at 9,981 to 9,819 . The fight proceed on the Geekbench 6 tests , with the CyberPowerPC snatching the win on the unmarried - core round of golf 3,142 to 3,045 . However , the Tiki stag a comeback on the multi - core 21,753 to 17,148 . The Tiki earned decisive win on both aspect of the Cinebench 2024 benchmark .

And when it come to transcoding video , the Tiki is your huckleberry , taking only 2 minutes and 31 seconds to transcode a 4 1000 video to 1080p . The Gamer Supreme took 3:07 . The Falcon was also quicker on both the CPU and GPU dowery of the Blender test , with time of 1:19 and 1:29 compared to its competition ( 1:45 and 1:42 ) .

Close up shot of Falcon Northwest Tiki’s rear ports

Verdict

My configuration performed above and beyond expectation and reminded me that everything does n’t have to be massive to be good . I just wish the pricing were as slim as the Tiki ’s proportion . The Tiki was already expensive , but adding tariffs on top stand for that only the deep pocketed gamers can savor this slender fatale ’s allurement . But if you may yield it , the slight Falcon Northwest Tiki is an awesome pre - build organisation just await to bend mind and kick ass .

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