THUNDEROBOT, a Chinese esports gear specialist, has taken the unusual step of showing off a Hygon CPU-powered gaming rig at a recent tournament. Under normal circumstances, the company builds machines based on mainstream AMD Ryzen and Intel Core processors—TechPowerUp perused multiple prime examples at CES 2025. In a fresh social media post, THUNDEROBOT declared that they had produced: "a new species, reshaping the future of esports!" Instead of utilizing familiar Team Red or Blue processing solutions, the firm's new "Black Warrior Hunter Pro" system is centered around a domestically developed "C86 next-generation processor." Internet sleuths discovered early units last summer; when slightly scuffed "fourth generation" units were offered up for sale via an online marketplace. Hygon's "C86-7490" CPU seemed to feature elements directly derived from AMD's EPYC SP5 format. TechPowerUp covered the emergence of the chipmaker's server-grade C86-5G model—based on a Zen core IP—back in May.

Fast-forwarding to November 2025, curious tournament attendees were granted hands-on time with THUNDEROBOT's latest gaming system. A fuzzy off-screen capture of CPU-Z information outlines the dual chiplet Hygon C86-4G chip's basics: a 2.8 GHz base clock, 16 cores, 32 threads, along with 32 MB of L3 cache. The measured 55535 W TDP rating is very likely erroneous. This intriguing processor is apparently up-to-date enough to run with DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0 standards. Valorant and Black Myth Wukong sessions were up and running on showcased rigs. Comparative benchmarking demonstrates performance within the vicinity of Raptor Lake (-S and -R) generation CPUs—Wccftech proposes a middle ground between Intel's Core i7-13700 and i7-14700 models. Another domestic chipmaker—Loongson—has taken similar brave steps to play catch-up with typical past-gen Team Blue designs.