United handed new signing Curtis Good his debut, plus Gael Bigirimana and Romain Amalfitano also played a part in front of a crowd of over 1,000.
United snatched the lead on seven minutes when a break through the middle saw Mehdi Abeid latch on to the ball from just outside the box before he hammered a powerful effort past Adam Bartlett.
Abeid was the man to play in Romain Amalfitano before holding off two defenders keeping his cool and planting a finish past Bartlett on 23 minutes.
Yet Gateshead showed they were no pushovers and when Mickey Cummins rifled home with 17 first half minutes to go it looked like it was game on once again.
But Newcastle restored their two goal cushion when Marcus Maddison whipped in a left wing corner and Conor Newton rose high to nod into the top right hand corner with a looping header.
No sooner had the teams kicked off again and United killed off the game as Maddison found space down the right before executing a cheeky dink over Bartlett to put clear blue water between the two sides.
GATESHEAD: Bartlett, Boyle, Chandler, Curtis, Clark, Hatch, Fisher, Brown, Wilson, Cummins, Turnbull.
UNITED: Elliot, Richardson, Dummett, Bigirimana, Tavernier, Good (Riley 79), Amalfitano (Nicholson 46), Newton (Knight 79), Hooper (Maddison 46), Abeid (Henderson 84), Inman.