Asus introduces the external graphics solution ROG XG Station 2

With AMD, Intel and Nvidia on board, 2016 looks set to be the year when external graphics solutions for laptops become available on a broad front. One of the companies investing in the concept is Asus, where the prototype that was shown at CES earlier this year is now beginning to approach launch in the form of ROG XG Station 2.

Like the prototype, the XG Station 2 is an external box with space for any graphics card. The box is equipped with an integrated power supply of 680 W, where 500 W is dedicated to power the graphics card. The rest of the power is used to power the unit’s connections on the built-in docking station and the power supply to the laptop that is connected to the box.

The connection to the computer is made via Thunderbolt 3 or Asus’ own proprietary interface. Common to both connections is that they use four lanes PCI Express 3.0, but the company claims that they can squeeze out 15 percent higher performance via their own interface due to lower overhead. The latter interface is expected to arrive on the company’s laptops towards the end of the year.

According to Asus, a sharp launch may be relevant towards the second half of the year, and it is mainly about them waiting for Microsoft’s Anniversary update to Windows 10. This will reportedly add additional functionality for external graphics solutions.

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