Asus simply utterly bought me on cell GPUs by dropping the world’s first eGPU and dock with Thunderbolt 5 connectivity at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. Spoiler alert: It’s ripped with energy and stacked with ports.
The Asus ROG XG Cellular (2025), which seems a bit like a mini PC, can harness the ability of as much as Nvidia’s vanguard-tier RTX 5090 chip by means of a single cable connection. However it might probably do much more than that, too. The compact dock, which weighs lower than 2.2 kilos, additionally offers as much as 150W most energy, helps twin screens by way of HDMI 2.1 and USB DisplayPort 2.1, and throws in an SD card reader for enjoyable — all of the whereas offering a 5Gbps Ethernet connection.
The truth that it might probably do all that with out self-destructing comes down to at least one factor: its Thunderbolt 5 connectivity. The brand new-generation Thunderbolt 5 I/O launched early in 2024 ups the ante on knowledge transference. It’s the rationale why the 2025 ROG XG Cellular sports activities bidirectional knowledge switch speeds of 80Gbps, in a position to squeeze each ray-traced pixel of efficiency out of an eGPU chip.
In easy phrases, which means you possibly can plug a laptop computer into this child and rework it into the meanest gaming machine this facet of Texas. Studies from Asus declare it might probably clock a whopping 64Gbps for Nvidia playing cards, which surpasses USB4 and equals OCuLink — and that’s with the added versatility you don’t get with a Thunderbolt 4 eGPU.
So far as versatility goes, the 2025 ROG XG Cellular is head and shoulders above the 2024 model, which solely supported as much as a Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU. And in contrast to that dock, this one works with normal ports fairly than just some proprietary Asus ones. The 2025 ROG XG Cellular additionally has a state-of-the-art cooling system, that includes a brand new copper vapor chamber and thicker capillary constructions in comparison with earlier fashions.
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Are you bought like me but? If you’re, you’ll nonetheless wish to be aware of some issues… Should you’re going to outlay the $2,199.99 asking worth for the RTX 5090 mannequin, and even $1,199.99 for the lower-tier RTX 5070 Ti one, you’re going to wish a laptop computer with a Thunderbolt 5 port to unlock its full potential. (And people are few and much between proper now.) After all, you’ll nonetheless have the ability to use it with laptops that solely have Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 ports — you simply gained’t get full bang in your buck!
Then, too, it’s value figuring out a bit of secret in regards to the Thunderbolt 5 ecosystem: It does have some quirks that we’re hoping gained’t rear their ugly heads, particularly because the 2025 ROG XG Cellular is such a strong and well-designed piece of {hardware}.
Me, I’m an optimist. If Asus has made a beast like this, then I darn nicely wish to make it work.
