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ASUS ROG Debuts its RTX 4090 XG Mobile GPU in China and Japan

T0@st

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ASUS ROG has started selling its RTX 4090 XG Mobile external graphics card in China and Japan this week. Japanese customers are being charged a cool $3000 for the pint-sized powerhouse external GPU, and Chinese buyers are getting a slightly better deal at $2700. It should be noted that this eGPU is the (GN21-X11) mobile variant of the GeForce RTX 4090, and not the full fat desktop version. The newly updated XG Mobile enclosure can only be connected to an ASUS Flow laptop, which limits the scope of compatibility to an already very expensive range of devices. The proprietary connection standard will keep customers in the ASUS ROG mobile hardware ecosystem - but their higher end laptop models can be configured with the very capable GeForce RTX 4070 mobile GPU, so the RTX 4090 XG Mobile seems to appeal to a very small buying niche.

The XG Mobile interface uses the PCIE Gen 3 x8 standard of connection, and the GPU has access to a dedicated 63 GB/s of bandwidth. This beats the Thunderbolt 4 standard of 40 Gb/s, by a 57% margin. The enclosure acts as a docking station - its features include an up to 2.5 Gbit Ethernet, a single HDMI 2.1 port, one DisplayPort 1.4 with G-Sync support and three USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (3x Type-A + 1x Type-C). ASUS ROG has engineered the docking station/enclosure to be as compact as possible (21.7 cm x 16.5 cm x 3.26 cm), when compared to competing products from other manufacturers. The whole package weighs in at 1.3 kg, which will ensure decent portability for gamers on the move.




The AD103 GPU core has a total of 76 SMs equivalent to 9728 CUDA cores (similar to the desktop-class RTX 4080's configuration), and the TGP options are in the 150 - 175 W range with a +25 W Dynamic Boost on tap, paired with a 1590 MHz Base and 2040 MHz Boost clock range. This eGPU variant has access to a pool of 16 GB GDDR6 VRAM (256-bit). The ASUS ROG XG Mobile is engineered to hold two modules. One contains a 330 W integrated adapter and the other houses the GPU and the connection interface panel. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Mobile is kept cool via a vapor chamber heatsink with an attached blower-style fan - air is emitted out of the enclosure's chassis through exhaust vents.

ASUS ROG has been selling XG Mobile variants for a number of years. The 2022 AMD version with a Radeon RX 6850M XT is currently sold for $1,399, and the 2021 version with an RTX 3080 was $1,499. This year's RTX 4090-based model is almost 90% more expensive than the 2022 RX 6850M-based iteration.



MORE THAN GRAPHICS. LESS TO CARRY.
All members of the ROG Flow laptop family have a secret weapon - the XG Mobile. ROG's exclusive XG Mobile ecosystem of external GPUs provide amped-up horsepower and offer a built in I/O hub, allowing higher bandwidth to Flow devices with a proprietary PCIe connection. The XG Mobile features an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU with a max TGP of 150 W, allowing you to transform your Flow device from a mobile gaming laptop to a true battlestation.

GO FOR PRO-LEVEL SPEED
Experience fast and fluid gameplay delivered by a cutting-edge GPU. Our top config has a brand-new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 Laptop GPU. Build out a complete battlestation with a gaming mouse, gamepad, and more via one USB Type-C and three flexible USB Type-A ports. Plug into gigabit ethernet for the lowest latency connections for competitive online multiplayer.

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Someone remind me what the U in USB stands for.
 
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What the hell.

Why wouldn't you just buy another laptop with a 4090 ? They cost about the same, right ?
 
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Cheeseball

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What the hell.

Why wouldn't you just buy another laptop with a 4090 ? They cost about the same, right ?

Technically this is supposed to be a dock, but ASUS markets it as also being "portable".

The X13 and Z13 laptop and tablet can make use of it, use them for work/mobility and then go back to this for more performance.

But still way too costly.
 
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What the hell.

Why wouldn't you just buy another laptop with a 4090 ? They cost about the same, right ?

My X13 supports this but I sill find pricing pretty atrocious.

Maybe if I traveled overseas a lot and needed more gaming performance this might be more appealing than buying a whole new laptop but even then I find this unappealing.
 
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What the hell.

Why wouldn't you just buy another laptop with a 4090 ? They cost about the same, right ?
Actually you need to add another $1000 for the laptop.
 
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What the hell.

Why wouldn't you just buy another laptop with a 4090 ? They cost about the same, right ?

This is just asus reinventing the concept of eGPU with a proprietary interface. It's a stupid and completely idiotic solution when Thunderbolt and better yet USB4 (not really better, but better in terms of being open) are a thing
 
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This is just asus reinventing the concept of eGPU with a proprietary interface. It's a stupid and completely idiotic solution when Thunderbolt and better yet USB4 (not really better, but better in terms of being open) are a thing
The problem is that TB4/USB3 are still limited to a PCIe 3.0x4 interface, on last gen GPUs this was already insufficient when you also factored in things like USB inputs and video out, this was and still is a known issue.

The 4090 mobile is faster then these previous solutions, thus making the issue worse. It's still dumb there is no USB 4/TB4 version of this dock, since otherwise it fills a niche nobody else will fill, however there is a reason they made their own x8 wide interface.

TB5/USB5,w ith its 120/40 mode, may finally fix this, but we don know when its coming. It was supposed to be here this year with meteor lake, but.......
 
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The problem is that TB4/USB3 are still limited to a PCIe 3.0x4 interface, on last gen GPUs this was already insufficient when you also factored in things like USB inputs and video out, this was and still is a known issue.

The 4090 mobile is faster then these previous solutions, thus making the issue worse. It's still dumb there is no USB 4/TB4 version of this dock, since otherwise it fills a niche nobody else will fill, however there is a reason they made their own x8 wide interface.

TB5/USB5,w ith its 120/40 mode, may finally fix this, but we don know when its coming. It was supposed to be here this year with meteor lake, but.......

That's only a real problem if you're using the built in display - but why the hell would you ever do that!!? Otherwise around 15% loss (ballpark since 3.0 8x also looses about 6%) for a universal solution is a price worth paying (on the desktop version with the a 13900k, the laptop won't suffer nearly as much)


 
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