AOOSTAR Unveils XG76 and XG76 XT eGPUs with OCuLink, USB4 and Relatively Affordable Pricing

[GGforever]

The prominent Chinese brand AOOSTAR has unveiled its XG lineup of RDNA 3-based eGPUs. Consisting of the XG76 and the XG76 XT, the eGPUs are powered by the AMD Radeon RX 7600M with 28 CUs and the desktop-class RX 7600 XT with 32 CUs respectively, both with a 150 W TDP. These GPUs are plenty performant, and are likely to offer respectable 1080p gaming performance.

Similar to offerings from competitors such as GPD and Ayaneo, the XG lineup features dock functionality as well. Both the variants sport USB4 connectivity with up to 100 W of power delivery. Display output is taken care of by the dual DisplayPort 2.0 ports, and a single HDMI 2.1 port. The system also rocks OCuLink support, allowing for a significantly lower performance hit when compared to Thunderbolt 4 or USB4.




As for pricing and availability, both the XG76 and the XG76 XT are available for pre-order. The XG76 is priced at $499, while the XG76 XT commands a hefty $619 price tag. Unlike certain other offerings in the eGPU segment, there is no option for an M.2 slot for storage expansion, which might be a tad disappointing for some. An external 330 W PSU is also required.

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[TheinsanegamerN]

I like the idea of these docks, but I have two complaints.

1) why do these GPU docks skimp on connectivity? I can get a Thinkpad dock with six type A ports, two type C, two display port, an HDMI, multi gig Ethernet, and dedicated audio jack. Why can I not have that connectivity and a GPU?

2) why is it always the 7600? That GPU is weak sauce. If I'm paying this much, where's the 4090 mobile or 6850m/7900m docks?

 

[fec32a4de]

I like the idea of these docks, but I have two complaints.

1) why do these GPU docks skimp on connectivity? I can get a Thinkpad dock with six type A ports, two type C, two display port, an HDMI, multi gig Ethernet, and dedicated audio jack. Why can I not have that connectivity and a GPU?

2) why is it always the 7600? That GPU is weak sauce. If I'm paying this much, where's the 4090 mobile or 6850m/7900m docks?

Bandwidth.

Docks like this try and skimp on connectivity because of lack of bandwidth. You need more than OCuLink or USB4 can provide.

Adding ports means needing more bandwidth.

7600 is for 2 reasons: 1. Because everyone decided its THE GPU to use in these for some reason. And 2. A more powerful GPU will be bottlenecked by the lack of bandwidth.

When Thunderbolt 5/ USB4 2.0 becomes more common we will see more options

 

[rhqq]

1) why do these GPU docks skimp on connectivity? I can get a Thinkpad dock with six type A ports, two type C, two display port, an HDMI, multi gig Ethernet, and dedicated audio jack. Why can I not have that connectivity and a GPU?

I had a GDP G1. During gameplay keyboard would lag, mouse would skip, usb audio would crackle.

7600 is for 2 reasons: 1. Because everyone decided its THE GPU to use in these for some reason. And 2. A more powerful GPU will be bottlenecked by the lack of bandwidth.

Nope. Moved to 7600XT 16GB and I still am able to easily max out the GPU. I could've easily gone with 7800 or 7900GRO, but I was misleaded by these "bandwidth issues" that are just plain wrong.

The real answer is, 7600M XT was the only GPU introduced as the mobile one for a long long time - so indie companies had to deal with it and build their designs around that particular chip. Only much later on we were told that 7900M will actually happen (in fact, did it?). Non-mobile chips have never been considered really for the much higher idle clocks/temps/power draw - however that's also disputable. I'm running egpu on 7600XT (non-m, an external GPU using normal PCIex slot card) and I'm seeing ~15W (well, plus all the overhead of the dock, extra egpu chip, efficiency losses in the whole chain etc ~30W) while GDP G1had final power draw around 15W - while ALSO being a 100W laptop charger.

 

[TheinsanegamerN]

I had a GDP G1. During gameplay keyboard would lag, mouse would skip, usb audio would crackle.

There are multiple docks that have gotten around this issue. They use two controllers, with the connectivity controller getting priority to avoid lag issues, and the GPU coming second.

These eGPU docks are often cheaper then these integrated systems, so I dont know why they didnt use the same concept.

Nope. Moved to 7600XT 16GB and I still am able to easily max out the GPU. I could've easily gone with 7800 or 7900GRO, but I was misleaded by these "bandwidth issues" that are just plain wrong.

The real answer is, 7600M XT was the only GPU introduced as the mobile one for a long long time - so indie companies had to deal with it and build their designs around that particular chip. Only much later on we were told that 7900M will actually happen (in fact, did it?). Non-mobile chips have never been considered really for the much higher idle clocks/temps/power draw - however that's also disputable. I'm running egpu on 7600XT (non-m, an external GPU using normal PCIex slot card) and I'm seeing ~15W (well, plus all the overhead of the dock, extra egpu chip, efficiency losses in the whole chain etc ~30W) while GDP G1had final power draw around 15W - while ALSO being a 100W laptop charger.

Right, but the 7900m launched in october 23....so why are we still stuck on the 7600m? And where are the nvidia options? The 7800m launched just two months ago and you can already buy a dock with it integrated (the onexgpu dock).

Seems like the only one that got it right was Asus, the ROG dock offered a 4090m, lot of connectivity, ece, but it only works on certain RoG laptops.

 

[rhqq]

There are multiple docks that have gotten around this issue. They use two controllers, with the connectivity controller getting priority to avoid lag issues, and the GPU coming second.

Do they require two usb cables to be connected to the laptop?

These eGPU docks are often cheaper then these integrated systems, so I dont know why they didnt use the same concept.

I have not seen (yet) on aliexpress a dock that is capable of 100W PD. There's one that's capable of 80W PD or something around that limit.

Right, but the 7900m launched in october 23....so why are we still stuck on the 7600m? And where are the nvidia options? The 7800m launched just two months ago and you can already buy a dock with it integrated (the onexgpu dock).

Seems like the only one that got it right was Asus, the ROG dock offered a 4090m, lot of connectivity, ece, but it only works on certain RoG laptops.

True, I forgot about nv, mostly because they're a massive pita to deal with on linux, which is the only system I use... (to be fair, things are getting better recently)

I've quickly compared a number of solutions - it seems like efficiency is the reason. They all want to deliver a super small form factor device as the priority - this affects cooling capacity - which in turn pretty much makes them use mobile chips. I may be wrong here, but I remember reading once that nv is very unfriendly to smaller companies with novelty products - unlike AMD - but that's really to be further verified.