As game developers push the boundaries of today's games, ramping up resolution and whatnot, gamers have in turn sought after laptops that are compact and powerful enough to withstand a video game's prowess. One way to make that possible is the new ASUS XG Station 2, or what the Republic of Gamers call, the ROG XG Station 2. Asus' external GPU dock can enhance compatible laptops to full desktop gaming performance.
Asus XG Station 2 Features
One of the integral decisions Asus had to consider in its new XG Station 2 concerned connectivity is choosing between a USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3 and a superior PCIe connection. The company opted for both, and now the final details for the latest XG Station include a USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3.
According to Asus, its own proprietary PCIe connection did not suffer from the encoding overhead that USB Type-C with Thunderbolt does. Thunderbolt 3 over Type-C withstands up to 40Gbps, but you drop bandwidth because of the encoding. Therefore, the PCIe connection brought true 40Gbps performance.
"XG Station 2 allows you to connect an additional USB Type-B cable to help compensate and push the performance further. The performance can then be pushed up to within 10% of the graphics card's maximum performance," said Asus. Clearly, the company did not dump that notion, even with USB Type-C implementation.
Asus XG Station 2 Specs
The XG Station 2 is powered by Nvidia GeForce GTX 900 Series and AMD Radeon R9/RX and has support for a single full length, 2.5 slot and PCI-Express x16 graphics card
1x PCI-Express x16. It also includes four USB 3.0 ports and an additional USB 3.0 Type B for max performance.
Tom's Hardware reports that Asus hasn't revealed the price for the XG Station 2 yet, although it should launch in early 2017. More information on Asus' docking stations can be found on Asus ROG, and for its list of compatible laptops, click here.
