Design: Asus sure knows how to put the "show" in showpiece. The front, top and right black plastic sides of the ROG XG Station 2 are stamped with thick lines meant to mimic circuitry gone wild. It gives the box a funky, futuristic chic that I can't get enough of. But the show really begins once a GPU is added and the box is connected to a laptop. The front-mounted red Tesla coil springs to life, while the interior backlighting illuminates the box with pulsating red light.
Ports: Ports include four USB 3. Slide the long button on the top right toward the back of the box, and both sides fall away, opening like some techno-fauna. From there, you just pop the card in, close the box and you're ready to rock. It was also one of the only systems to work with the Razer Blade Stealth, and was able to charge both systems. Never one to rest on its laurels, Razer went back to the lab with the Core and came back with something bigger, more streamlined and affordable.
However, fans of Razer's Chroma lighting will be disappointed as the Core X lacks the colorful customization feature. If you're looking to supersize your external graphics enclosure, the Core X is for you. The Core X eclipses both at But size isn't the only change you'll see. Razer has ditched the quartet of USB 3. Estimates put the loss at around 10 to 15 percent.
That isn't a big deal, especially considering the monstrous capacity of the latest high-end graphics cards you can buy today. However, the loss is something worth knowing about. If you're hoping to play the latest AAA titles on ultra-high settings, an external laptop GPU setup might not do it for you. That's not to say the external GPU won't improve the graphical performance of your laptop; it definitely will.
But the gains might not be as game-changing as you think. Why not? Mostly because laptops just aren't set up to handle that much power. And if they are, there's a strong chance the laptop has an integrated GPU already, negating the need for an external GPU. Again, it's not a deal-breaker, but you might notice the effects. This is especially true for older and slower CPUs. Though an external GPU dock is basically just a small piece of motherboard with a PCIe port and a connector cord, you can end up shelling out a surprising amount.
You're looking at a couple hundred bucks or more. And that's on top of the already expensive GPU to go in the dock. Not forgetting the existing cost of your laptop, of course. Some docks are also only compatible with certain brands of laptops, which means you won't be able to transfer them if you get a new one. That's another cost to consider. On the flipside, many laptops that aren't officially certified to work with a specific external GPU dock will, in fact, work just fine.
You might have to do a little bit of tinkering to get them working. External GPU docks have a wide variety of compatibilities and features. Join , subscribers and get a daily digest of news, geek trivia, and our feature articles. By submitting your email, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Laptops, especially gaming laptops, are a study in compromises. Smaller machines are lighter and easier to travel with, but bigger, heavier boxes offer the dedicated graphics cards necessary for high-end gaming. An external graphics card let you have your cake no lie and eat it too.
An external GPU or eGPU for short is a dedicated box that combines an open PCIe slot, a desktop-style power supply, and a full-sized graphics card that plugs into your laptop. When you do, you have gaming desktop power and connectivity without sacrificing those svelte modern laptop designs. This sort of thing has been attempted before, but recently there has been a rise in these products.
The high data and video bandwidth in single-cable connections like USB 3. At the moment, the de facto standard for this high-bandwidth operation is Thunderbolt 3. That said, software is another issue. This is some complex stuff, so universal solutions are rare, and companies like Dell and Razer only support external graphics on specific laptop models.
Some more general options, as well as older standards like USB 3. Update : The eGPU landscape has changed since we originally published this article in Here are our picks for the best eGPUs in Unfortunately, external GPUs are still an emerging segment, and several years after the first models were introduced they remain thin on the ground.
Here are the current options from the major PC manufacturers. The Razer Core is a little black box that manages to still be attractive, thanks to a beefy watt power supply for the biggest and baddest graphics cards, built-in USB 3. Trying out the Core with more generic systems has met with mixed results , so purchasing it without a companion Razer laptop is something of a crapshoot.
But that lower price tag does come with a few sacrifices. The Amplifier is limited to graphics cards that are The box supports all the bells and whistles of the Razer Core, including oversized GPUs, an Ethernet connection, and up to watts of power to the graphics card. By then, there might be a better connection type to use Thunderbolt 4?!?!!?!?! Hear me out. But if either service has your favorites, they might be worth investigating instead of a more complicated eGPU setup for the time being.
I think this is more economical than an eGPU right now, at least until the technology allows you to get full, unconstrained desktop performance on a laptop via a simple, plug-and-play-like connection.
When that day comes, go external all you want.
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