Asus Debuts Graphics Dock That Uses PCI-e Lanes

[kewlguy239]

Asus announced an external graphics card dock that uses PCI-e lanes instead of Thunderbolt 3.

Asus Debuts Graphics Dock That Uses PCI-e Lanes : Read more

 

[Edex]

Will cable length be an issue?

 

[kewlguy239]

The cables we saw at the Asus suite were plenty long enough to make the dock a stationary fixture on a desk while being able to reach the PC. They were about 2-3 feet in length, so unless you are planning to place the dock on the floor and run the cables up to laptop, it should be sufficient.

 

[quilciri]

[Morgan Freeman]: Like a taco.....like a taco.

 

[cknobman]

I'd really love to see some benchmarks with a graphics card in one of these things compared to a similar platform with the card plugged right into the motherboard.

 

[Xajel]

The problem with this approach is well, compatibility, as not all laptops will be equipped with such USB/PCIe hybrid ports...

Razer solution I think it's better, Thunderbolt 3 is a standard after all, not all laptops have it, but most high-end have it, and even some mid-rangers too... the dock provides also 4x USB 3.0 ports and 1x Gigabit Ethernet port.. making it a very nice dock indeed as it will allow to use only one cable to have everything ready...

 

[falchard]

I feel bandwidth may be an issue here. Although USB 3 is fast. Its no where near as fast as PCI-e. We are starting to get to a point where Graphics cards are using up a PCI-e 2.0 x16 which is 6 times more bandwidth than USB 3.1.

 

[abbadon_34]

The problem with this approach is well, compatibility, as not all laptops will be equipped with such USB/PCIe hybrid ports...

Razer solution I think it's better, Thunderbolt 3 is a standard after all, not all laptops have it, but most high-end have it, and even some mid-rangers too... the dock provides also 4x USB 3.0 ports and 1x Gigabit Ethernet port.. making it a very nice dock indeed as it will allow to use only one cable to have everything ready...

Thunderbolt has never seen widespread adoption, so this does seem to have a wider market. If nothing else, it is good have the choice, and a competing technology is good for everyone.

I feel bandwidth may be an issue here. Although USB 3 is fast. Its no where near as fast as PCI-e. We are starting to get to a point where Graphics cards are using up a PCI-e 2.0 x16 which is 6 times more bandwidth than USB 3.1.

True, which is why they are using two (2) cables. Which begs the question, how about using 3 or 4 cables? How about multiple Thunderbolt on a Razer-type system?

Asus explained that its internal testing with a Titan X showed that four lanes operate at 99.99% of the performance of a x16 lane interface

I would _love_ to see Tom's do an article/test like this.

 

[zodiacfml]

USB type C. Is the minimum USB 3.0 or 3.1?

 

[Quixit]

Thunderbolt has never seen widespread adoption, so this does seem to have a wider market. If nothing else, it is good have the choice, and a competing technology is good for everyone.

No it doesn't, did you even read the article? It's totally proprietary and only works with ASUS products that support their proprietary PCIe over USB scheme (which is effectively what thunderbolt 3 also is, it's just better than ASUS's version.

The purpose of ASUS's system is to lock out other vendors, real scummy considering a better, standardized solution is already available. You need 2 cables for the same 4 PCI-E 3.0 lanes you'd get with a Thunderbolt 3 system. It might save them a few bucks too, assuming that the hardware they're using costs less than Intel's Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controller, but it's a lot less flexible too seeing as you can't just plug in anything that supports Thunderbolt 3.

 

[Loganmac]

Hey, Im a massive noob when it comes to uhh computers and GPAs but a few years ago I got a Asus G750JW Notebook (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-G750JW-Notebook.96316.0.html) and lately the performance been lacking. Would this be a viable option for me? Like would it work?

 

[epobirs]

Hey, Im a massive noob when it comes to uhh computers and GPAs but a few years ago I got a Asus G750JW Notebook (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-G750JW-Notebook.96316.0.html) and lately the performance been lacking. Would this be a viable option for me? Like would it work?

No. This would only be usable by new ASUS products, presumably those with USB 3.1 on board, as that maps out fairly well to PCI-e 3.0 lanes. I also expect there is some hardware customization involved if this is supposed to overcome the latency issues of Thunderbolt. (The two Gb less bandwidth per lane is largely made up by the USB overhead, though this is likely beside the point for ASUS' PCI-e over USB scheme.)

 

[epobirs]

Thunderbolt has never seen widespread adoption, so this does seem to have a wider market. If nothing else, it is good have the choice, and a competing technology is good for everyone.

No it doesn't, did you even read the article? It's totally proprietary and only works with ASUS products that support their proprietary PCIe over USB scheme (which is effectively what thunderbolt 3 also is, it's just better than ASUS's version.

The purpose of ASUS's system is to lock out other vendors, real scummy considering a better, standardized solution is already available. You need 2 cables for the same 4 PCI-E 3.0 lanes you'd get with a Thunderbolt 3 system. It might save them a few bucks too, assuming that the hardware they're using costs less than Intel's Alpine Ridge Thunderbolt 3 controller, but it's a lot less flexible too seeing as you can't just plug in anything that supports Thunderbolt 3.

To be fair, ASUS said this was motivated by latency issues with Thunderbolt. That is something that can be tolerated in creative apps needing the GPU horsepower but a fatal flaw for high intensity gaming.

I rather doubt ASUS would go to the trouble of creating a proprietary solution with a narrow market if the open standard met the need. A bigger question is whether ASUS would let this out as a standard of its own, increasing the range of gaming laptop brands that can make use of the dock.

 

[Loganmac]

Hey, Im a massive noob when it comes to uhh computers and GPAs but a few years ago I got a Asus G750JW Notebook (http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-G750JW-Notebook.96316.0.html) and lately the performance been lacking. Would this be a viable option for me? Like would it work?

 

[f-14]

The problem with this approach is well, compatibility, as not all laptops will be equipped with such USB/PCIe hybrid ports...

Razer solution I think it's better, Thunderbolt 3 is a standard after all, not all laptops have it, but most high-end have it, and even some mid-rangers too... the dock provides also 4x USB 3.0 ports and 1x Gigabit Ethernet port.. making it a very nice dock indeed as it will allow to use only one cable to have everything ready...

thunderbolt isn't a standard, it's a high end option and it's not made for speed it's latency is high.
displayport is more standard than thunderbolt will be. think thunderbolt=firewire.
usb 4.0 will wipe the floor over it in terms of power, interoperability, cost, and support as well as adoption. thunderbolt has been out for years while 3.1 is recent and almost already more widely adopted here's the main reason why:
Max. voltage 18 V (bus power)
Max. current 550 mA (9.9 W max.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)

geforce titan
System Requirements
Minimum Power Supply Requirement: 750 watt & 36 amps on the 12 volt rail
Ports
HDMI
1 x HDMI
Multi-Monitor Support
4
DisplayPort
3 x DisplayPort
DVI
1 x DVI-I

amd r9 fury System Requirements
750W System Power Supply Recommended; 375W Power Consumption
Ports
HDMI
1 x HDMI
DisplayPort
3 x DisplayPort

 

[sephirotic]

The problem with this approach is well, compatibility, as not all laptops will be equipped with such USB/PCIe hybrid ports...

Razer solution I think it's better, Thunderbolt 3 is a standard after all, not all laptops have it, but most high-end have it, and even some mid-rangers too... the dock provides also 4x USB 3.0 ports and 1x Gigabit Ethernet port.. making it a very nice dock indeed as it will allow to use only one cable to have everything ready...

thunderbolt isn't a standard, it's a high end option and it's not made for speed it's latency is high.
displayport is more standard than thunderbolt will be. think thunderbolt=firewire.
usb 4.0 will wipe the floor over it in terms of power, interoperability, cost, and support as well as adoption. thunderbolt has been out for years while 3.1 is recent and almost already more widely adopted here's the main reason why:
Max. voltage 18 V (bus power)
Max. current 550 mA (9.9 W max.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbolt_(interface)

geforce titan
System Requirements
Minimum Power Supply Requirement: 750 watt & 36 amps on the 12 volt rail
Ports
HDMI
1 x HDMI
Multi-Monitor Support
4
DisplayPort
3 x DisplayPort
DVI
1 x DVI-I

amd r9 fury System Requirements
750W System Power Supply Recommended; 375W Power Consumption
Ports
HDMI
1 x HDMI
DisplayPort
3 x DisplayPort

Those power consumptions are figures for the whole system. Who would put a GTX titan paired with a Notebook anyway? The energy obviously has not to do with the cable interface used, of course a separated power brick would be used. For a single GTX 980, a 250w 12v dedicated power supply would be more than enough, such power brick wouldn't even need to have a fan at all.

 

[Maarsch]

Does this thing come with USB ports as well?
With 2 gone you'd end up with 1-2 left over for a mouse and other peripherals.

Enough to plug in a hub, of course.

 

[epobirs]

As already noted, the power transmission specs for the bus are of no matter to the device in the dock, which will have its own power supply. That is, after all, the entire point of the dock, supplying a means to access a bulky and power hungry GPU when at a set location.

Since Thunderbolt is adopting the USB Type C connector, it looks very likely that USB 4.0 will BE Thunderbolt. This would quadruple the bandwidth and bring with it a bunch of features already defined for Thunderbolt. Merging the two would make a lot of sense.