News Asus launches Thunderbolt 5 RTX 5090 eGPU dock overseas for $2,200

[Admin]

Asus finally launches its ROG XG Mobile 2025 dock sporting an RTX 5090 laptop GPU overseas. The new dock costs $2,199.99.

Asus launches Thunderbolt 5 RTX 5090 eGPU dock overseas for $2,200 : Read more

 

[kealii123]

If this is the retail price state-side, I assume it will sell out quickly.

If leaked specs are to be believed, the laptop 5090 will be a hair slower than the desktop 4090, with the same VRAM, and its hard to find a 4090 new or used for only $2200 online. If you have a thunderbolt 5 device its a no-brainer, except we don't really know what the performance loss is for thunderbolt 5 yet.

 

[SomeoneElse23]

So, the idea behind this is you have an underpowered GPU on your device (could be a PC as well?), and they throw in a bunch of other "dock" features like a 5Gb ethernet port?

I also noticed it's Windows 11 only. 🙁

Lastly, it also looks like they have a 5070 version.

ROG XG Mobile (2025) | Gaming external-graphic-docks｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

rog.asus.com

 

[Notton]

If this is the retail price state-side, I assume it will sell out quickly.

If leaked specs are to be believed, the laptop 5090 will be a hair slower than the desktop 4090, with the same VRAM, and its hard to find a 4090 new or used for only $2200 online. If you have a thunderbolt 5 device its a no-brainer, except we don't really know what the performance loss is for thunderbolt 5 yet.

TB5 is either 80/80Gbps or 120/40Gbps, so the bottleneck is the 64Gbps PCIe connection.

This is not a 1:1 comparison, but it does show a 4090 desktop dropping 23% performance when limited over a 64Gbps connection.
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-com...k-tests-show-up-to-a-23-drop-with-an-rtx-4090

I wouldn't be so sure about the 5090 mobile being close to a desktop 4090. The 5090 mobile is a GB203 (desktop 5080) with lower clocks, and the desktop 5080 is already 12% slower than the desktop 4090.

 

[kealii123]

TB5 is either 80/80Gbps or 120/40Gbps, so the bottleneck is the 64Gbps PCIe connection.

This is not a 1:1 comparison, but it does show a 4090 desktop dropping 23% performance when limited over a 64Gbps connection.
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-com...k-tests-show-up-to-a-23-drop-with-an-rtx-4090

I wouldn't be so sure about the 5090 mobile being close to a desktop 4090. The 5090 mobile is a GB203 (desktop 5080) with lower clocks, and the desktop 5080 is already 12% slower than the desktop 4090.

More importantly, I can't find a single Asus product that is Thunderbolt 5 except this one. The only laptops either released or announced with it are the Razer 18 Pro and some obscure Clevo laptop. They only way to run this for 99% of potiential buyers is over tb4, making it even more obscure.

 

[Notton]

More importantly, I can't find a single Asus product that is Thunderbolt 5 except this one. The only laptops either released or announced with it are the Razer 18 Pro and some obscure Clevo laptop. They only way to run this for 99% of potiential buyers is over tb4, making it even more obscure.

TB5 will most likely be attached to an Intel based laptop.
https://rog.asus.com/laptops/rog-strix/rog-strix-scar-16-2025/spec/
however Strix 16 already has a model equipped with a 5090 so.... yeah.

 

[Quirkz]

If this is the retail price state-side, I assume it will sell out quickly.

If leaked specs are to be believed, the laptop 5090 will be a hair slower than the desktop 4090, with the same VRAM, and its hard to find a 4090 new or used for only $2200 online. If you have a thunderbolt 5 device its a no-brainer, except we don't really know what the performance loss is for thunderbolt 5 yet.

A 'hair slower' than the desktop 4090?
I suspect you'll be gravely disappointed if that's your expectation.

This is the 5080 desktop chip (same core counts.) - which has half the core count of the 5090, and only 2/3s the core count of the 4090.

At 360 watts, the 5080 desktop is already more than a 'hair' slower than the 4090.
At only 150 watts, this 5090 laptop will be only slightly faster than the older 4090 laptop part.

Basically, without a process die shrink, this generation is stuck with a very small perf per watt improvement over the previous gen. They've bypassed that on desktop by just ramping up the power draw.

On the laptop, they're stuck with the same 150 watt TDP design limitations of the previous gen.

My estimate is more like 5070ti level desktop performance.