Republic of Gamers arm of Asus introduced the ROG XG Station 2, an external graphics station to boost the performance of compatible laptops and 2-in-1 PCs. It connects via a Thunderbolt 3 port, which provides data transfer rates of up to 40 gigabits per second.
XG Station 2 utilizes the speed of Thunderbolt 3 (up to 40Gbps) which allows eight times the data transfer rate of USB 3.0 (5Gbps) and four times the video bandwidth of HDMI 1.4, resulting in a minimal performance drop while using this external solution. Ideally, it would be best to allow all laptops to be compatible with the XG Station 2, however, it would be a travesty to connect this to a single-core processor laptop with USB 3.0 for example. That's why ROG has chosen to only support selected ASUS laptops with enough processor power and Thunderbolt 3 so you get your money's worth in performance for years to come.
There's a slight overhead due to encoding and decoding when connecting only via Thunderbolt 3, 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.
A compact laptop usually offers less connectivity in favor of reducing overall size and thickness, the four USB 3.0 ports and Gigabit Ethernet port at the back of the XG Station 2 help to make up for it, while reducing the hassel and number of cables you need to plug and unplug at the laptop. ROG has made it possible to connect and disconnect the XG Station 2 without restarting.
Power
Everyone wants a hassel-free and clutter-free solution, that why XG Station 2 is designed to not only supply 500W of power to the graphics card, it provides up to 100W to charge your compatible laptop and other USB-connected devices via a single Thunderbolt 3 cable. The internal power has an 80 Plus Gold certification, and is up to 90 percent energy efficient.
Wondering if this can support the latest graphics cards? There's enough juice here for the current king of the hill - the ROG Strix GTX 1080, and also supports the latest offerings from AMD, such as the ROG Strix RX 480. For future cards, XG Station 2 can accommodate full-length graphics cards up to 2.5 slots wide.
Aura Sync
The centerpiece of the station is an ROG-themed plama tube, it gives you a sense of the power and futuristic tech within. Don't be surprised if you find yourself staring at it like a hypnotized mosquito. The window on the side reveals the graphics card and all the additional lights surrounding it, through software you can synchronize the RGB lighting effects the way you like it. All the latest ROG Strix graphics cards support Aura Sync and GPU Tweak II to help you get the best performance possible.
