There’s a Holy Grail of laptop computer customers, a Shangri-La of portability and energy. A pure, platonic Theory of Everything, combining the go-anywhere nature of an ultraportable laptop computer with the uncooked, screaming energy you’ll be able to solely get with a desktop that provides you with a hernia for those who attempt to transfer it. We can’t get there but — in the mean time, the very best we will do is plugging a pretty-good laptop computer into an exterior GPU, just like the Asus ROG XG Mobile. The most up-to-date model of this elegant little piece of {hardware} simply bought formally launched, at the least in Japan.

As WCCFTech reports, that is the 2023 replace of the ROG XG exterior GPU, which packs an unbelievable GeForce RTX 4090 (the laptop computer card) into a transportable dock that interfaces with choose ROG laptops and tablets. It’s the identical fundamental setup that PCWorld reviewed one year ago, now with much more pixel-pushing energy. At least one Japanese retailer has the GC33Y model of the XG Mobile able to ship…for a whopping 399,800 yen. If you haven’t checked your alternate charges but, that’s a hair over $3,000 USD. And that’s only for the dock — you’ll want to purchase a compatible Asus ROG Flow laptop individually, not like a regular, non-mobile eGPU that may work by way of USB-C or Thunderbolt.

Asus

That’s some severe sticker shock. The present mannequin of the dock, packing a cellular RTX 3080, is $1,500 at Best Buy. But it won’t be as unhealthy as all that. For one, evaluating US costs to worldwide ones is lower than truthful due to usually larger gross sales tax charges, to say nothing of import taxes (Asus is a Taiwanese firm). A Canadian itemizing for a similar gadget shows it as $2,500, which is simply $1,825 USD on the present alternate fee, so $1800 to $2,000 is likely to be a extra life like value for the ROG XG Mobile dock when it arrives right here.

And at $400 greater than the (roughly) equal desktop card, for a tool that provides some severe graphical oomph to an ultraportable laptop computer, it makes much more sense. The dock additionally doubles as a reasonably nice desktop station, giving a ROG Flow laptop computer on the spot full-sized DisplayPort and HDMI ports, three additional USB-A ports and a full Ethernet port. Granted, you’re nonetheless a complete funding of at the least $3200, and probably fairly a bit extra…however a full gaming laptop computer with an RTX 4090 will cost around the same, and you may’t pop off its GPU to cram it into an in a single day bag. Just don’t attempt to import it from Japan, I suppose.