Why Asus’ world-first Thunderbolt 5 eGPU is on my gamer wishlist

Asus just completely sold me on mobile GPUs by dropping the world’s first eGPU and dock with Thunderbolt 5 connectivity at CES 2025 in Las Vegas. Spoiler alert: It’s ripped with power and stacked with ports.

The Asus ROG XG Mobile (2025), which looks a bit like a mini PC, can harness the power of up to Nvidia’s vanguard-tier RTX 5090 chip through a single cable connection. But it can do a lot more than that, too. The compact dock, which weighs less than 2.2 pounds, also provides up to 150W maximum power, supports dual monitors via HDMI 2.1 and USB DisplayPort 2.1, and throws in an SD card reader for fun — all the while providing a 5Gbps Ethernet connection.

The fact that it can do all that without self-destructing comes down to one thing: its Thunderbolt 5 connectivity. The new-generation Thunderbolt 5 I/O introduced late in 2024 ups the ante on data transference. It’s the reason why the 2025 ROG XG Mobile sports bidirectional data transfer speeds of 80Gbps, able to squeeze every ray-traced pixel of performance out of an eGPU chip.

In simple terms, that means you can plug a laptop into this baby and transform it into the meanest gaming machine this side of Texas. Reports from Asus claim it can clock a whopping 64Gbps for Nvidia cards, which surpasses USB4 and equals OCuLink — and that’s with the added versatility you don’t get with a Thunderbolt 4 eGPU.

As far as versatility goes, the 2025 ROG XG Mobile is head and shoulders above the 2024 version, which only supported up to a Nvidia RTX 4090 GPU. And unlike that dock, this one works with standard ports rather than just a few proprietary Asus ones. The 2025 ROG XG Mobile also has a state-of-the-art cooling system, featuring a new copper vapor chamber and thicker capillary structures compared to previous models.

Are you sold like me yet? If you are, you’ll still want to be mindful of a few things… If you’re going to outlay the $2,199.99 asking price for the RTX 5090 model, or even $1,199.99 for the lower-tier RTX 5070 Ti one, you’re going to need a laptop with a Thunderbolt 5 port to unlock its full potential. (And those are few and far between right now.) Of course, you’ll still be able to use it with laptops that only have Thunderbolt 4 and USB4 ports — you just won’t get full bang for your buck!

Then, too, it’s worth knowing a little secret about the Thunderbolt 5 ecosystem: It does have some quirks that we’re hoping won’t rear their ugly heads, especially since the 2025 ROG XG Mobile is such a powerful and well-designed piece of hardware.

Me, I’m an optimist. If Asus has made a beast like this, then I darn well want to make it work.