ASUS has revealed a small external graphics box called the XG Core, built around a Radeon RX 9060 XT LP. A thin laptop, mini PC or gaming handheld gets a discrete GPU from it without anyone unscrewing a case. It plugs in over USB4 at up to 40Gbps and carries 16GB of GDDR6 memory.
The catch is power. The graphics chip inside is the low-profile version of AMD’s mid-range card and runs on a 75W budget, less than half of the roughly 160W the desktop RX 9060 XT is usually rated for. ASUS lists a boost clock of up to 1,600MHz by default and 1,620MHz in its GPU Tweak III software, so the box will not behave like the full-size card. Standard desktop versions of the RX 9060 XT start at a 1,700MHz base clock and many designs boost past 3,000MHz, which puts the XG Core’s ceiling well below them. It is the same GPU family, but with a much lower limit, and it is aimed at devices that struggle with graphics today rather than at anyone with a desktop already.
ASUS’s press release pitches it at people who already own a slim machine and want more graphics muscle for games, video editing, 3D rendering and AI work. The case measures 144 x 117 x 39mm, small enough for a bag, and the company’s own list of supported handhelds includes both ROG Ally X models, the original and the Xbox edition. Compatible Thunderbolt 3 systems work too.
The box has an HDMI port and a DisplayPort output, so a monitor can plug straight into the box instead of the laptop. ASUS says the card suits local AI work such as image generation and running language models in ComfyUI, LM Studio and Ollama, and its spec page quotes 406.3 AI TOPS. That figure is for INT4 maths with sparsity, a low-precision best case, so it says little about game frame rates.
GPU Tweak III also lets owners change core clocks, memory frequency, voltage and fan curves, and shows an on-screen overlay with live readings while a game runs. Those controls matter more on a box this small, where heat is the reason for the low power limit.
The USB4 link is the other ceiling. A desktop card sits on a PCIe slot with far more bandwidth than a 40Gbps cable, and ASUS itself says performance depends on the host device, the game and the settings. It also tells buyers to check that their laptop or handheld supports an external GPU before connecting one.
ASUS has not published a price or a release date for the XG Core. The product page only warns that availability can differ by market.
