ASUS Shows Off Weird Radeon RX 9060 XT for Laptops, Mini-PCs, and Handheld Consoles

ASUS brought a compact external GPU called the XG Core to Computex 2026, and it's built around a rather unexpected chip. It's meant for laptops, mini-PCs, and handhelds, but what's inside raises some questions about how to even classify the thing.

At its heart is an AMD Radeon RX 9060 XT LP. That's a desktop card with reduced power draw — 140W — packing 16GB of GDDR6 memory on a 128-bit bus, based on RDNA 4 with 32 compute units and 2,048 stream processors. ASUS's own materials call it a mobile RDNA 4 solution, even though AMD's website clearly lists the same model as a desktop card, just in a low-profile form factor. The company didn't show the XG Core's internals, so it's unclear whether this is a re-soldered chip, an MXM module, or some custom engineering job by ASUS. Either way, this is technically one of the first times RDNA 4 has reached the portable segment in this kind of shape.

Connectivity is handled via USB4 Type-C with claimed backward compatibility with Thunderbolt 3. On the chassis you'll find HDMI and DisplayPort outputs for external monitors. There are no extra controllers or hubs built-in — it's a straight-up graphics card. ASUS is positioning the XG Core not just as a gaming accessory. The company also mentions local AI workloads and content creation, and the list of supported software includes AMD AMUSE, ComfyUI, LM Studio, Ollama, and PyTorch — a clear nod to folks experimenting with generative models.

ASUS hasn't revealed the price or any rough release timeline. There's also no word on whether the XG Core will only work with ASUS devices or be a universal solution for any PC with USB4. And without a look at the internal layout, it's also an open question whether the GPU could be upgraded or swapped down the line. Earlier during the first day of Computex 2026, ASUS showed a bunch of other new stuff.

This new device feels like an attempt to carve out a niche between stationary eGPU enclosures and compact docks that usually come with cut-down mobile chips. The XG Core, on the other hand, offers near-desktop performance in a small chassis, but without the option to install any card you want. Whether that approach will actually catch on won't be clear until we see a price and some real-world tests with actual laptops.

What do you think — does an external graphics card for laptops and mini-PCs even make sense? Let us know in the comments.