Tuesday, May 20th 2025
VLI Demos USB Type-C and HDMI 2.1 Portable Gaming Dock Concept at Computex 2025
As we walked around the show floor earlier today, we walked past the USB-IF booth and spotted VLI showing off their new portable gaming dock concept. What the company has done, is to take its new VL605 USB-C DP to HDMI 2.1 PCON and combined it with the VL832 USB4 endpoint device, which under normal circumstances operate as a USB4 to USB 3.2 and DP 1.4 adapter and the VL109 which is a docking controller that also supports USB PD for up to three ports. The overall design supports up to 140 W USB PD 3.1 power passthrough as well.
The end result is a fairly small PCB that delivers an HDMI 2.1 port with VRR support, a first for a docking station solution as far as we're aware, as well as a USB Type-C with DP Alt-mode output, two USB Type-C ports with USB PD support and two USB Type-A ports. In itself it's not a unique product, but from our understanding, there aren't many docking stations out there that support VRR combined with USB ports that offer more than USB 2.0 speeds. VLI has tested it with AMD FreeSync as well as NVIDIA G-Sync compatible monitors without any problems and it's also been certified for FreeSync Premium Pro. Overall a neat little solution that could appeal to gamers that want a simple way of hooking up their peripherals to their gaming laptop when using an external monitor, keyboard and mouse.
The end result is a fairly small PCB that delivers an HDMI 2.1 port with VRR support, a first for a docking station solution as far as we're aware, as well as a USB Type-C with DP Alt-mode output, two USB Type-C ports with USB PD support and two USB Type-A ports. In itself it's not a unique product, but from our understanding, there aren't many docking stations out there that support VRR combined with USB ports that offer more than USB 2.0 speeds. VLI has tested it with AMD FreeSync as well as NVIDIA G-Sync compatible monitors without any problems and it's also been certified for FreeSync Premium Pro. Overall a neat little solution that could appeal to gamers that want a simple way of hooking up their peripherals to their gaming laptop when using an external monitor, keyboard and mouse.
11 Comments on VLI Demos USB Type-C and HDMI 2.1 Portable Gaming Dock Concept at Computex 2025
www.via-labs.com/company.php
As pointed out, VLI was spun off from VIA, but that's already 15 years ago.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyrix#Merger_with_National_Semiconductor
JSAUX HB1201S
It also has:
- second video out with DP 1.4,
- 2x USB A 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps),
- 1x USB C 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) data-only,
- 1x USB 2.0,
- 1GbE,
- audio jack,
- SD/microSD reader at USB 2.0 speeds and common case of one or the other, not both cards at the same time - one reader,
- and can't forget about RGB ;)
but its PD tops out at 100 W vs. 140 W on this one.
Probably most featured non-USB4 (non-TB) docking station around; happy to be proven wrong, though.
www.viatech.com/en/#companies
VRR should only lower bandwidth requirements.
Am I missing something?
I only found HDMI 2.0 docks with VRR as well, except the one you have, where people mentioned that they can't transfer data at USB 3.x speeds with VRR enabled.