I must admit, I was very close to buying a Steam Deck many times, because playing portable at certain moments would be literally salutary for me. However, I held back for several reasons, and one of them was the questionable performance of this device, its size, poor display and quite high price. ROG Ally will be as expensive or even slightly more expensive, but it does other aspects much better. So let’s take a look at the systems that can be found inside this equipment.
Valve has hit the minds of players by presenting its variation on portable gaming. While Steam Deck is in many ways just a well-thought-out, compact computer, it also suffers from a number of questionable design decisions that just don’t appeal to some. This equipment can be compared with the category of “childhood diseases” or the first model from a rich series, which will be constantly developed (which has already been announced in a way). Steam Deck is just the beginning, but it seems that not only for Valve, but also for the entire market of this type of devices. ASUS also plans to grab a piece of the pie by presenting ROG Ally. Roger, our editor, had it in his hands and tested it for several hours,sharing your experiences . It must be admitted that the equipment promises to be really intriguing.
ROG Ally is equipped with two powerful systems from AMD – Ryzen Z1 and the much more powerful Z1 Extreme
Unofficially, we have already learned the prices of variants equipped with a weaker and more powerful system, where we are talking about amounts of at least PLN 2,500 + VAT for the basic model with 16GB of RAM and 256GB for user data. The purchase of a version with a more powerful processor, Ryzen Z1 Extreme, will cost us a little more, because here we are talking about amounts exceeding PLN 3,000. Both of the aforementioned systems are quite different from each other, and if the price difference remains at this level, a much better choice will be to buy a more powerful unit that will guarantee a much better gaming experience. We already know that on a console equipped with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip, we will run Red Dead Redemption 2 in 1080p resolution at low details, but at least 60 frames.Far Cry 6, GTA V or Forza Horizon 4 (using AMD FSR) will work the same way. Power consumption profiles will be of great importance here (16W normally and 26W in turbo mode, and unofficially there is also talk of a TV dock, where the consumption will then increase to 65W), largely affecting performance, but also battery draining.
So let’s take a look at the more expensive variant equipped with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip. The processor located there was made in 4 nm lithography. Equipped with 8 cores and 16 threads and 16MB of third-level cache memory with a TDP of up to 30W. The entire system generates a theoretical power of up to 8.6 TFLOPs.For comparison, Steam Deck has only 1.6 TFLOPs, so the difference is really colossal, but also visible in the detail level settings. After all, Valve’s hardware can run games at a native resolution of max. 1280x800p and 60Hz, while gaming ROG Ally pushes these parameters to FHD, while offering a 120Hz screen and support for variable refresh rate. We will play some games in 100-120 frames in very decent quality, especially for a 7″ screen diagonal. This stimulates the imagination. AMD cleverly presented the Switch’s performance in the above graph (only 0.4 TFLOPs), but including it in this list is a bit makes no sense. Nintendo is in a completely different place, with a whole range of great exclusive games at its disposal, and is directed to a different recipient profile.
Staying with the Ryzen Z1 Extreme system, we know that its maximum power consumption can be up to 30W and probably this scenario can be selected as part of the ROG Ally settings. I got acquainted with the first performance results of this equipment and gathered data that is really fascinating. It seems that already at 15W TDP for the CPU you will be able to play (around 60 frames) the vast majority of titles in 1080p on the lowest details.The processor then spins up to about 1.3-1.5 GHz. The exception here is God of War, which at such power consumption stops somewhere around 40fps (without FSR enabled, which remains on standby, but the game is then rendered at 720p output). Forza Horizon 5 is impressive. If the TDP is set to 30W (the processor clock speed then increases to around 3.5 GHz), in 1080p resolution on high details (without anti-aliasing), the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme system generates over 90 frames in this game. Cyberpunk 2077 performs equally well, running at 15W power consumption around 55-60 fps on the lowest details in 1080p, but after increasing the TDP to 30W, it already gains close to 80 fps, and this allows you to set higher details, if we are aware of the increased battery consumption.
ROG Ally in a slightly weaker version, because with the AMD Ryzen Z1 system, it offers “only” 2.8 TFLOPs. The processor of this model is equipped with 6 cores and 12 threads, also providing slightly less third-level cache memory. Its performance, of course, is noticeably worse, but in some games it is just as decent, although there are also titles where it loses almost 50% to its more powerful brother.This is well reflected in the above table prepared by AMD. Of course, all these charts will be verified by players who will receive their copies of the equipment in a few days. Funnily enough, in the context of a portable, small console, the performance of the desktop Xbox Series S (amounting to “only” 4 TFLOPs) is presented. Although the graphics chip there is noticeably more powerful in relation to the portable mode, in the end, after connecting the ROG Ally to the TV with the power consumption set to 65W, we should achieve similar or even better results than on the Microsoft platform. Of course, the price is definitely higher too, but that just shows how far the Xbox Series S lags behind when it comes to capabilities. I, on the other hand, keep my fingers crossed for more such amazing platforms as ROG Ally and will be eagerly following its further fate (I’m especially curious about the battery life). Are there people interested in buying here? Let me know in the comments!
Source: Maciej Zablocki