Asus ROG Ally

Soldato
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@Defy Belief
Could run a desktop in a small space, I run mine headless that gives me 4080 performance on my ROG.
- I've had good experiences tbh running things like streaming over my network before, but I dont think the money I spent on the XG would get me a much desktop better experience overall and i'd still pick native if I could :D
 
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Soldato
Joined
17 Jul 2005
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9,690
Can't see initially but will dig!

Is it good? Worthwhile bump in performance? :)

Just checked and it's post 514 in this thread. :)

Compared to the Ally directly it is a substantial performance uplift as expected. Performance is around a desktop 3070 albeit without the VRAM issues that have been dong the rounds (16GB vs 8GB).

I have a 7600/4070 Desktop so its more of a nice to have but is awesome from a docking perspective.

Only major downside is the XG mobile itself can be quite noisy if you don't set custom fan profiles. Would love if Asus just licenced the XG mobile interface so a "normal" e-GPU enclosure could be made to fit any normal desktop card. You would still be limited by the interface of 8x PCI-E 3.0 but its a sizable jump over TB4.

Just ensure you enable and disable the XG mobile before undocking the Ally. It should enabled automatically when the Ally is on and the drivers have loaded but you need to manually disconnected the XG mobile at a software level before you physically remove it. Not doing so can cause issues.
 
Soldato
Joined
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5,712
Just checked and it's post 514 in this thread. :)

Compared to the Ally directly it is a substantial performance uplift as expected. Performance is around a desktop 3070 albeit without the VRAM issues that have been dong the rounds (16GB vs 8GB).

I have a 7600/4070 Desktop so its more of a nice to have but is awesome from a docking perspective.

Only major downside is the XG mobile itself can be quite noisy if you don't set custom fan profiles. Would love if Asus just licenced the XG mobile interface so a "normal" e-GPU enclosure could be made to fit any normal desktop card. You would still be limited by the interface of 8x PCI-E 3.0 but its a sizable jump over TB4.

Just ensure you enable and disable the XG mobile before undocking the Ally. It should enabled automatically when the Ally is on and the drivers have loaded but you need to manually disconnected the XG mobile at a software level before you physically remove it. Not doing so can cause issues.
Awesome, thanks for the tips and it looks really cool, it arrives today :D
 
Associate
Joined
29 May 2005
Posts
437
Well....had the misfortune of losing an SD card, probably as a direct result of whatever ASUS were up to with the Ally

1TB Sandisk Extreme Pro eventually gave up the ghost after looking in decent shape after being pulled from the Ally last month when all the initial SD stuff came out. Never actually installed anything on the card, but had it in the system while running stuff from an upgraded SSD. Noticed it had disappeared from the file manager a couple days later, and refused all copy attempts, so removed it from the Ally and reformatted and verified OK on the main PC.
Fast forward a month or so thinking I was out of the woods, and while using the card to put together an extra MiSTer setup, I encountered issues flashing initial images, then gave up when trying to copy a large amount of files - spent a number of hours trying to recover with a variety of techniques, but looks like a lost cause.

Long story short - possible latent damage a concern, even if the SD initially looks fine on a different PC. Of course, it could be an almighty coincidence, but unlikely given the ongoing issues.
Cheers ASUS.
 
Soldato
Joined
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Posts
5,712
Just checked and it's post 514 in this thread. :)

Compared to the Ally directly it is a substantial performance uplift as expected. Performance is around a desktop 3070 albeit without the VRAM issues that have been dong the rounds (16GB vs 8GB).

I have a 7600/4070 Desktop so its more of a nice to have but is awesome from a docking perspective.

Only major downside is the XG mobile itself can be quite noisy if you don't set custom fan profiles. Would love if Asus just licenced the XG mobile interface so a "normal" e-GPU enclosure could be made to fit any normal desktop card. You would still be limited by the interface of 8x PCI-E 3.0 but its a sizable jump over TB4.

Just ensure you enable and disable the XG mobile before undocking the Ally. It should enabled automatically when the Ally is on and the drivers have loaded but you need to manually disconnected the XG mobile at a software level before you physically remove it. Not doing so can cause issues.
Had a quick test before I had to go out, mw2 ultra at 1080p was 50 fps, I expected better at this res, but unsure if there is any other things I need to do with drivers /configuration etc?

Will have a proper play later all I did was install driver, enable it in settings of game and run.
 
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Soldato
Joined
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5,712
Is this the external 3080 GPU for the Ally? First time i've seen a pic of one thats not a review.

Does it need external power I take it?
Yeah it is indeed and yeah needs a power source (charges ally at same time)

At 100fps on mw2 with dlss ultra, thing is pretty loud..but performance is great

@oweneades have you looked into replacing thermal paste or do you use a custom fan?

Edit turns out you need to open GeForce experience to install the latest driver, 134fps on mw2 now ultra dlss multiplayer
 
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Soldato
Joined
17 Jul 2005
Posts
9,690
Yeah it is indeed and yeah needs a power source (charges ally at same time)

At 100fps on mw2 with dlss ultra, thing is pretty loud..but performance is great

@oweneades have you looked into replacing thermal paste or do you use a custom fan?

Edit turns out you need to open GeForce experience to install the latest driver, 134fps on mw2 now ultra dlss multiplayer

Just custom fan curve with the GPU set to manual in Armoury Crate. I then use MSI Afterburner for clock control.

Only annoyance is the limited memory overclocking potential and the fact the 3080 in my XG mobile doesn't clock as aggressively as my Legions 3080.
 
Soldato
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Has anyone had issues with external keyboards, this is now two games where often during gun fights when strafing / dashing etc, it then just keeps moving me in that direction as if in still holding the key down, it's really annoying, 99% sure the keyboard is fine. Playing returnal so not a forgiving game for it to be happening... Literally makes it unplayable, I've noticed just moving around it doesn't happen, if I strafe and fire with mouse at the same time that's when it does it

It's like it still is expecting joypad input rather than wasd?
 
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Soldato
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North West England
Has anyone had issues with external keyboards, this is now two games where often during gun fights when strafing / dashing etc, it then just keeps moving me in that direction as if in still holding the key down, it's really annoying, 99% sure the keyboard is fine. Playing returnal so not a forgiving game for it to be happening... Literally makes it unplayable, I've noticed just moving around it doesn't happen, if I strafe and fire with mouse at the same time that's when it does it

It's like it still is expecting joypad input rather than wasd?

How does Returnal run on this? Got a steam deck but wondering if i should sell and put towards one of these.
 
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