Asus ROG Ally
- Thread starter kakarott
- Start date
USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 (20Gbs) with DP Alt mode from here:
No TB4 as it uses its proprietary XG Mobile interface instead.
ROG Ally (2023) | Gaming Handhelds｜#playALLYourgames ｜ROG Global
Experience AAA gaming in the palm of your hands with the ROG Ally, a handheld Windows 11 gaming system. Powered by an AMD Z1 Extreme APU, featuring a 120Hz display and ROG’s Zero Gravity thermal system, the Ally delivers incredible gaming performance anywhere you go.
rog.asus.com
No TB4 as it uses its proprietary XG Mobile interface instead.
Caporegime
Is the ROG Ally underperforming for what it is at the moment? It can play games at 1080p but I see in reviews knocking settings down or running in 720p, with 8.4Tflops it's more powerful than a Xbox One X by over 2 Tflops? It's also more capable than a GTX 1070 too and just shy of a 1080 but also taking into account new arch here and also FSR?
Caporegime
My expectations
have nothing to do with my current evaluation, I'm simply referring to the TFlops statistic, the GPU aspect of this has more computational power than a 1070.
Not really no. It is performing in line with a 7840HS with the expected reduction in performance due to the lower clocks / lower TDP. Performance is limited by the relatively low TDP and lack of dedicated memory (the fast 6400MT/s DDR5 gives its a max bandwidth of ~100GB/s). There will be times it will be CPU bound, GPU bound, TDP bound (so both GPU and CPU) or Memory Bandwidth limited. The latter is the main reason 1080p is simply not possible in certain titles (at 30+ FPS) regardless of the raw strength of the GPU itself.
Raw T/Flop numbers only really tell you the theoretical performance of the GPU in T/Flops and not much else. Comparisons between different architectures aren't very useful as they may have limits in specific areas which cripples its gaming performance. Then we get into the nitty gritty of whether they mean X T/Flop at FP-16 or FP-32? The latter is half of the former. This latter ~4.2T/Flop number makes more sense given the raw tech specs. The Ally APU looks to be close overall to the Series S but the lack of memory bandwidth (~100GB/s vs 224GB/s) means 1080p is easier to achieve on the latter.
Raw T/Flop numbers only really tell you the theoretical performance of the GPU in T/Flops and not much else. Comparisons between different architectures aren't very useful as they may have limits in specific areas which cripples its gaming performance. Then we get into the nitty gritty of whether they mean X T/Flop at FP-16 or FP-32? The latter is half of the former. This latter ~4.2T/Flop number makes more sense given the raw tech specs. The Ally APU looks to be close overall to the Series S but the lack of memory bandwidth (~100GB/s vs 224GB/s) means 1080p is easier to achieve on the latter.
Caporegime
Wonder if it's really worth £700 then? Vs a second hand steam deck for £400? I do plan to game out and about but also plan to utilise the 4080 at 1080 by streaming the PC.
The extra power is worth it to those who are going to use it, if when out and about you can't use more, it is not for you.
Loads of people on the internet have done so, have a search for the likes off etaprime on youtube
As a long time APU gamer we've seen the benefit to extra RAM, generally as memory on desktop at least is cheap and leads to less stuttering playing titles. Whether others feel the same on the Ally dunno, I would be interested depending on cost if it can be done maintaining the same memory timings etc.
Certainly on my Alternative to Ally/Steamdeck I have 32Gb, it allows a decent memory reserve for iGPU leaving loads for everything else so I get smooth gameplay no stuttering etc as it doesn't need to cache to disk so much but ultimately it's an APU, there's only so much you get from it and it is still going to be slow, I'm sure a few would jump on it though.
If you have the ROG XG Mobile GPU dock RAM is not so much of a problem as you instantly have lots of VRAM and then your 16Gb is good for many games in that scenario.
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Just to highlight the memory usage point, playing about with my daughters AOKZOE A1 Pro now I have her set up like @oweneades so it can be her desktop etc. via a TB dock, I was just seeing what it could do on her monitor, only a 1080p screen, just APU, no fancy eGPU for us. 
I whacked on Horizon Zero dawn @ 1080 in Ultimate settings no scaling etc, so full textures, full rendering etc, the system is using 23.4Gb to do this (configured as 6Gb reserved for iGPU, hence the weird 25.7Gb sys RAM, but of course here it is still using more sys RAM for graphics and why RAM usage is high) it runs silky smooth albeit at only a 33fps average but that's max settings, it's not bad considering, you wouldn't necessarily play it like that, you'd knock on FSR to double the frame rate but even that in max settings FSR quality its only saving a couple of Gb.
So the extra RAM can definitely get used well, 32Gb is not a silly amount for iGPU usage. 16Gb is a bit stingy when you have no dedicated VRAM as you end up paging to disk or having to run much lower settings, though seems less of an issue paging these days with super fast NVMe etc, not like the old days of spinners and of course on a small screen when mobile can you really see the extra texture detail.....not really, even so, nice to have the extra.
I whacked on Horizon Zero dawn @ 1080 in Ultimate settings no scaling etc, so full textures, full rendering etc, the system is using 23.4Gb to do this (configured as 6Gb reserved for iGPU, hence the weird 25.7Gb sys RAM, but of course here it is still using more sys RAM for graphics and why RAM usage is high) it runs silky smooth albeit at only a 33fps average but that's max settings, it's not bad considering, you wouldn't necessarily play it like that, you'd knock on FSR to double the frame rate but even that in max settings FSR quality its only saving a couple of Gb.
So the extra RAM can definitely get used well, 32Gb is not a silly amount for iGPU usage. 16Gb is a bit stingy when you have no dedicated VRAM as you end up paging to disk or having to run much lower settings, though seems less of an issue paging these days with super fast NVMe etc, not like the old days of spinners and of course on a small screen when mobile can you really see the extra texture detail.....not really, even so, nice to have the extra.
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Just to highlight the memory usage point, playing about with my daughters AOKZOE A1 Pro now I have her set up like @oweneades so it can be her desktop etc. via a TB dock, I was just seeing what it could do on her monitor, only a 1080p screen, just APU, no fancy eGPU for us.
I whacked on Horizon Zero dawn @ 1080 in Ultimate settings no scaling etc, so full textures, full rendering etc, the system is using 23.4Gb to do this (configured as 6Gb reserved for iGPU, hence the weird 25.7Gb sys RAM, but of course here it is still using more sys RAM for graphics and why RAM usage is high) it runs silky smooth albeit at only a 33fps average but that's max settings, it's not bad considering, you wouldn't necessarily play it like that, you'd knock on FSR to double the frame rate but even that in max settings FSR quality its only saving a couple of Gb.
So the extra RAM can definitely get used well, 32Gb is not a silly amount for iGPU usage. 16Gb is a bit stingy when you have no dedicated VRAM as you end up paging to disk or having to run much lower settings, though seems less of an issue paging these days with super fast NVMe etc, not like the old days of spinners and of course on a small screen when mobile can you really see the extra texture detail.....not really, even so, nice to have the extra.
Nice Result there.
Will have to replicate on my Ally once I get a bit of time to set up the dock etc (not my 3080M as that would be a bit unfair...
)These chipsets are awesome, you could just do it on the internal screen to replicate, the Ally would be superior with the higher TDPs available and the seemingly better z1 chip but don't think its going to do Ultimate well with 16Gb.
Going to this reminds me of when I shifted from intel iGPUs back in the day to AMDs first APU, that too felt next level, a proper upgrade unlike the poor shifts from 2400g to any other xxxxg iGPUs pre 7xxx. ( I've had everyone mind you. )
Lets hope future ones bring even more balance.
Going to this reminds me of when I shifted from intel iGPUs back in the day to AMDs first APU, that too felt next level, a proper upgrade unlike the poor shifts from 2400g to any other xxxxg iGPUs pre 7xxx. ( I've had everyone mind you.
)Lets hope future ones bring even more balance.
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These chipsets are awesome, you could just do it on the internal screen to replicate, the Ally would be superior with the higher TDPs available and the seemingly better z1 chip but don't think its going to do Ultimate well with 16Gb.
Going to this reminds me of when I shifted from intel iGPUs back in the day to AMDs first APU, that too felt next level, a proper upgrade unlike the poor shifts from 2400g to any other xxxxg iGPUs pre 7xxx. ( I've had everyone mind you.
Lets hope future ones bring even more balance.
Oh yeah.... *doh* Forgot it had the 1080p screen there for a second...
I thought the 7840U turned out to be slightly better than the Z1 Extreme?
They are essentially the same thing but z1 extreme in Ally seems to have a wider range of TDP support etc, this could just be ASUS going hard as they do on their desktop systems with BIOS settings, I have yet to mess about with MotionAssistant, handheld companion or GPU float yet to see what I can get out of it, perhaps I can open up the 7840 and its just AOKZOEs BIOS holding it back, maybe there are negligible returns past 30w but with the Z1 targeted for this purpose it is likely the cherry picked silicon.
Dunno when I will get to play again as my daughter is upstairs doing her homework etc on it I have little opportunity to play with it
I will likely get an Ally for myself do a bake off and keep the best one for me
Dunno when I will get to play again as my daughter is upstairs doing her homework etc on it
I have little opportunity to play with it I will likely get an Ally for myself do a bake off and keep the best one for me
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Associate
I took a punt on the Ally, and its exceeded expectations in some respects but also frustrating.
For gaming on the go it works well, a 65w Anker 537 despite throwing errors in the OS about not being able to power at full, seems OK. Armory crate shows 25w on turbo, but comparing live data, it hits exactly the same (boost momentarily to 43+ watts) then settles to 30w.
I’ve got back into Destiny 2, as I downloaded a bunch of older games I don’t play on my main rig to have some vareity on the move. Plus I figured older games have a better chance of running on it.
On battery turbo kills the battery, they say it has a 40wh battery, but no way, on turbo (25w) its entirely possible to kill it in under an hour.
I mostly use ‘performance’ 15w mode for battery longevity. With a 24000mah anker battery pack. I got 3hrs 58 on the anker to flat, then another 1hr 50 on the built battery with 25% remaining - plenty for a good gaming sesh on the go or the average plane journey.
I don’t get TDP though, when you first plug a power source in, it ramps up to 52w? Temps are OK. Mostly hovers between 40-50 for a while, but then seems to go back to 30w. If I unplug power source and plug back in, it ramps up again. Is this a very short term boost that it simply cannot sustain?
The other weird thing is that the difference between 15w and 25w mode is very small in some games and scenes. We’re talking say 45fps in a busy area, destiny 2, mostly high settings 1080p, hit 25w, maybe 3 frames more? 30w, gets 60fps but mostly between 50-60.
I think for 1080, 4gb is just doable, but ideally it needs at least 6. Only option is to allocate in 4gb increments and you are robbing peter to pay paul, so I leave it at 4.
Docked its not great. Works Ok to whizz around with a keyboard and mouse to set it up, and as a portable pc. But as a docked gaming PC its a bit crap. I docked it in the front room, tried to run gears on 4k, high, weirdly, upscaled 200% works smooth on the Ally screen, but output to a screen its weird, its almost like you are streaming it at 30 fps, when realtime monitor shows 60, also external controller support and controlling the ally theough the dock the other side of the room is a pita. I coupdn’t get sound working properly out of the dock either to the TV - it just kept glitching and cutting out.
Stupidly, my xbox one x I just got rid of would run gears @ 4k smooth, and it looked stunning. The Ally in theory is more powerful, but it was a poor experience.
Other games like Witcher 4, that a 1660 mobile GPU can run nice, can be run on the ally, but at 45 or so fps in 30w turbo. Performance mode is a no go really unless you want to really sacrifice quality.
HZD I thought it would run well being an older ps4 game. But it struggles. On high it chugs at 1080 at about 30 frames. To get a smooth experience it has to be 720 on high, then you can hit 50-60. I would have thought it would have done better here.
Access speed from the SD slot is OK, I’m only using a 150 read speed card, but its reliable and pretty acceptable.
I’m hoping they manage to get some more out of it in future bios updates, I heard they already acrewed performance from 317 to 319 bios because of battery life complaints? Not sure I want to mess around rolling back, but I think there is more power under the hood than they are letting us use.
Interesting to see where this goes, its definitly a premium price when you could get a basic gaming laptop for £700 that would outperform it, but, I have to stop and remind myself that I habe a fully fledged, windows 11, mobile gaming PC that can even run things like Witcher 3, Destiny 2 etc on the go, in such a small package, when only a few years ago this was only possible on large static gaming eigs, consoles or beasty laptops…
For gaming on the go it works well, a 65w Anker 537 despite throwing errors in the OS about not being able to power at full, seems OK. Armory crate shows 25w on turbo, but comparing live data, it hits exactly the same (boost momentarily to 43+ watts) then settles to 30w.
I’ve got back into Destiny 2, as I downloaded a bunch of older games I don’t play on my main rig to have some vareity on the move. Plus I figured older games have a better chance of running on it.
On battery turbo kills the battery, they say it has a 40wh battery, but no way, on turbo (25w) its entirely possible to kill it in under an hour.
I mostly use ‘performance’ 15w mode for battery longevity. With a 24000mah anker battery pack. I got 3hrs 58 on the anker to flat, then another 1hr 50 on the built battery with 25% remaining - plenty for a good gaming sesh on the go or the average plane journey.
I don’t get TDP though, when you first plug a power source in, it ramps up to 52w? Temps are OK. Mostly hovers between 40-50 for a while, but then seems to go back to 30w. If I unplug power source and plug back in, it ramps up again. Is this a very short term boost that it simply cannot sustain?
The other weird thing is that the difference between 15w and 25w mode is very small in some games and scenes. We’re talking say 45fps in a busy area, destiny 2, mostly high settings 1080p, hit 25w, maybe 3 frames more? 30w, gets 60fps but mostly between 50-60.
I think for 1080, 4gb is just doable, but ideally it needs at least 6. Only option is to allocate in 4gb increments and you are robbing peter to pay paul, so I leave it at 4.
Docked its not great. Works Ok to whizz around with a keyboard and mouse to set it up, and as a portable pc. But as a docked gaming PC its a bit crap. I docked it in the front room, tried to run gears on 4k, high, weirdly, upscaled 200% works smooth on the Ally screen, but output to a screen its weird, its almost like you are streaming it at 30 fps, when realtime monitor shows 60, also external controller support and controlling the ally theough the dock the other side of the room is a pita. I coupdn’t get sound working properly out of the dock either to the TV - it just kept glitching and cutting out.
Stupidly, my xbox one x I just got rid of would run gears @ 4k smooth, and it looked stunning. The Ally in theory is more powerful, but it was a poor experience.
Other games like Witcher 4, that a 1660 mobile GPU can run nice, can be run on the ally, but at 45 or so fps in 30w turbo. Performance mode is a no go really unless you want to really sacrifice quality.
HZD I thought it would run well being an older ps4 game. But it struggles. On high it chugs at 1080 at about 30 frames. To get a smooth experience it has to be 720 on high, then you can hit 50-60. I would have thought it would have done better here.
Access speed from the SD slot is OK, I’m only using a 150 read speed card, but its reliable and pretty acceptable.
I’m hoping they manage to get some more out of it in future bios updates, I heard they already acrewed performance from 317 to 319 bios because of battery life complaints? Not sure I want to mess around rolling back, but I think there is more power under the hood than they are letting us use.
Interesting to see where this goes, its definitly a premium price when you could get a basic gaming laptop for £700 that would outperform it, but, I have to stop and remind myself that I habe a fully fledged, windows 11, mobile gaming PC that can even run things like Witcher 3, Destiny 2 etc on the go, in such a small package, when only a few years ago this was only possible on large static gaming eigs, consoles or beasty laptops…
Associate
I think it was the right choice. I hadn’t really considered mobile PC gaming beyond a laptop until I saw the steam deck sale. I added a 512 to my basket to try it and then checkout failed and they were gone! I saw the Ally, decided to grab one, almost double the price of the sale units, but, to be free from steamOS and to be able to do whatever I want is great. Plus better screen, gpu etc, smaller and more portable.
I was watching the hastle and hoops people have to jump through just to try and get some games on it like Destiny 2. And then they get 40fps on low / medium settings at 720p. And there I am happily playing 50-60 fps @ 1080p on high.
Its taken a lot of flack, but honestly, I think its a bit of a breakthrough in mobile gaming and excited to see what comes next.
I’ll still use my switch for nintendo exclusives, but it’ll be collecting more dust now I have the ally.
In facr my main gaming rig has been sat dormant while I’ve been playing games in the garden, out and about, in bed, even on the bog lol, basically wherever I go the game is on haha.
This is just a memory limitation as shown in my post above as I can do 1080p Ultimate in HZD with basically the same chip and 32Gb of RAM, the more you try and do with an APU the more of the sys RAM it needs, as it has no dedicated VRAM, recommended specs call for 8Gb of VRAM, that's a big chunk out of the systems 16Gb.
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