The ROG Ally X is the latest release in the fast evolving world of handheld gaming, offering the most advanced specs to date of any other device on the market. Built on the backbone of an AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme CPU to deliver exceptional computational power for both gaming and multitasking. While the CPU is the same as the previous ROG ALLY the ALLY X comes with 24GB of faster LPDDR5 RAM and a high speed 1TB PCIe 4.0 NVME SSD to really deliver seamless load speed and responsiveness across the board whether you're gaming or browsing. The upgrade to a 1TB SSD over the 512GB in the previous model is a very welcome addition, this is further expandable with a micro SD card ur by upgrading the internal SSD. The 7-inch (1920x1080) IPS touchscreen offers 120Hz refresh rate and looks fantastic.
Running on Windows 11, the ALLY X really expands your horizons and allows access to many more of your game library across all your usual PC platforms such as Steam, Epic, EA, Ubisoft and even Xbox game pass etc. This puts the ALLY X at the forefront in terms of versatility. While being a Windows handheld is excellent for a lot of things, that does also come with some significant drawbacks, these are all the usual Windows issues we usually have to face with gaming PC’s.
Maximising the ROG’s true potential does come with a little initial configuration. I found making the following changes to be essential straight out of the box:
AFMF:
The very first thing to do is to activate AFMF and AMD Anti Lag. AFMF stands for AMD Fluid Motion Frames, and is a frame generation technology designed to increase frame rates and smooth movement for improved frame rates and performance. AFMF does however add a perceivable lag to your game due to the nature of how it achieves what it does, but turning on AMD anti lag can essentially mitigate this issue. For reference on the impact AFMF makes, it effectively doubles your frame rate.
Operating mode (TDP):
Get to know your power modes and how they perform, I have found that most games perform perfectly fine with the 17W performance operating mode rather than the higher TDP modes which will significantly improve battery life. Having said that, some of the more graphic intense AAA games will definitely require 25W or 30W to run well.
GPU Assigned memory:
The ROG ALLY X allows you to manually assign VRAM to graphics as desired. I changed this to 10GB off the bat and it made a big difference to performance.
Drivers, firmware and software updates:
Make sure that all your drivers are up to date and any software or firmware updates are completed. This can make a big difference to performance with big fixes made with each update.
There were a few other settings I changed along the way, I can't remember them all now, but there's lots of little things you can do that will all improve performance. After optimising all my settings my ALLY X truly shines. For example, playing Cyberpunk 2077 with AFMF on, I am getting around 40-50FPS. Games like APEX etc however which are better optimised, im looking at about 100FPS.
Another big change I made but one I wouldn't recommend for everyone, unless you know what you're doing, was to install AFMF2 this is AMDs newest version of the AFMF technology mentioned above, and I found that it performs much better with much less perceivable lag than the standard AFMF. This is currently in BETA testing so isn't available to download using standard methods and requires a bit of manual input, but if you know what you're doing, the difference is well worth it.
Once you've completed this initial setup, the ALLY X performs very well across all the games in my library. The powerful AMD hardware makes sure it can handle just about anything with ease. From the most demanding AAA titles to the less resource intensive indies that you love, all without really breaking a sweat.
Here's an example of just some of the games I played and the FPS I was getting on each: (at 1080p with AMFM2 on)
Game Title | Average FPS |
Cyberpunk 2077 | 112 |
Hogwarts | 92 |
Star Wars Outlaws | 107 |
Hades | 141 |
Baldurs Gate | 98 |
God of War Ragnarok | 92 |
Audio quality is also something that impressed me a lot, I wasn't expecting much because handhelds are usually very lacking in this area, however, the ROG ALLY X is packing some heat in this category. The sound performance is absolutely enough to comfortably immerse yourself into a game without headphones if need be. Of course headphones are still the preference, but it's good to know I don't need it.
The battery life on the ALLY X is one of the biggest improvements over the ROG ALLY. The ALLY had a 40Wh battery which has been doubled in the ALLY X to 80Wh. This means a double in battery life of course now allowing players to game for around 3-5 hours depending on the intensity of the game and the TDP settings required. While this is pretty impressive for a handheld device such as this, it may still fall a little short of expectations set by traditional handhelds such as the Nintendo Switch. It is very important to remember however, that the Switch and the ALLY X are very, very different animals. Overall the battery life on the ROG ALLY X is not only market leading, but is absolutely usable. I recently undertook a flight to Japan which took about 9 hours and with the aid of my Anker power bank, I was able to get the full 9 hours gaming.
One of the standout features is the ability to function as a fully fledged Windows PC. In handheld mode, this does throw up some challenges due to restrictions in size, however, plug it in to a monitor with either USB-C or HDMI and you've got yourself a reasonably powerful PC that's super simple to take with you on the go. The use of a keyboard and mouse will enhance this even further, but with the on screen keyboard it's perfectly doable without a keyboard.
Now, despite its impressive performance, the ALLY X isn't without its fair share of bugs and quirks. During my use so far i've encountered the following issues that can detract from the overall experience:
At times, my device has failed to boot up correctly, occasionally and has sat on either an illuminated black screen or nothing happens at all. I had to hard reboot by holding the power button until the device completely shut off and trying again. This is a scary moment the first time round and has only happened 2 or 3 times in the 2 months I've owned it so far and not in the last 4 weeks at all so hopefully something that's been fixed with firmware.
The vibration motor, while very effective, can be a little loud, one time in particular the vibration motor seemed to get stuck at 100% strength and sounded like the motor might have vibrated itself loose or something. This only happened once and was fixed in the control centre by manually adjusting the vibration strength down and it righted itself.
The most perplexing issue I came across was with the bluetooth connectivity. Randomly mid game, my audio would cut out, and all traces of Bluetooth seemed to disappear from the device in general. The usual Bluetooth setting in the windows control panel had disappeared and the Bluetooth settings menu was no longer showing up. This was again relatively easily fixed by performing a reboot of the device, but when you're mid game this can be very annoying.
Bugs are kind of expected for new devices, and a lot of the problems I was having seem to have since been rectified, however it's still something to be aware of and something that it's good to know you're not alone with if it does arise.
Overall, the ROG ALLY X is a significant step forward in the world of handheld gaming. Combining the power of a fully fledged gaming PC with the convenience of portability is a literal game changer. While the initial setup is a little arduous to get the results you want, once complete the overall experience is outstanding.
For those willing to invest the necessary time in optimising their settings and managing the occasional windows bugs they were all accustomed to by now, the ROG ALLY X delivers one of the most immersive gaming experiences available in a handheld device. Its blend of power, versatility and performance truly stands the ALLY X alone as the best gaming handheld on the market in 2024. There are simply none that are better.
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