ASUS Details ROG Ally Specs - $699 Gaming Handheld With AMD Z1 Extreme

[osw89]

The hobby OS that literally runs the internet, and that Microsoft itself uses as host OS on Azure.

Don't waste time trying to reason with birdie. He has a habit of shilling Nvidia, sometimes shitting on Linux, and spamming his own bug reports in unrelated places probably because he wants attention or for some reason likes getting called out. I can't really find another explanation for purposefully spamming childish anti linux stuff on a linux forum of all places for years other than mental instability or having nothing better to do, probably both. I just laugh at his posts when I see them just like in a zoo exhibit, he's quite entertaining when you start to see him as the terminally online and slightly deranged forum spammer he is.

[TheJackiNonster]

This is a gaming handheld. As long as controls work no one cares about UI. Absolute most games run in full screen mode. Steam has Big Picture mode. Microsoft has something for gaming as well (I don't remember how it's called).

If you really think UI does not matter, you have likely never even used any handheld like the Steam Deck. The UI makes pretty much the most important aspect of the convenience and the overall experience. Accessing menus, switching different applications, using a chat in parallel, going to sleep, adjusting performance parameters or controls... all of this is handled by the UI. Without that the experience on the Steam Deck would be pretty awful as well...

[TheJackiNonster]

• Benchmarks show that it's twice as fast in absolute most benchmarks, be it CPU or GPU or both. Wait, did I ever mention performance per watt or you just pulled this argument out of thin air?
• Linux has no overhead, right? DXVK runs for free, right? KDE Plasma is a lean nice environment, right? No!
• So, you've run no tests yet you claim it will eat up a lot of power. Did I get it right? Also, it won't be able to run at 60Hz, right? Wrong.
• So, while the option is there, you can as well never use it, it's still not good, right? God, what a way to turn things inside out.

Amazing counter-arguments. All zero of them.

Benchmarks also show that it even takes more power to match the Steam Deck when it's using very little power. Essentially the efficiency doesn't scale down. So in most cases your battery life is worse. Pretty much all reviews I've seen suggest that so far. Kind of obvious as well when you consider the screen is brighter, resolution bigger, you get more cores in CPU and GPU... but battery capacity stays the same... quite obvious flaw in my opinion.

Also funny that you mention DXVK's overhead. Because that makes the Ally even worse in comparison once you consider that SteamOS should actually have more overhead in practice...

[Linuxxx]

The Steam Deck has quad-channel 32-bit LPDDR5 memory. 32 * 4 = 128 bits. Where did you get that number from?

I just noticed that I haven't checked the memory configuration of the ASUS ROG Ally, and it's listed as dual-channel LPDDR5.

And the internet lists LPDDR5 as having only a 32-bit memory bus at most.

So, I guess that means it only has a 64-bit wide RAM interface vs. the Steam Deck's 128-bit one...

[leuc]

Vale should just bake a SteamOS image, that runs perfectly on the device, and support it.

[theriddick]

No trackpads = dead on arrival

Not only that but apparently the sticks and buttons are small/cheap feeling. They should make these things a little bit more accommodating for larger hands.

Really wish they'd use SteamOS, perhaps even tweak it for their control setup and make a fork, that has already been done btw but nothing stopping ASUS doing a fork themselves with minor adjustment.

I'd still rather pay $399USD for the Deck and just upgrade the SSD.

[discordian]

I just noticed that I haven't checked the memory configuration of the ASUS ROG Ally, and it's listed as dual-channel LPDDR5.

And the internet lists LPDDR5 as having only a 32-bit memory bus at most.

So, I guess that means it only has a 64-bit wide RAM interface vs. the Steam Deck's 128-bit one...

Nope, its 128bit aswell. LPDDR5 has 2 x 32 bit busses per module/channel. If there would be an APU outside M2 with more channels I would know.

[Tuxee]

- Who are we?
- Linux lovers!
- What do we do?
- We hate!

Birdie, Birdie... You've always been an idiot and always will be. This is not something ad-hominem but just a fact.

[Tuxee]

I have the steam controller from day one, pretty much. Anyway I never liked it, never adapted to it. It was always too slow for me. To this the the xbox 360 controller is the best.

So no, trackpads aren't required, and lack of one doesn't mean much. This product is probably dead for other software reasons, nothing to do with hardware.

The Steam Controller is an additional peripheral. Everyone who uses an SC also has a mouse. How many games on Steam require a mouse (or a trackpad) to be playable? No point-and-click adventures, not to many turn-based- or rt strategy games, ... hell, no Hexcells either.

[avis]

The hobby OS that literally runs the internet, and that Microsoft itself uses as host OS on Azure.

Whoa, stretching Linux to the limits, aren't we?

1. What parts of the internet? Most high speed Internet switches are on OSes which have nothing to do with Linux, i.e. Cisco.
2. OK, web servers run Linux, so what, is this a bloody desktop OS? Do your web server also have Xorg/Wayland/DE/anything? No? Nothing? Let me tell you what they have: CPU/RAM/storage/NIC and that's just it. Not even a keyboard, mouse or display. A huge chunk of them are virtualized, so in reality they have nothing. Everything is virtualized.
3. Do you know what else runs Linux? Supercomputers, but what are we discussing here? Yeah, a bloody rich desktop OS which means a lot more than that. It means display output and recording (i.e. casting/streaming, oh boy, Linux sucks for that), UI, 2D/3D graphics, mouse/keyboard input, audio output and input, etc. etc. etc.

Yeah, do not try to reason with me like a guy later in the discussion opined because I'll destroy you with heavy blunt arguments.

Linux fans for some reasons try to use this stupid meaningless argument of web servers/supercomputers and even bloody Android which only has the heavily patched old Linux kernel and that's it. So bloody pathetic.