Steam Deck vs. ASUS ROG Ally Arch Linux Gaming Performance

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Steam Deck vs. ASUS ROG Ally Arch Linux Gaming Performance

With the ASUS ROG Ally gaming handheld that began shipping last month I've so far looked at the Linux support for this device as well as looking at the Windows 11 vs. Linux gaming performance as well as the Ryzen Z1 Extreme CPU performance. What many Phoronix readers have been most interested in seeing though are the side-by-side benchmarks for Valve's Steam Deck up against the ASUS ROG Ally. Today's benchmarks provide just that comparison plus some CPU benchmarks too.

https://www.phoronix.com/review/steam-deck-rog-ally

[avis]

• Does the ROG Ally really have 12GB of RAM? I thought it was 16GB?
• How difficult was it to install Arch Linux? What bugs have you encountered?
• Would be nice to see IO tests for storage (max read/write rate) and Wi-Fi (using iperf3).
• Have you actually gamed on either of these handhelds? What's your experience been like? Is SteamOS really worth it?

[edxposed]

If the CPU and GPU of ROG Ally are undervolted and downclocked, I think the energy efficiency will surpass that of Steam Deck, and the performance will still be higher than that of Steam Deck.

[V1tol]

If the CPU and GPU of ROG Ally are undervolted and downclocked, I think the energy efficiency will surpass that of Steam Deck, and the performance will still be higher than that of Steam Deck.

But according to graphs when Deck and Ally has the same performance they have the same power consumption. And according to power consumption graphs Deck downclocks further having even lower power consumption where possible. Unless Crapsus invests in SteamOS support of course which I highly doubt.

[dlq84]

• Do you intend to test the ROG Ally with preinstalled Windows?

There is already a win vs Linux test on this device made a few days ago

[avis]

There is already a win vs Linux test on this device made a few days ago

You're right. I thought it was Steam Deck.

[jams3223]

The comparison was a little unbalanced because SteamOS is running on an older version of the Linux kernel and is also using Mesa 23.1 compared to the latest Mesa 23.1.3, Michael it would've been better to compare them when SteamOS 3.5 is released, i think things feel a little rushed.

[Misel]

• Does the ROG Ally really have 12GB of RAM? I thought it was 16GB?

Maybe on the Ally the RAM is split into VRAM and RAM? All specs I've found say it has 16GiB.

[Michael]

Maybe on the Ally the RAM is split into VRAM and RAM? All specs I've found say it has 16GiB.

It is 16GB as stated in the article, 12GB reporting is just due to 4GB allocated for vRAM.

[Michael]

The comparison was a little unbalanced because SteamOS is running on an older version of the Linux kernel and is also using Mesa 23.1 compared to the latest Mesa 23.1.3, Michael it would've been better to compare them when SteamOS 3.5 is released, i think things feel a little rushed.

I can easily run a second round of tests when 3.5 is actually released...