ASUS ROG Ally: New Windows gaming handheld to launch with custom AMD Ryzen APU and eGPU support
ASUS has started teasing the ROG Ally, its apparent attempt at a high-end gaming handheld. Initially, ASUS presented the device on April 1, leading many to suspect that it was an April Fools' Day joke. However, the company has since tweeted about the ROG Ally, while Best Buy has listed the device on its US website. Thus, it seems that the ROG Ally is a real device, albeit one that it is reluctant to provide much information about for now.
Fundamentally, the ASUS ROG Ally looks like other contemporary gaming handhelds, with a small display sandwiched between game controller buttons. ASUS' device will have a few tricks up its sleeve though, including one that no other gaming handheld possesses. As the video below shows, the ROG Ally will rely on a custom AMD APU like the Steam Deck. According to ETA Prime, the unknown APU will provide worse CPU performance than Zen 3+ models like the Ryzen 9 6900HX, with the YouTuber speculating that AMD will include only Zen 3 cores.
Conversely, the custom APU will feature a more powerful iGPU than the Radeon 680M that AMD includes in the Ryzen 7 6800U through Ryzen 9 6980HX. ETA Prime adds that the ROG Ally is likely to offer 8 or 12 Compute Units (CUs) based on the RDNA 3 architecture. In other words, the ROG Ally should match the GPU performance of something like the Radeon 760M or Radeon 780M. Additionally, the gaming handheld will support the ROG XG Mobile, ASUS' proprietary eGPU solution. Little else is known about the ROG Ally for now, other than ETA Prime claiming that it has a 7-inch and 1080p display. Presumably, ASUS will reveal more details about the device in the coming months.
