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MagyarCheckMag | How fast would the ROG Ally X be with AMD Zen 5 Strix Point? We tested it out.
The new ROG Ally X had an excellent showing in our in-depth review, indicating that Asus has significantly improved its gaming handheld in many aspects, especially ergonomics and battery life. Despite not being leaps and bounds better in raw gaming performance, the device is still the best Windows gaming handheld available now. The Ally X features the same AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme (Zen 4) with a Radeon 780M found in the original ROG Ally, but it pairs the processor with slightly faster memory and modified power limits in Performance mode (from 15 to 17 watts).
Just one week after the ROG Ally X's release, AMD launched its brand-new Zen 5 processors. This raises the question of how much performance you lose with the ROG Ally X compared with Zen 5 chips boasting the new Radeon 890M. In this article, we attempt to answer this question in greater detail by running several gaming benchmarks on the ROG Ally X and the new Asus ProArt P16, equipped with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and 64 GB of LPDDR5X-7500 RAM, at power limits of 17, 25 and 30 watts. These values correspond to the ROG Ally X's Performance, Turbo battery and Turbo AC modes, respectively. (Some YouTubers have already tried doing the same, for the record.) We deliberately excluded short-duration boost power limits found in the default profiles. Consequently, the figures below may deviate slightly from the results published in our ROG Ally X review. By default, the ROG Ally X allocates 8 GB of RAM to its Radeon 780M, and we configured the ProArt P16 to give its Radeon 890M the same amount of memory. On the ROG Ally X, the power limits were set using the standard Armoury Crate SE software, while we used Universal x86 Tuning Utility to adjust the values on the ProArt P16. The different cooling performances between the two devices didn’t really matter during our tests, since the ROG Ally X is able to maintain steady performance even at 35 watts.
We started off by running 3DMark’s Time Spy and Steel Nomad Light tests. At 17 watts, the Zen 5 SoC is 22% faster than the Ryzen Z1 Extreme on average, with the lead dropping to 17.5% and 14.5% at 25 watts and 30 watts, respectively.
| Benchmark | 17 Watt TDP | 25 Watt TDP | 30 Watt TDP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steel Nomad Light | 2,168 points | 2,601 points | 2,753 points |
| Time Spy Graphics | 2,427 points | 2,857 points | 2,987 points |
| Benchmark | 17 Watt TDP | 25 Watt TDP | 30 Watt TDP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steel Nomad Light | 2,757 points (+27%) | 3,175 points (+22%) | 3,283 points (+19%) |
| Time Spy Graphics | 2,838 points (+17%) | 3,222 points (+13%) | 3,300 points (+10%) |
Actual gaming benchmarks are naturally much more important for the handheld. We tested out a few titles using 1080p/high settings to see how well the two devices perform at TDPs of 17 watts, 25 watts and 30 watts, once again without short-term boost power draw. In general, we similarly saw double-digit gains across the board. In the games we tested, the Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 is on average about 21%, 15.5% and 19% faster at 17 watts, 25 watts and 30 watts, respectively.
| Game | 17 Watt TDP | 25 Watt TDP | 30 Watt TDP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Far Cry 5 | 36 FPS | 44 FPS | 45 FPS |
| Witcher 3 | 39 FPS | 45 FPS | 47 FPS |
| GTA V | 57 FPS | 65 FPS | 67 FPS |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 19.8 FPS | 24.5 FPS | 25.6 FPS |
| CoD MW3 | 26 FPS | 33 FPS | 35 FPS |
| CoD MW3 (FSR) | 41 FPS | 51 FPS | 54 FPS |
| Game | 17 Watt TDP | 25 Watt TDP | 30 Watt TDP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Far Cry 5 | 42 FPS (+17%) | 51 FPS (+16%) | 53 FPS (+18%) |
| Witcher 3 | 43 FPS (+10%) | 51 FPS (+13%) | 54 FPS (+15%) |
| GTA V | 64 FPS (+12%) | 75 FPS (+15%) | 77 FPS (+15%) |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | 24.9 FPS (+26%) | 28.4 FPS (+16%) | 29.7 FPS (+16%) |
| CoD MW3 | 33 FPS (+27%) | 38 FPS (+15%) | 45 FPS (+29%) |
| CoD MW3 (FSR) | 54 FPS (+32%) | 60 FPS (+18%) | 65 FPS (+20%) |
We can quite safely say that the ROG Ally X would offer around 15-20% more gaming performance if it were equipped with the new AMD Zen 5 processor instead. However, it is essential to keep in mind that power usage plays a crucial role, especially in a gaming handheld, and goes beyond just TDP. Being exceptionally familiar with the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme, Asus managed to further optimise the ROG Ally X’s power consumption compared with the original ROG Ally. By contrast, new Zen 5-based laptops still seem to have rather underwhelming efficiency, though this isn’t surprising for a completely new chip. Therefore, we don’t think Asus would have been able to bring the overall power usage down to the level of the Ryzen Z1 Extreme within such a short time. Putting a Zen 5 chip in the Ally X right now would either result in the battery life being shorter at the same TDP limits, or require the lowering of the TDP limits in the respective performance modes in order to achieve a similar overall power draw, which in turn would slightly decrease gaming performance.
The second issue is pricing. With a recommended retail price of €899 (US$799), the new ROG Ally X is already one of the most expensive gaming handhelds. Giving the device a Zen 5 processor definitely would have raised its price even higher and made a mid-to-late July launch very unlikely.
All things considered, we believe that the ROG Ally X, in its current form, is the best compromise between performance, battery life and price. However, the new Zen 5 chip with the Radeon 890M demonstrates its potential at lower TDP values and will surely make its way into gaming handhelds in future.
