MSI Claw with Intel Core Ultra 7 155H struggles against Asus ROG Ally with AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme in early gaming tests

A very early review of MSI's first gaming handheld and the first unit with Intel Meteor Lake CPUs is out. As the benchmark results from the review show, the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H variant can't match the gaming performance of the Asus ROG Ally with AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme (curr. $695 on Amazon).

The review even went into the details by comparing the gaming handhelds at different power levels. In the Shadow of Tomb Raider test, the MSI Claw with Core Ultra 7 155H has a noticeable performance gap to the ROG Ally with Ryzen Z1 in the 15W, 20W, and 25W TDP settings. The same appears to hold true for the maximum settings.

More specifically, at the max TDP settings, which is 40W for the Claw and 30W for the ROG Ally, MSI's gaming handheld got an average of 49 FPS, while the latter got 53 FPS. The lead for the Ryzen Z1 Extreme device isn't noticeable in just one gaming test, though. It was ahead in other games tested in the review.

For example, in the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark with max TDP for both handhelds, the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H system got an average of 44.8 FPS, while ASUS ROG Ally had 59.8 FPS. On Red Dead Redemption 2, the MSI Claw scores an average FPS of 49.2, while ROG Ally gets 60.2 FPS. Check the chart attached at the end to get a better understanding of how the gaming handhelds performed in different games tested in the benchmark.

One important thing to note here is that MSI Claw with the Intel Meteor Lake CPU is still in its early phase. MSI has only started taking pre-orders, with the official launch date set for April 1. When it starts shipping, the benchmark results of the Intel Core Ultra gaming handheld will likely change, as it may get better drivers. So, you can't really draw any conclusions from these early test results.