AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme

Performance against the Steam Deck

AMD lists eight Zen 4 cores, 16 threads and a 12 compute unit RDNA 3 GPU in a 9 to 30 W range, roughly double the Steam Deck's core count and with more GPU units.

In practice the lead is clear at higher power. At 720p on the highest preset in 15 W Performance mode, IGN measured the ROG Ally at 38, 57 and 64 fps in Total War: Three Kingdoms, Borderlands 3 and Hitman 3, against 25, 42 and 44 fps on the Steam Deck. Reviewed saw Spider-Man: Miles Morales at 40 to 50 fps at 720p medium on the Ally, against 20 to 30 fps on its Deck.

The gap narrows when the Ally has to drop to 720p to keep frame rates up. Tom's Guide called the gain over the Steam Deck arguably negligible in that case, and Reviewed found the Deck better at low-power play.

Why the Ally X runs it faster

The ROG Ally X kept the same chip but moved to 24 GB of faster memory. IGN measured Hitman 3 at 55 fps at 1080p, against 48 fps on the original Ally, and credits the memory. PC Gamer found the Ally X about 6 to 10% faster with FSR Balanced and medium settings, and GamesRadar+ saw Assassin's Creed Valhalla rise from 32 to 37 fps, a real but modest gain.

Power modes matter on any Z1 Extreme handheld. Notebookcheck says only Turbo mode gives the ROG Ally full speed, though its repeat runs in Performance mode landed just 1 to 2 fps behind.

Battery life

Battery life depends more on the handheld than the chip. With the original Ally's 40 Wh battery, IGN says to expect 1 to 2 hours in demanding games and Notebookcheck got 57 minutes of The Witcher 3 in Turbo mode. The Ally X's 80 Wh battery stretched Ars Technica's PCMark 10 gaming test to 2 hours 15 minutes in Turbo and nearly 3 hours in Performance mode.

How it compares now

The Z2 Extreme in the ROG Xbox Ally X is the direct successor. Notebookcheck measured it 14% ahead of the Z1 Extreme Ally X, with its 17 W Performance mode roughly matching the older chip's 25 W Turbo mode. Tom's Guide found the gains minor at 35 W and clear at 17 W, and Tom's Hardware says current Ally owners need not upgrade.

Against the Switch 2, PC Gamer notes that Nintendo's custom Nvidia chip is outpaced by the Z1 Extreme in the ROG Ally, with DLSS picking up the slack in many Switch 2 games.

Lenovo also sells the Legion Go S with SteamOS on a Z1 Extreme. Tom's Guide saw Doom: The Dark Ages at about 25 fps at 1200p medium and 56 to 61 fps at 800p on that model, against 15 and 45 fps on the Windows version with the slower Z2 Go.