Thanks to its AMD processor, the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X looks to be a winner for those wanting to utilize modern features in a gaming handheld. Youtuber Cary Golomb has been putting the Xbox OS-based (via Windows 11) device through the paces and early game testing with DOOM: The Dark Ages is revealing some impressive results. Something to remember with Doom: The Dark Ages is that ray tracing is on by default and cannot be turned off, which automatically presents a challenge for less powerful hardware.
ROG Xbox ALLY X
— Cary Golomb (@carygolomb) August 22, 2025
Doom the Dark Ages
1080p upscaled (FSR 50% 540p base res)
Ray Tracing enabled
Custom low-medium settings
FSR Frame-gen enabled.
~70fps in this scene.
~26w total (~18w TDP) but good news is we see the system self balancing power.
My YouTube video tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/v6gh6uhpkh
Cary’s testing involved using FSR to upscale from 540p to 1080p and used a mixed range of low and medium settings, which managed up to 70 FPS. The good news didn’t stop there, as the ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X was said to be only consuming ~26W via its Performance profile, an impressive feat of power draw given the workload the APU is under, and it was said the game could be played for just over 3 hours. The AMD Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme features Radeon 890M graphics, and when set to 18W mode, can maintain temperatures in the 57° C range, but it was not revealed what the iGPU temperatures were during testing.
ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X
The ASUS ROG Xbox Ally X received a lot of attention after it was announced at this year’s Xbox Games Showcase. Not long after, Microsoft announced it was delaying development of an Xbox Gaming handheld so that it could focus on supporting partners with their own models. Earlier this week, it was revealed that Xbox Ally X and the more budget-friendly version Ally will both launch on October 16. Pricing has not yet been announced, but the Ally X is rumored to launch at $899 and the Ally at $549. One last interesting tidbit is that Microsoft is working on incorporating a new feature where the handhelds can download shaders for games, thus bypassing the need for shader compilation.
“Advanced shader delivery, a new feature that preloads game shaders during download, so select games launch up to 10x faster, run smoother, and use less battery on first play. More games will support this feature over time. “
– Microsoft
Discussion (13 replies)
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Looks pretty neat. One of the days I need to dust off my Steam Deck and start using it.
Xbox branding is going to confuse many as to its capabilities. Will it play some of the games Xbox owners bought for their digital libraries, only from the cloud? Hence requiring a good internet connection? More importantly: Can owners expect the customer service to be Xbox level? Or will they have to deal with Asus CS which is infamously terrible?
The footprint is probably going to be problematic for kids and adults with smaller hands.
Yar, I'm worried about that too. I could see customers seeing the 'Xbox' name and figure it's the new Xbox and expecting a traditional Xbox-like experience (which it doesn't sound like it will be - at least on launch). I don't think it's going to be a huge seller with the rumored price points, but they will definitely start to dilute the 'Xbox' brand.
Personally, I think MS should've kept with their current Xbox hardware - open those up as much as they could (ie: give them a limited Windows desktop mode, limited App/software support, etc), and release a new portable console based on the Series S. Go with that lineup until their next gen Magus powered Xbox's are ready for the 'official Xbox hardware' label but still focus on improving Windows gaming for the PC handheld market (acting as a test bed for the next gen Xbox platform).
I don't know that size will be that much of an issue. Its a little bit larger than the switch 2 and smaller than the steam deck.
I think most of the thickness is where it doesn't matter as far as holding it. Since the sides have handles for griping which probably isn't as thick as the whole unit.
I think MS doing the right move. They went the "easy" route. Porting the xbox core to a more open platform would have been quite a challenge. And going the emulation route, wasn't probably the best idea, since you would need a much beefier hardware. Today it doesn't seem like the current xbox model is sustainable, so having 3rd party xbox "certified" consoles seems like a good idea. I can see Lenovo, MSI and others jumping in the bandwagon (or going the steam OS route). It's only natural it could evolve to Xbox gaming PCs with a gaming oriented OS aka Xbox Experience.
The Xbox Ally is capable of running pretty much every windows game (as long as performance is in line) Compatibility is way better than SteamOS will ever be at least natively. It WON'T be able to run native xbox games, but you can run PC ports of xbox games plus all the PC game pass library. If you must play original Xbox games, there's always Xbox Cloud Gaming, you'll need an internet connection, but still.
If the rumored pricing is real, it will be hard to sell IMO. More so the Xbox Ally X.
All MS really needs to do is make an Xbox Certified gaming certification/mode. Buy a laptop for college, buy one that's xbox certified. Then when you power off you press the Xbox button to boot into game mode... otherwise it's windows. Game mode loads a stripped down version of the OS optimized for gaming and with no access to things like cheats.
I really like that idea and it's simple enough for consumers to understand (press the 'Xbox' button to boot into game mode).
It's reasonable to say that you would have an 'xbox' partition on the drive, that can access the storage drive that is software partitioned to give a variable priority to game/productivity storage. I really think that would be a best of both worlds. Integrate the Xbox low latency controller connectivity, put a current gen HDMI output on it for driving the TV it's connected to.
The XBOX boot would be maintained by MS to be as clean as possible and as efficient as possible to give people the best gaming experience as is reasonable. (Could even be maintained in partnership with the vendor.)
That makes perfect sense
Which is exactly why it will never happen
Hell when you are done gaming on it that could be a dedicated dual boot button to boot into something like Linux. Or instead of Xbox brand Steam OS brand... or whatever. So many options here.
Prime got hands on, and it looks like a good first entry in the handheld wars-
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How many units like this do you think MS can sell within its relevant lifespan?