Soooo yeah, I sold my Steam Deck (which I love) in preparation to get an OLED but I was very curious about the ROG Ally, mostly for the performance and VRR, so I bought one.

Here’s a quick rundown of my experience:

  • Took 2h or 3h just to get set up. Between Windows setup, windows updates, etc. it was very frustrating not being able to use the machine right away.
  • After I thought I was mostly ready to install games, the machine was incredibly slow. Like, opening Explorer or Steam would take 30s+. Activity Monitor didn’t really show any high cpu processes. Just intermittent blips of 20% or 30% on some tasks but would go back down. Machine was unusable though.
  • Googled for a bit and found there were lots of updates on MyASUS and Armory Crate. Two distinct pieces of software I had never used. Why two???
  • After I updated everything and did a firmware update everything was speedy again, so I installed a few games.
  • Started Sekiro as my first game since I had trouble hitting decent FPS on the Deck. The game would not respond to button inputs. And yes, I was in “game controller mode”. Quit out of the game and start it again: same thing.
  • Decided to reboot Windows and voila, now it received button inputs. (sigh)
  • The performance is indeed incredible. I was very impressed with VRR in particular.
  • I then tried Guardians of the Galaxy. Crashed on the first run with no error.
  • When I was finally in the game I was playing around with the power profiles / game modes / keyboard shortcuts using the Armory overlay or whatever it’s called. After changing a few settings the overlay froze. I was able to toggle it on/off but tapping the buttons did nothing.
  • Force quitting Armory crate didn’t seem to work. Had to reboot. Maybe I had to force quit some other dependent service?

Anyway, I could go on but it was just frustration after frustration. I never thought I’d see the day Linux would be simpler and friendlier than Windows but here we are.

I returned it even though I liked the form factor, performance, screen, VRR, the quiet fans, etc. The hardware is great. Windows is a non-starter for a handheld console.

Let’s go OLED STEAM DECK!!!

  • SubjectCraft8475
    BEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    For me it was the opposite I sold my Steam Deck got an Ally and never looked back. Part of the reason I was satisfied was I expected the worse after reading similar posts to yours. So let me break down my experience.

    I am familiar with Windows, I’ve used Windows computers all my life, I even own a Gaming Laptop. I’m also IT literate but not some expert who knows how to code.

    When I got the Ally I went through the initial Windows set up it was very smooth and easy to do. The next thing I did was follow a video from Retro Game Corps. This is a step by step guide and only took me half hour to do a set up and very basic and easy to do. Yes it’s cumbersome but not rocket science, you do updates between 3 different apps. There are additional optional optimisation that Retro Game Corps video also does such as disabling CPU boost and Core Isolation. I then moved on to create custom fan control and wattage settings. After some basic research I determined 18w was the sweet spot for battery, and 21w was the sweet spot for being plugged in.

    I then went on to install all the stores like you would do in any Windows PC, this included Steam and Epic Game store. Finally I uninstall any software I didn’t need as well as disabling any software that auto starts. I also enabled hibernate and removed sleep as I heard hibernate works better.

    One thing that really surprised me is how easy the interface on Windows is on a touchscreen. I just couldn’t believe the complaints. The touch is superior to steam deck, and I was satisfied using the touch screen and right analog stick to navigate. Compared to Deck I felt I was free and not chained up, I can install anything as I please, install mods, have games from different stores, no messing about with proton layers, no lutris, bottles it was just much easier and begginer friendly to me. I can also use Steam Big picture mode or Armour Crate and make thos auto start if I wanted to avoid Windows UI.

    The 2nd thing that surprised me is the quiet fan. I’m playing at 21w and the fan is considerably more queiter than a Deck at 15w. The performance increase is insane and the flexibility was great and easy to tinker thanks to Armoury Crate. I can play a indie game at 1080p 120fps. I can play a recent AAA game at 720p with RSR enabled. With VRR I don’t have to worry about capping framersre there is no screen tearing or hitching at all. Also the games had less input lag than a Deck thanks to no proton later or V Sync. I also liked having the D Pad at an angle I found it more pleasent for 2D games and fighting games than the Deck. The system also felt way lighter to hold than a Deck. Maybe I was lucky but I have had no issues running any games everything just worked. From controls to performance.

    The key negatives for me on Ally are the battery life and SD card issue. But because I got my Ally used and came preinstalled with 1TB I overlooked the SD card issue, the Ally is actually moddable where you can upgrade to a normal sized cheaper SSD, so now I’m tempted to upgrade to 4TB. The battery life issue for AAA games I play plugged in, this doesn’t impact me because I mainly play around the house and have an outlet next to my bed, my office and my couch. Ally isn’t better than a Deck and Deck isn’t better than an Ally. It’s down to personal preference. If you like Windows, something smaller and lighter, more power get an Ally. If you like Steam OS, trackpads, longer battery get a Deck.