Windows 11 vs. Linux Gaming Performance On The ASUS ROG Ally

Overall the Linux gaming performance on the ASUS ROG Ally did have the capability of performing similar to Windows 11. The big caveat is that you need to set the ACPI Platform Profile to performance rather than the default balanced state. In the out-of-the-box configuration of Ubuntu 23.04 + Linux 6.4 on this gaming handheld, it performs very poorly otherwise. If considering Linux on the ASUS ROG Ally, keep in mind the audio is still getting squared away, WiFi troubles and other considerations as well. Over the months ahead the Linux state will hopefully mature nicely for this interesting gaming device powered by the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme.

For those wondering about the impact of the "performance" ACPI Platform Profile, I ran some follow-up benchmarks then to show the impact on power and other system vitals.

Out-of-the-box with Linux 6.4 and using the default balanced profile, during gaming tests the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme had an average power consumption of 15 Watts and a peak of 25 Watts. When running in the "performance" profile, the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme had an average power draw of 30 Watts and a recorded peak of 53 Watts. That is with the CPU SoC power consumption exposed via PowerCap/RAPL interfaces. Keep in mind that AMD advertises the Ryzen Z1 Extreme as having a Configurable TDP of 9 to 30 Watts, but clearly with the performance profile can acheive upwards of 50 Watts.

Obviously this performance profile greatly drives up the SoC temperature... Out-of-the-box was 57 degrees while gaming but in the performance mode was now at 80 degrees with a recorded peak of 95 degrees.

The increased temperature did also yield the ASUS ROG Ally's fan speed ramping much higher than in the balanced mode.

When looking at the peak CPU frequency achieved every second, in both modes the 5.1GHz top speed for the Ryzen Z1 Extreme was being achieved. On average though the peak frequency observed was around 2.7GHz for the balanced mode and around 3.3GHz for the performance mode.

Hopefully these metrics today were insightful if curious about the Linux performance for gaming with the ASUS ROG Ally. It's possible but there are some early adoption issues as noted and if wanting competitive performance you will need to be running with the performance ACPI Platform Profile, which really drives up power use and thermals. More ASUS ROG Ally benchmarks -- including a comparison to the Steam Deck -- are coming on Phoronix.