News Asus ROG Ally 2 leaks with AMD Z2 Extreme CPU and 64GB RAM — black variant features a dedicated Xbox button

[Admin]

Asus and Microsoft are introducing a variant of ROG Ally 2, which reportedly features AMD's top-end Z2 Extreme APU and 64GB of RAM.

Asus ROG Ally 2 leaks with AMD Z2 Extreme CPU and 64GB RAM — black variant features a dedicated Xbox button : Read more

 

[Notton]

64GB and Z2X are all fine and dandy, but it sounds expensive.
Are we going to hit >$999 for a gaming handheld?

For reference
RoG Ally Z1: $599 (This model was a flop)
RoG Ally Z1X: $699 (It had card reader overheating issues that were never acknowledged)
RoG Ally X: $799 (Sticker shock, fixes problems in initial model, but it cracks in certain spots over time)
RoG Ally Z2: ???
RoG Ally Z2a: ???
Claw U5: $699 (Disastrous launch with buggy drivers that eventually got better)
Claw U7: $749, $799
Claw 7 AI+: $799
Claw 8 AI+: $899 (Sticker shock)
Lenovo Legion Go: $599 (poor battery life, weird shape controllers, mediocre software)
Steam Deck: $349, $399, $449 (Not the best of performance, but it just works)
Steam Deck OLED: $549, $649

 

[GenericUser2001]

Plenty of smaller brand handhelds have already crossed the $1000 mark. The Ayaneo Flip is $1139 on their website right now, as an example.

 

[Giroro]

It looks less like an "Xbox" collaboration, and more like ASUS paid a licensing fee to Microsoft to use their controller design.
Is this class of gigantic "handheld" consoles really so popular to warrant companies having so many on the market at the same time? It's rare to see even a Steam Deck when walking around an airport - and that is one of the smallest/cheapest/most popular models (and its still huge).
I have a hard time imagining anything bigger/more expensive than a Switch will ever see widespread adoption... and that includes Switch 2.

 

[thestryker]

64GB and Z2X are all fine and dandy, but it sounds expensive.
Are we going to hit >$999 for a gaming handheld?

I still don't see the point in 64GB for a handheld period so hopefully this is just an optional exercise. I'm pretty sure $900-1000 would be a spot on pricing guess wise for such a thing.

 

[usertests]

Current data suggests the onboard APU, codenamed Aerith Plus, is a successor or potential refresh of AMD's Von Gogh found on the Steam Deck.

This one is more interesting. It suggests that Z1 non-extreme was a bad choice for its tiny iGPU or cost if it's being abandoned for a higher clocked Van Gogh with older cores.

 

[thestryker]

This one is more interesting. It suggests that Z1 non-extreme was a bad choice for its tiny iGPU or cost if it's being abandoned for a higher clocked Van Gogh with older cores.

Oh it was definitely always a bad choice due to the lopsided tradeoff. I think the big takeaway is that Z2 Go must just be a binned chip because it's basically a better Van Gogh so the only reason to enhance the latter is if it was enough smaller die size.

 

[Notton]

I still don't see the point in 64GB for a handheld psriod so hopefully this is just an optional exercise. I'm pretty sure $900-1000 would be a spot on pricing guess wise for such a thing.

Yeah, I sure hope they have a 32GB and/or 24GB model in a cheaper SKU.
I guess they could also make a 48GB model, but I doubt it would be a popular choice when a 32GB model will cover just about any game that runs on a handheld.

 

[usertests]

Oh it was definitely always a bad choice due to the lopsided tradeoff. I think the big takeaway is that Z2 Go must just be a binned chip because it's basically a better Van Gogh so the only reason to enhance the latter is if it was enough smaller die size.

Definitely smaller and cheaper than the Z2 Go. And if a +100 MHz Aerith doesn't perform at least identically to the Steam Deck, the blame rests entirely with Windows or ASUS for its cooling/software, not the choice of APU.

In a better timeline, Mendocino would have used the same die as Van Gogh for better graphics (up to 8 CUs instead of 2 CUs), and the worst yields could have become the dual-core Athlon Gold 7220C and Athlon Silver 7120U. But still with more than 2 CUs. Even the Athlon Gold could have been a tri-core. They could have been producing tens of millions of the same die for low cost, sharing them between laptops, Steam Deck, and other handhelds.

Now we have the best testament yet to the staying power of the Steam Deck SoC: ASUS launching a brand new product with it in 2025, if the leak is correct.

 

[GenericUser2001]

The rumors I am seeing after a bit of Google point to the "Aerith Plus" chip actually being made from a Krakan Point die, with 4 of the CPU cores disabled. Which of the four is unknown (Krakan point has 4 regular & 4 C cores), but at least the iGPU on that is RDNA 3.5 based vs the RDNA2 based Steam deck, so that should help a fair bit performance wise.

 

[thestryker]

Definitely smaller and cheaper than the Z2 Go. And if a +100 MHz Aerith doesn't perform at least identically to the Steam Deck, the blame rests entirely with Windows or ASUS for its cooling/software, not the choice of APU.

It should also have a lot more memory bandwidth as I believe the shipping manifests showed the same LPDDR5X-8533 as the Z2E. Unless Microsoft does something specifically to enhance gaming I expect frame pacing to still be better on the Deck.

 

[usertests]

The rumors I am seeing after a bit of Google point to the "Aerith Plus" chip actually being made from a Krakan Point die, with 4 of the CPU cores disabled. Which of the four is unknown (Krakan point has 4 regular & 4 C cores), but at least the iGPU on that is RDNA 3.5 based vs the RDNA2 based Steam deck, so that should help a fair bit performance wise.

I don't think that can be true, because of the leak putting the GPU clock of Aerith Plus at 1.8 GHz. The known Krackan chips have GPU clocks ranging from 2.9-3.0 GHz. The low GPU clock supports it being a higher clocked Aerith, which boosts to 1.6 GHz in the Steam Deck.

Similar story with the CPU. It's like a better Steam Deck, nowhere near Krackan.