News ROG Ally Z1 with Radeon 740M iGPU tested against Steam Deck in compute benchmarks

[Admin]

The Steam Deck's custom RDNA 2 iGPU is put to the test against the lesser ROG Ally's Z1 RDNA 3 iGPU in compute benchmarks to see how they stack up.

ROG Ally Z1 with Radeon 740M iGPU tested against Steam Deck in compute benchmarks : Read more

 

[atomicWAR]

Very close...I hope that translates to FPS as well. If so that shows what huge progress AMD has made with their newer architecture. I will be eagerly awaiting gaming benchmarks.

 

[TheyCallMeContra]

Very close...I hope that translates to FPS as well. If so that shows what huge progress AMD has made with their newer architecture. I will be eagerly awaiting gaming benchmarks.

Writer here! I regret to inform you it does not. The original Z1 Extreme Ally, which is on paper considerably more powerful than the Deck, can only achieve meaningfully higher FPS when plugged into wall- on battery Z1 Extreme and Deck perform very close, as shown in the benchmark shared at the end of this one.

Since the Z1 Ally is even weaker than that, well...you get the idea. It performs significantly worse than Deck in real-world gaming scenarios, especially in handheld. The main thing we see from these benches is that the newer RDNA 3 architecture is more efficient in some ways even while cut down to this extent, but unfortunately the Z1 Ally is too cut-down to meaningfully compete with Deck in raw FPS unless your performance needs are lower— and you really want Asus' PCIe x8 eGPU connector.

 

[atomicWAR]

Writer here! I regret to inform you it does not. The original Z1 Extreme Ally, which is on paper considerably more powerful than the Deck, can only achieve meaningfully higher FPS when plugged into wall- on battery Z1 Extreme and Deck perform very close, as shown in the benchmark shared at the end of this one.

Since the Z1 Ally is even weaker than that, well...you get the idea. It performs significantly worse than Deck in real-world gaming scenarios, especially in handheld. The main thing we see from these benches is that the newer RDNA 3 architecture is more efficient in some ways even while cut down to this extent, but unfortunately the Z1 Ally is too cut-down to meaningfully compete with Deck in raw FPS unless your performance needs are lower— and you really want Asus' PCIe x8 eGPU connector.

Yeah I figured as much from said soc's in use that have been fully benched. Clearly 1080P is still to much even for the Z1 extreme, imho, to aim for in mobile. 720-800P seems to be the sweet spot for decent FPS. I hoped this 'new' chip would at least compete at 720-800P but I also knew my hopes were likely lofty. Thanks for chiming in though it is always appreciated to get more input from other users on Toms. Have a great day man, I look forward to your future posts on Toms!

 

[Pierce2623]

Yeah I figured as much from said soc's in use that have been fully benched. Clearly 1080P is still to much even for the Z1 extreme, imho, to aim for in mobile. 720-800P seems to be the sweet spot for decent FPS. I hoped this 'new' chip would at least compete at 720-800P but I also knew my hopes were likely lofty. Thanks for chiming in though it is always appreciated to get more input from other users on Toms. Have a great day man, I look forward to your future posts on Toms!

Yeah as someone who owns a Steam Deck and full fat Ally, the Ally is only worth the extra money if you plan to play plugged in mostly as at 15w it barely outperforms a Steam Deck and even 15w is enough to limit you to two hours of battery life on either model. The Ally only has extra value if you can run it 30w. Well the VRR display also adds value as VRR is a game changer on handhelds. The base model Ally never shows itself as a good value because you can spend less on a Steam Deck and get superior gaming performance.