Asus has provided benchmark numbers for its new ROG Ally model featuring AMD’s hexa-core Ryzen Z1 handled gaming SoC. The benchmarks confirm that the wide spec differences between the Z1 and Z1 extreme impact real-world performance, with the Z1 Extreme variant of the ROG Ally performing substantially better than the Ally sporting the vanilla Ryzen Z1 chip.
Asus benchmarked both ROG Ally variants (featuring the Ryzen Z1 and Z1 Extreme) in several AAA titles, including Elden Ring, FIFA 23, Cuberypunk 2077, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Forza Horizon 5, and Diablo 4 at 1080P and 720P. At 1080P resolution, the ROG Ally with the Z1 Extreme was averaging 30% greater performance in all five titles, with frame rate margins as high as 35FPS in the case of Modern Warfare 2.
At 720P, Asus added Red Dead Redemption 2 into the testing pool, alongside the other six titles. On average, The Z1 Extreme-powered ROG Ally was 24% faster than the Ryzen Z1 variant, with frame rate gaps as high as 27FPS in Modern Warfare 2.
The performance variances are pretty large between the two SKUs, but the good news is that Asus’ lower-end ROG Ally with the Z1 non-Extreme was still able to stay above 30FPS in all games tested at 1080P, and above 40FPS at 720P.
AMD’s Ryzen Z1-series CPUs represent its first foray into the handheld gaming SoC market, in competition with the Steam Deck. The new chips are custom-tuned variants of AMD’s 7040-series Phoenix mobile CPUs, featuring more optimized V/F curves designed for handheld gaming PCs. The Ryzen Z1 Extreme is the flagship SKU, offering 8 Zen 4 cores, 16 threads, a 5.1GHz boost clock, 24MB of cache and 12 RDNA 3 compute units. The Ryzen Z1 is AMD’s lower-end model, sporting six Zen 4 cores, 12 threads, a 4.9GHz boost clock, 22MB of cache and just four RDNA3 compute units
The Ryzen Z1’s substantially hobbled graphics unit explains why the chip is so much slower compared to the Z1 Extreme. However, Asus only tested the chips at their 30W TDPs and not at lower TDPs, like 15W. If previous benchmarks are anything to go by, the Ryzen Z1 excels at lower power envelopes, which could make it a decent offering for gamers who care more about battery life than performance.
The new Ryzen Z1 ROG Ally variant is available now at Best Buy for $599.99, making it $100 cheaper than the Z1 Extreme variant.
