Its price makes it ultimate moneygrub. 2-3k dollars depending on a country. Add another 700 dollars for msrp ROG Ally and realise that you can buy a top notch gaming laptop or build a full-fledged powerful gaming PC with the peripheral tech to it included.
I was thinking that, like it's cool that it exists, but you can just buy a gaming laptop or pc at this point and it would be a much cheaper and better experience than bringin this 'round with you
@@MischieviousJirachiidk man if you counting the usability of this compare to a gaming laptop, this setup would be like a 3 in 1 (pc, laptop-ish, and handheld) which for portable gamers out there would be a match made in heaven
@@MischieviousJirachi couldn't agree more. if you ever find the need to play while in car or waiting for public transports, there are a lot of fun games that you can choose and play on your phone.
yeah, no one play like this for sure. Instead of 3000$ external 4090 and 700$ rog ally. Just get a handheld like switch for 300$, then spend over 3000$ for a full powerful pc at home and still save a lots for buying games
@@JarrodsTech Any hint of what the video is about? I'd be really interested in seeing ROG Ally + XG Mobile 4090 vs AyaNeo 2S with eGPU + Desktop 4090 and Desktop 4080 (slightly more realistic). I have a good idea based on previous videos but it'd be nice to see it actually compared.
@JarrodsTech link to the video? Just bought at 2 tb rog and want all the extra tech. Also wtf is up with Activision shadow banning users that use handheld to play cod? It hasn't been addressed for months
@@justingoodnight5067 I heard today that one of the community managers on the LegionGo subreddit actually reached out to Activision about this and that some fixes were implemented to the Richocet Anti-Cheat to address these issues for the most part. This was an issue specific to PC Handhelds due to how they can quickly adjust their TDP on the fly mid-game. For whatever reason the TDP adjustments during gameplay were setting off the Anticheat and thereby the cause of the shadowbans, but they made some fixes and the amount of posts about shadowbans in COD have significantly gone down ever since then. There still are some posts from time to time that people make about this but it seems to occur a whole lot less if at all (since you never really know the full story on a lot of those posts and if they are being fully transparent about any other things they may have been doing that could've resulted in bans). If you want to be extra precautious in avoiding potential banning in COD, then I suggest you do not adjust TDP While the game is running (so set TDP before starting up COD and/or make changes to it while game is fully shut down) or alternatively can also use GeForce Now and/or Moonlight to stream from a Gaming PC/Laptop. If you want to dial-in some game settings for COD on ROG Ally (or even many other games in general), then I suggest checking out ROG Ally Life and their recommended settings on a per-game basis. That is a great way to get recommended settings for games on the Ally. I often use ROG Ally Life's settings and then afterwards I adjust specific individual settings toggles otherwise to my liking, as it is MUCH EASIER to do this rather than change all the individual settings blindly not knowing what causes the most performance impacts and so on.
Honestly, it's a massive shame that more laptops don't feature Phoenix Point APUs outside of massively overpriced or somewhat underwhelming designs. I hope this changes in the future, as I've been itching to get a laptop that can survive without the added cost, heat and resulting noise of a dGPU for my use case while having acceptable performance for lightweight gaming at decent framerates. As an aside, thank you for showcasing the XG Mobile scenario for the Ally. While it's still way too expensive, there's nothing quite like it when it comes to having an ultra portable dGPU solution.
XG Mobile, on its own, is actually a great idea. But it would be better if Asus is offering external dock, a proper desktop GPU dock, with this connector. It's basically a supercharged Thunderbolt dock.
I tried the 3080 on my Ally, and the performance was great, I was able to play destiny 2 at 4k 60+ at a mix of medium/high settings, BUT the xg mobile is loud compared to the ally and fluctuates non stop. When just browsing the fan would literally non stop ramp up every 15 seconds or so, even with a custom fan curve. Also it has a decent amount of glitching, for instance I couldn’t get it to output 1440p in some games, only 1080p and 4k. I think I decided it makes more sense to build a cheaper standalone desktop instead of getting the xg mobile
Thanks for the info. I was wondering if I should just sell my 4k screen, 7900 XTX desktop and 3060 laptop and get Ally + 4090 XG for massive portability but I was curious if there would be any bugs. Guess I should just stick to what I have now.
@@BalkanBiker I can't speak for the 4090, but I would expect it to be better on all fronts as the 3080 was the first xg mobile released back in 2021, and the 4090 version is the latest one for 2023. But just my 2 cents, I think it makes the most sense to have an ally for travel, and a desktop for when you need a ton of power, UNLESS you're constantly travelling, then the xg mobile setup makes more sense, but then again, maybe just a good gaming laptop would make more sense at that point.
people nowadays just find scope to complain and trash talk. we should be grateful for this kind of r&d products. sure it's not value for money but imagine going to your friends house who have a 3080 pc and you just show him a phone like device and a small box can outperform his 1 year ago builded max 3080 build in 4k. it's just so fascinating for me.
I love the concept. At $1000 maybe, and more laptop support for that connection would be nice. At $2000 tho… come on Asus. Also would be sweet to have a desktop card dock with their proprietary connection, but that would likely make their laptop egpus pointless.
@@JarrodsTech Exactly. Tho I don’t think much cheaper and that’s probably not even asus fault. I do prefer where devices like the winmax 2 are going with the Oculink but I doubt the industry will use it. U can diy an external gpu enclosure for like $75-$150 bucks with it tho, and put the best desktop grade gpu in it for less than this asus setup, and crush it. But you gotta love Asus ingenuity. Truly great products.
I would personally prefer that they stopped with hte proprietary eGPU nonsense. I want to be able to buy a standard desktop card and plug it in. Imagine buying an Ally and plugging it into the TV on a dock that has an RTX 4080 desktop in it, that would be insane performance. But then in like, 6 years, you upgraded to an RTX 8090 or whatever the name is. Scaling performance without the need for a total system upgrade would be fantastic. Having all the best parts of the laptop, without the need to as frequently upgrade.
I understand the allure of the handheld ROG Ally which I myself have contemplated getting due to its portability. But if you are then going to tether yourself to a 6 inch cord for a 4090 that will equal the price of some high end laptops…I feel you should just go with the high end laptop. I feel you lose the “portability” which is the whole point of the Ally. I think when you are tethered you are even more limited than a laptop as a laptop can be placed on a lap desk. The ally paired with the 4090 seems bulkier and less portable when together as well. It’s definitely a cool concept but I can’t wrap my mind around why you would choose this setup over a laptop. Getting the Ally by itself I get, but not with the 4090. Great review as always though!
Yeah, but even the lightest laptop is 2x the weight and will require a flat surface (so planes/buses/trains could get tough). So it really depends on what you are trying to do. If you always stay put. Desktop. If you move from one desk to another. Laptop. If you are constantly on the move (in transit). Then consider the Ally. Basically - when would you use the nintendo switch vs. a gaming laptop (setting aside games)? Those are the same scenarios when the ally is better than a laptop.
100% agree. If this is something you want to do then you are much better off putting that $2700 towards a high-end desktop or laptop setup and getting way better performance.
@@dreadlord9257 I agree…my point was the external GPU. If you are going to tether yourself then why get the handheld? Absolutely understand if you are constantly on the go getting the Ally. But the external GPU completely nixes the portability option which then means a laptop or desktop is now better for the same price. Even if you “occasionally” game at home I couldn’t imagine justifying the external GPU if you primarily play on the go. That’s an expensive investment in the external GPU to only occasionally use it…
@@JimLitzFilms The tether is mostly for when you get home, or if your inclined to get more power on the go too. Maybe you have an hour+ commute via train. Or fly semi-regularly, but still wan't to have 1 device for everything. There is a reason the switch sold so ridiculously well. Sure the price help, but also the use case appealed to a lot of people. I honestly thought that by this point (well after the introduction of egpus), that laptops would be the norm, with an egpu dock for when you get home and want the oompf.
The point of a handheld device is to be "handheld". If I'm gonna dock it to use an external GPU then I might as well build a desktop with the 2000$ this GPU costs.
Just like the Deck is designed to sell more games on Steam so the Ally is designed to sell more hardware. I believe Asus strategy is after a few months the newness of the Ally wears off ( battery needs to be continuously recharged, the performance on a handheld is good enough on a 7" screen but weak on a larger screen, etc, ) that they will be willingly to buy XG Mobile since by then it would be cheaper than buying a new laptop or desktop. I willingly to bet with some people they will eventually keep the Ally docked while only occasionally play it as a handheld.
Space dude. Not everyone can have a full PC set up in a 600 sq foot apartment while dealing with a girlfriend who wants a beautiful neat aesthetic. You can hide all of this, a gaming PC with desk, monitors, etc, not so much. + it gives you the option to go portable with the Ally but not compromise on frames, resolution etc. There's definitely benefits, expensive yes, but it's all situation based and if you have the means to purchase (luxury).
Hey Jarrod, just wanted to say thanks for the great content! No other channel provides the insights and in depth review like you. I have finally pulled the gun on Asus TUF laptop with i7 12700 and 3050ti mostly for work and light gaming/emulation. keep up the amazing vids mate!
I found an used on Amazon but it’s more than a new one at $799. I got it to try out and if I liked it id get one new at Best Buy but restock is rare. Happened this morning and I waited and it was unavailable again. I would get the 3080 but no HDMI 2.1 and 6850m seems to get more or same fps so might as well save the money
At that price, I think I'm better off getting the top of the line model of the ROG Zephyrus G14 that has both a 4090 laptop version and a good CPUw/APU (7940HS) and probably is just as portable.
@@sweetsurrender815 playing experience kinda play a role too. If you want to play triple A titles, its just much better to play w/ keyboard + mouse. I have played on legion laptops and steam deck but the gaming experience on a small screen just cannot be compared to playing with much bigger screen on desktop/laptops. If I were to game on handhelds, there are enough android games that I can play on my phone while in car or waiting for trains for example. For me, this toy is only for rich bois coming from a family where money was never a concern to begin with.
@@kenjaws7066Dunno whatchu talking about the stereotypes for peoples that buy pc handhelds but I have full fledge gaming pc yet I dont really want to play my steam games after 10-12 hours working infront of a dekstop. When I got my steam deck, I played more of my steam games because I can play it anywhere , couch, bed, kitchen. You name it. Sure battery life is not that great I just got 1-2 hours gameplay on battery itself before I plugged powerbanks to it. It really depends on your preferences. If you want performance then dekstop pc or laptop is for you. Laptop is not really portable\handhelds anyway. Tried it before. Jist my preferences
This is a nice feature but if you are going to tether anything to a hand held gaming device (except charging cable), then you might as well play on a computer with controller.
That connector is a chunkyboy and I fuking love how insane this is. I think I would wrap the Ally Black to match the Dock. I would also make a VESA mount bracket for the monitor. Now that would be clean as fuk. A portable 19" gaming monitor! with a 4090 on the back!
I am using mine doing physics homework (my Asus ROG Flow Z13 Acronym is charging for my upcomint physics class). I have it connected to the ROG Strix XG16AHPE monitor with a wireless mouse and keyboard. 😊
As Ally owner I will give users what is best use case for it: 1. If you at home just stream from your gaming PC and if you don't have one don't buy XG Mobile instead make a PC it's cheaper and better... 2. If away from home use the Ally but if you need big screen don't carry gaming laptop or portable monitor, instead get Rokid Max or Xreal Air glasses now they do 120hz as well and experience is simply superb 3. Make sure you carry powerbank, I have a powerbank that attached directly to Ally, it can only increase battery life by 50% but for the size it's good enough
I feel if and it's a big if the Windows Handheld consoles can get a grip in the market external GPS like this could start to drop in price and sold as bundles. The Ally is a good price for the specs it is now but with the external GPUs. Be a few years before the price comes down but I feel it will do especially if partnerships form with nvidia and AMD happen.
This is exciting, $700 + $2000, tell me if anyone else can find a cheaper 4090 portable laptop than this price point. And it is extendable...ie can upgrade gpu in the future~ but why couldn't Asus bump the xg mobile to 175W? there's so much space for cooling. Is it due to bandwidth limit?
I would've loved to see more numbers across more games. Only 3 games listed basically. The Z1 extreme is roughly on par with a 7940u. Then the xg mobile is the mobile 4090. So just see how it compares for example to the Zephyrus G14 4090 model (igpu to igpu) and then xg-mobile to dgpu (but any comparable laptop would work).
I picked up the Ally and I am loving it so far. I am highly considering selling my 5600X + 3080 desktop and getting either the 3080 or 4090 dock and just using the ally as my system at home and on the go. At 1440p, this thing would be a beast.
I have the same desktop setup and i am considering doing the same thing. I don’t see the need for a big massive tower with 3080 + 5600x if i can get practically the same performance with a way smaller setup by combining my Rog ally with a mobile 4090
@@Just_Manny305 It's pretty cool but honestly though not worth doing. The fact you can add more ram, more storage, and better graphics card makes a desktop far superior.
The price alone makes it impractical. The basic advantage of steam deck is it's much cheaper cost as such the external gpu costs more than many great gaming laptops.
I’ve always been a pc gamer. Started off on cod 1 when I was 6 (2007) and fell in love with gaming. I haven’t had the money to buy a laptop, so I’ve been without pc gaming for some while. I originally wanted the steam deck, but opted out due to it not running windows for mod support. Found out about the rog ally a week after release and fell in love. Got it and I can say I’d much rather play on the rog ally then a laptop or actual pc. Got the Xg mobile and it’s absolutely mind boggling and so much fun. Just sitting in bed and playing EVERY GAME I throw at it at ultra settings with Ray tracing is so convenient. I’ve quickly fallen In love with handheld PCs and am planning on switching. The 3080 is absolutely a beast too. Plays warzone 2 at a constant 90 - 130 fps at 1080p on max settings. Then, once the 50 series comes out or the price drops for the 4090, I’ll get that one. This is the best invention ever. Mind you, I didn’t have the money for a pc and leased the rog ally, so I got the Xgmobile, but for me, having the power be slightly above a laptop but less than a desktop is still unreal for me and I’d prefer to lug around the Xg mobile. Don’t even use the charger anymore because the Xg mobile charges the ally. It isn’t for everyone, but for me, it’s beyond perfect.
@@tilu8696yes, but I use a bed stand and put it over my lap with the Xg mobile on it! Still very comfortable and am able to play for a few hours comfortably! Bed stands are fs the way to go til they make the cord longer
you're not going to find a 4090 laptop for under like $3500 or so, so being able to get comparable performance to one for $2700 is still pretty bonkers iyam.
It does sound like if the user is just doing 1080 on ally own screen, just use the ally itself would do. Connecting it to a 4K TV however would see XGmobile come to play.
If you are going to need external power & using external screen anyways, the RTX 4070 & 6L Velka 7 case is more logical option, and just as portable IMO. You'd still be able to buy an ROG Ally and save money
The ally also has the cpu grunt to be able to properly render a streamed 120hz 1080p via moonlight. So if you have a powerful desktop thats an alternative.
Hi Jarrod, this is a really interesting video. I am hoping you can do some comparsion of 3080 xg mobile and 6850m xg mobile on Rog Ally. Previously you compared the two on a laptop with 3050ti with unexplainable results. Ally is different. I think it will be very interesting to see if those results still holds true. Thanks!
+1 on this please. It’s very much lacking with information online and people are still wondering if the 3080 mobile or the 6850m xt would be better. Thank you.
I have the 3080 with the rog ally and it’s a beast. It’s slightly more powerful than a laptop 3080 but less powerful than a desktop 3080. It can one hundred percent do 4k with 60 fps solid, but I play at 1080p and the fps is in the high 100s in some AAA titles. In more demanding games such as bf2042 with ultra settings and raytracing, it gets a consistent 70-100 fps. Things an absolute unit. Temps are also in the low to mid 80’s as my fan curves are maxed. There’s not one game I couldn’t play!
Yeah, I have a Steam Deck, and apart from the brighter screen, the 1080p screen is wasted, as you're not going to be able to use 1080p (you'll be playing at 720p quite often) and forget about 120 hz. And Windows 11 is a nightmare for a handheld. At least SteamOS can play almost everything well and it has trackpads for games that normally use a mouse. Also, Valve can afford to sell the Steam Deck at its lower price because Valve can make back the money with the Steam store. Asus, as an OEM, can't. The battery life on handheld, even a console like the Nintendo Switch, were never great. But the Ally actually is worse than the Steam Deck, which I could get decent battery life from with just a little tweaking. Valve also has put out many software updates and has shown their long-term commitment to the Steam Deck. Asus will probably not support the OG Ally nearly as long.
@@cameronbosch1213 I always play on 1080p with the ally without charger to games like Hoghwarts Legacy in medium + FSR 2.0 balanced, and I barely run 30 - 42fps. The 1080p isn't wasted on triple A. 720p is better if you want to play with stable 60fps or higher but in my case with judgement, cyberpunk, Tiny's Tina Wonderland, RDR2, FFVII Remake, I always play them with 1080p and no complaining at all even if it's only 40fps (I use FSR)
@@cameronbosch1213Bro reason it have 120hz is so you get VRR support and that makes huge difference in experience when you play at 40-50fps..... The 1080P is actually noticeably better than my Steam Deck by a big margin Only issue is battery life which is an issue for both, but Ally could have been 20% better like other competitions like Aya Neo
Please someone help me to find my answer, I found two asus laptop with all same information but one of them is i7 13700h and the next one is Ryzen 9 7940hs. Which one should I buy?
If the Rog Ally had the 4090 graphics card it would of costed you over $2000 this is a small handheld PC not a desktop or labtop gaming PC to good to be true you can install the 4090 into the Rog Ally I would of done that with my Steam Deck months ago
Very timely video thanks! I was deciding whether to wait for the XG 4090 to come out in Australia or buy the 4090 Razer 16 now. I generally game at 4k so it's great to see how close the XG Mobile eGPU can get at that resolution compared to a thunderbolt eGPU solutions. I would have loved to have seen COD MW2 4K FPS for comparison but I understand that this is a niche product and so requires fewer comparisons. I don't want to wait for some unknown date for the XG Mobile in Australia so the Razer 16 is on its way :D
I do love the Ally a lot, but the lack of Thunderbolt port is a deal breaker for me. I never been a fan of using proprietary eGPU as you can't upgrade the GPU at any time you want.
As someone that travels 5 days/week, this setup is perfect despite the price. Add in a portable monitor and you're good to go. If only they actually sold the xg mobile anywhere
I just wish the connector on xg mobile wasn't proprietary, or minimally they had an an enclosure where you could replace the gpu inside. Still though I love the idea - even if it still needs a few more years. My ideal world is a PC I can take on the go (like the ROG ally) and then dock into a "battlestation" (playstation is taken) for when I get home. Gaming laptops are getting close, but can still be bulky/heavy. This is very close, but still has some proprietary connectors so I question maintenability/sustainability. We are at the point where cpu horsepower is largely sufficient for my use cases. There is the occasional game that is cpu sensitive, but for the most part we are there. It is the gpu, either integration, or d/egpus that need some love. TB4 gives up way too much performance, not sure how TB5/USB5 will fare. A near "ePCIe" which we have here is nice, but is proprietary (yuck). Then Oculink is promising, good luck finding enclosures and/or devices that support it.
Is sad that Asus doesn't give mid range or below laptops the xg mobile connector, it could be a huge game changer for someone (like me) who bought a decent laptop with an underpowered GPU like the 3050 mobile
It's about as portable as any none Apple laptop at that point as laptops require you to plug in the power brick to run at decent specs anyway. But desktop is of course the way to go if possible as always
I know Jarrod probably isn't going to see this but I would love a XGM (XG Mobile GPU with ROG Ally and/flow x13) vs OCuLink (GPD Win/ONEXPLAYER with GPD G1/ONEXGPU) I love how in-depth and informative all of his comparison videos are and would love to see the conclusion, even if it's likely that it will just be "OCuLink seems about as good but is much cheaper" 😂 sidenote: I noticed how there's some fuss kicked up on Reddit about what the actual link speeds are of XG Mobile (which doesn't seem to have a definite answer) I hope maybe he would be able to look into this too
Hey Jarrod. Have you considered reviewing the MSI Pulse GL66? I feel like it would compare really well against Acer's Helios 300 in terms of affordability and performance
Wonder if it'll be worth it. I think it was announced last year that Intel already working on getting thunderbolt up to 120GB/s which is double the bandwith of the current XGMobile. So the 4090 might end up being the last XG Mobile. That said the 6850M version has been on sale a few times at 699.99. If you can get it at that price I think $1400 is a decent price for the combo. Also how does the XG Mobile compare to OCculink? I swear the connections are almost similar. GPDWin Max 2 will have OCculink support out of the box, and the docks are fairly cheap.
See, that's the thing, I'm not touching something like a proprietary XGMobile eGPU, especially for this price. I'm awaiting the ROG Ally 2, I'm hoping it has OLED screens and can support an eGPU using USB4. If I could plug an eGPU dock and any standard GPU, it means that I could have the ROG ally last me for 4-6 years as I upgrade my GPU with each new GPU iteration. It's like having a gaming laptop that you can upgrade the GPU with.
You know, they could just release a dock so you could use desktop series gpus but na, dont want the user to actually get better performance for way less money
can you tell me what is the strongest and most powerful laptop right now laptop Scar18,msi titan gt77,scar 17 2023 rtx 4090 amd ryzen,razer blade 18, or la duo 16 2023 rtx 4090 amd ryzen 7945hx
