Really wish they would have just made the USB C port here 4.0 so we had option but these XG Docks do perform better than thunderbolt. Looking into install steamnos 3 now.
@@stfNmfN ofc they want you to buy their stuff thats how companies make money? nobody's making you buy it though and if thats the only reason youre not getting it for youre missing out lol.
The eGPU in the form of a dock (like switch) would be amazing. Just like the switch, we could plug the Ally in the dock and boom you're now gaming on your tv with maxed out settings.
unless Nintendo patented it. I learned its the reason OnexPlayer 2s controllers dont work with out the controller connector which is delayed. Nintendo patented alsp having the controllers give power while disconnected. Unless it has that controller grip.
Yeah the reviewers aren't addressing how quick of a PC the Ally is in general. Those mini PCs ETA tests with Ryzen 6900HX are around the same price as an Ally. I think the Ally is a better buy than any $600 Mini PC without a discrete GPU right now.
For anyone from Sweden. If you buy from Asus store you can get the XG mobile for only 798 euro if you pre order with an Ally! Just did it and can't wait.
I'd love to see you test the XG Mobile 3080 variant. Another outlet tested it with the ROG Ally and the results they came up with seem terrible compared to the 6850M in a lot of games, and it makes me wonder if they don't have something configured correctly, or if the Ally just isn't tuned for the 3080 version.
I am personally waiting for the framework laptop with the removable GPU module because while a solution like an eGPU dock is cool, it is still less portable than just a laptop if you want that GPU power on the go.
The Framework Laptop 16 with a comparable dGPU module installed and power brick will in all likelihood be _far less portable_ than the Ally + XG Mobile. What you have to remember is that the XG Mobile _with an integrated 330W power supply_ weighs only 1200g, half the size and weight of an average gaming laptop. It isn't your typical eGPU dock that weights 6000g before you even install the graphics card. Together with the Ally the combination weighs only 1808g, _power supply included._ To put that in perspective, the Lenovo 300W power brick for their 2023 gaming laptops weighs 940g _just by itself._ Your average 15"/16" APU + dGPU gaming laptop weighs around 2500g. The Framework Laptop 16 with a comparable dGPU module installed will probably be even heavier than that, because the dGPU module can't share heatsink/pipe with the CPU module. The Framework Laptop 16 + power brick will about double the weight of the Ally + XG Mobile. That's going to be one chunky boy, cheaper to upgrade, but not nearly as portable.
Thanks again for everything you do! Great callout to the fact that the newer model might be a bit of overkill. For the huge increase in price, it just isn't likely to be worth the cost quite yet.
I just wanted to say that I love your presentation style. You give all the pertinent facts and focus on the product over making yourself the center of attention, yet still are very entertaining.
3:51 it looks like you didnt set your iGPU vram to Auto instead of 4G which is the default. This could be done through the Armoury Crate or bios. By doing this it will only allocate 512MB to the iGPU leaving you with a total usable system RAM of around 15.7GB. This will make your performance a lot better on higher demanding titles and settings.
I echo that! Looks like I may be selling the steam deck in favour of the Ally and already having a 3080 xgmobile means this could be my only gaming device. The deck is great handheld but isn't powerful enough to dock to my 55in TV so I just use the xbox, but this causes me issues with game saves between different devices. Also the reduced fan noise is a big plus for me, it's the main thing that puts me off using the deck. Thanks for the great content as always, was waiting for this video!
This not being able to support 3rd party eGPUs, plus the only one USB3.2 is the deal breaker to me. I plan to wait for a solid handheld next year that can be my portable workstation as well, not just a portable gaming device which is kind of a waste to the potential of these windows handhelds.
For someone who isn't interested in doing a PC build and/or someone who prefers the flexibility of being mobile, this isn't a bad setup. Pricing seems on par with some of the name brand companies' prebuilt PC's. So, you definitely could do worse.
For $1,600 you could definitely build a better system but the fact that this is also portable is a huge selling point I would definitely choose this setup over a stationary setup for the same price
Can you play with egpu connected on ally itself (instead of connecting to display) with Ultra Graphics while laying in bed. I love my Ultra settings and FPS 😂
2:20 I think you might be surprised by the 4090 even over the x8 connection. It’s already the mobile variant, and the 4000 series in general has something 10x the cache (64MB on the mobile 4090 vs 6MB on the Desktop 3090 and 4MB on the mobile 3080 Ti). Plus unlike the desktop it’s a 256 bit bus instead of 384. It might really not be held back by that port very much. Plus a ton of VRAM. All of this gives a nice buffer to that half speed connection. There’ll be a difference, but it might not be double-digit percentages in many cases. Would be a really cool thing to investigate. The cache difference and to an extent the bus width actually carry’s over to the desktop 4000s, it would be pretty interesting to see a comparison on how bottlenecked a 3080 vs a 4070 are (comparable overall performance) on various eGPUs. I suspect it might not be unreasonable to go a step higher in the 40 series than you might have in the 30 series, when using an eGPU. It would be tough to compare these XG mobiles to anything since you’d need essentially a laptop with a 4090 but I don’t think any of those have a cpu roughly equivalent to the Ally.
Asus really needs to make one of these with an integrated M.2 port. I'd love to do a 2 in 1 system where I can segregate all of the files I wont ever need in handheld mode so they don't even exist unless I am docked. I'd do this for personal files, work stuff and games that play like crap on a handheld. In terms of security, this would also be a huge plus.
I have a 3080 XG Dock from my X13 Flow. I’m salivating for when my Ally preorder arrives. The X13+3080 XG Mobile combo is fantastic, if this gets anywhere near it, I’ll be blown away.
Anyone else remember when Razer did this with their eGPUs? Custom port etc... Anyone still USING one? Considering they released a few models that supported the interface and then ditched it entirely? Or how about the Alienware Graphics Amplifier? Compatible for ONE LINEUP of laptops/1 year and then ditched. Anyone still using those? Now how about everyone else... Do you expect your GPU to be unusable if you ever upgrade your PC? Or expect it to become unsupported in a year? As much as I love the whole eGPU idea, and even have a pretty decent HP Omen (also abandoned after a year or so by HP) TB3 eGPU enclosure myself, I am averse to buying anything that you can only use with what THEY decide you can. It makes an even more expensive GPU purchase a short-term-only usage purchase. I mean... If you plan to buy a new flagship laptop and GPU every single year and money is not even a factor, maybe... But...
@@R_S4_B5 how so? It says that it uses a gen 4 x4 slot, that's still faster than a thunderbolt connection and it's been shown many times that you can run an egpu though that set up, if you're referring to the OS then yes I can still run it off of either an external drive via either USB C or through the micro SD expansion slot. Could you please elaborate further on any potential technical issues rather than just saying I'm screwed
@@visiblydisturbed1688 never heard what linus said ? You will not get full pcie speed storage and data wise or to be more precise for you, the longer the travel distance for the cpu to get the data is allready a bottle neck what so ever. You will bottleneck the cpu data wise.
@@R_S4_B5 I'm fully aware of the loss in performance, that being said it's still faster than thunderbolt and regardless is a massive improvement of the IGPU regardless of a 10-15% drop in performance, also I'm not intended to run in back into the built-in display, rather I'll be using an external, the purpose fory initial question was just how well it functions using the m.2 for an egpu, this would allow for any GPU to be used rather than be limited to the proprietary ones that Asus sells, not to mention would be considerably cheaper. Besides an egpu in general will always have reduced performance but that isn't really an issue given that basically anything you use would likely be an improvement
Does the Asus ROG Ally with the Z1 Extreme using its internal GPU start thermally throttling after an half hour of gaming, like the Minisforum UM690 does as well?
I just found out a week ago that I am expecting a baby, I will be a father for the first time. Knowing this makes me want to change my set up. I want to get a laptop for work and I’m looking into a steam deck or ally for gaming. I have a 1070 hanging around doing nothing. I can hook it up and probably get a boost on the TV so this hits the spot.
Amazing video, please do a ROG Ally vs AOKZOE A1 Pro comparison, I'm curious to see if there is any difference between Ryzen Z1 Extreme and Ryzen 7 7840U.
The XG Mobile/eGPU won't be a viable option for the vast majority of owners until Asus offers a much cheaper bare dock option that users can put their own desktop GPU into.
So with the EGPU the timespy score is within 40 points of my Legion 5 Pro with a 3070Ti and AMD 6800H with 32GB of RAM. That's very impressive results. I bought this laptop right as the new 4000 series came out brand new for only $1,400 and I was happy for that price. That's basically the same price here with the handheld and the EGPU while on sale. Seems fair.
Im sorry but at 1100$ for the gpu and 700$ for the ally, i could literally build an awesome itx build and still have money for a steamdeck for on the go gaming. Totally not worth it IMO
Plus its proprietary so i couldnt use it elsewhere unless i have another asus product. May be worth it if you have a asus laptop or something but if not...
Looks excellent. Not certain yet but I might get a 4090. I've never really had cutting-edge graphics before. Might not be as powerful as a desktop 4090, but portability is a prerequisite for me. I've seen benchmarks of the XG 4090, absolutely phenomenal, especially with frame gen which really smooths it out.
@@zipperman6045 Can you chuck a tower PC in your backpack and go places? I see this silly point often and it's kind of moot. Desktop and mobile GPUs have always been apples and oranges. I don't think anybody expects desktop performance from a mobile card.
@@zipperman6045 I don't understand your suggestion. I wouldn't be able to get performance from a laptop that's equivalent to the Ally + XG 4090 within the same budget. I figured it was obvious that I wanted a handheld form factor (when not docked) that isn't too bulky to take with me and dock at places, which is why I went for the Ally instead of a laptop. And of course, I was looking for the best laptop-level graphics around, which the XG 4090 more or less delivers.
Hmm. I think this is the future. Granted it maybe will never compare to dedicated CPU PC but. This is maybe my future gaming PC. No BS. Plug n play. It's like switch on steroids
Two things: 1) It's too bad that Thunderbolt 4 kept the bandwidth the same as Thunderbolt 3 at 40 Gbps. 2) I wished that there was a ePCIe standard connector so that Asus didn't have to use a proprietary connector that you won't be able to use it with anything else, 10 years down the road.
6850m XT is very interesting choice of GPU thanks for using that really wanted to see That GPUs performance. It's a shame that there is no high end mobile Radeon GPU in 7000 series . (Only 7600M XT) I guess chiplet GPUs weren't ready for mobile GPUs
the chiplet will be bad for battery life. at least 7000 series one, who knows amd might fix it in future generation but even so it still isnt gonna be as good as monolithic for power consumption on the same node.
Thank you for the video! Do you have any thoughts on the XG Mobile with a 3080? It's the 2021 model and it's $300 extra. I don't know if it would be better option than the 6850M XT?
Yes please answer! I'm currently planning on buying the 4090 but I'm worried the Ally will bottleneck and won't be able to use its potential. I'm curious also whether the 3080 would be a better option. Hopefully more people make videos on these pairings soon
Okay, well since you got the 6850M now you have to put Steam OS on it so we can see its true form. EDIT: Wait, this requires proprietary software too? lmao what the hell is that
My question is, if I were to go all the way and get the 4090 XG Mobile, would it be bottlenecked by the Ally’s processor? I know the Z1 Extreme is not a weak processor by any stretch, but the XG Mobiles, especially the 2023 4090 model, were initially marketed for the ROG Flow line, which definitely have stronger processors (i9) than the Ally does.
This is exactly what I'm wondering too. I have the Ally preordered and notifications on for when the 4090 comes back in stock. I'm hoping to find an answer before I drop $2k on the XG Mobile. I really hope we get a video on the 2 paired together soon
I checked out the Amazon price for that XG Mobile RX 6850M eGPU..wow $1500-1600 Canadian (+ shipping). Maybe someone will hack the XG Mobile port which I hear is just oculink. If there is a way to bring down the price so you can hook desktop eGPU I would consider this. But then there is the 16 GB limitation with the ROG Ally... maybe they will have a 32 GB version...hmm
The EGPU is a nice feature, but the proprietary connector is the reason I will never support this format. Can't wait for another handheld to release with the same chip, but a non-proprietary port for an EGPU. When that happens, handhelds will be a truly affordable desktop replacement option.
It;s cool but my only problem with it, is it wayy too expensive... For the amount you spend on this and the ROG ally, it already cost as much as a Gaming pc or more. Don't get me wrong I love my Ally but i wish there was a cheaper budget to boost your games.
I think for anyone who already has a xgmobile this makes for a great pairing and opens up a great way to game on one device at home and away. However not sure i would buy it along with the Ally unless i had money to burn and did more than just game, unless you could 4k video edit on the Ally like this....🤔 now theres a test you could do😊 Great content as always 👏
Is it just me or is that an SFF-8611 port (8x Oculink port) with USB-C tacked on? I wonder if it's possible to pick up one of those inexpensive 8x Oculink to 16x PCIe adapters and run desktop GPUs on this...
Well, as it turns out it might just have happened already. According to leaked DMs from MrBeast, Chris has reportedly been let go. “Yeah, unfortunately we had to kick him out.” Additionally, there is another clip doing the rounds where MrBeast’s official channel commented on a live stream stating, “I know I’m going to get hate, but the truth is we had to get rid of Chris.”
I think the biggest problem i have with the egpu is the cable is soo short. You can’t use it in any mode other than docked. I love playing games in bed with the charger plugged in, but you can’t do that with a 30cm / 1ft cable here. Very disappointing…
High usage is a good thing. It means that the wattage setting was correct and CPU is nearly maxed in efficiency. Like he said he could always crank wattage up and maybe alleviate a little bit of bottleneck and get more performance if he wanted.
@@AliZurix GPU usage seemed to fluctuate mostly between 85% and 98% (and GPU clocks were all over the place) so yeah I guess it was bottlenecked. GPU clocks and usage stabilized at 4k but oddly CPU usage barely changed staying around 80%. HZD probably needs some driver improvements with the Z1.
I wonder if ASUS is going to make an Ally + XG Mobile carrying case like they have for the Flow X13 + XG Mobile. The XG Mobile is definitely designed to be carried, coming in at 1.2kg, with probably half that weight going to the integrated 330W power supply. The all-AMD Zephyrus G14, one of the lightest gaming laptops, has a 1.65kg chassis and a 507g 240W power brick for a total of 2.157kg. The Ally + XG Mobile comes in at 1.808kg and sports significantly higher CPU + GPU power.
@@nineflyerr3866 Sorry but can you pick up your much more powerful pc and game on the hour long transit to work and during you lunch breaks? I think not.
@@kajurn791 for sure not picking this up because I’m firmly in the valve camp with the deck but if the next model of the deck doesn’t support usb4 it’ll be a huge letdown
Very minor nitpick, but I would have loved to see a 32gb model. That would've made it perfect for creative work. But honestly I think otherwise asus has done a bang up job with this handheld. I'm very excited to see this since honestly the XG mobile makes alot of sense with a handheld like this. I'm definitely gonna hope they one day make one that just lets you use your own GPU.
@@ericalexander3816 It's actually very profitable to sell large amount of enclosure vs tiny amount of XGM, but nVidia does not allow it, they don't even allow Asus use desktop GPU in XGM.
@@HyperOpticalSaint Yeah besides rumour has is that Nvidia is going to make their own handheld and if that is the case they will def not want others to sell their gpus for a unit that is not nvidia :(
USB 4.2 needs to come out sooner (80Gb/s support 100w+ power delivery), as it could open up a whole category of portable eGPU/Docking station devices. Not only could you turn handheld PCs into a more powerful gaming desktop pcs, it could also potentially turn smart phones into desktops as well. Have a Samsung phone running Linux (or Dex) connected to an eGPU/Docking device and bam!! a replacement desktop.
Hey dude love this video. It's literally exactly what I been wanting to see. I was planning on buying the XG Mobile 4090 for my Ally. I'm waiting for the notification to say it's back in stock. Is it not worth it to buy the 4090 just for use with the Ally in ur opinion? I know u addressed it slightly in the video but u never really gave a 100% answer. I have the money to spend. I'm just curious whether the Ally can use that extra power to run games
On paper the CPU in the Ally looks like a beast and the ram is very fast. Actually this set up looks very comparable to the PC I built with a 5600x and a 6800.
The Phoenix Z1 Extreme cpu is a bit better than the 5600x desktop cpu, since its zen 4 with 8 cores and hits comparable clocks (Even on the ally at just 30-35w). The 6850m is most comparable to the 6700xt in terms of performance, so you have the better gpu. Still its a good combo for the Ally and not terrible pricing (that egpu should be ~$500-600 at most, but atleast its not as egregious as the "4090" egpu at $2k..), although your desktop is one of the best last gen combos for price/performance, with the useful 16gb of vram.
Good thing aout Valve is that if they did introduce eGPU capability, it wouldnt be propriertary. I love Valve's commitment to open source. Hopefully the Steam Deck 2 will have all this
Pretty much a pure pc replacement, if all you did was buy these 2 things and a monitor, you can have a solid pc experience at home and just bring the Rog with you when you go out. All in all would be a decent alternative to a 2k pc at home and a 1500$ laptop on the go.
hey great video, can we get one comparing the performance with the XG Mobile egpu connected and without it. Then if you have another asus laptop with a greater CPU which takes the proprietary input to measure the level of bottlenecking of APU/CPU of the Z1 extreme. Many thanks
The RTX 4090 laptop GPU would be interesting but at over 2 grand forget about it. I would like to see a connector and the bottom for a dock the connector is too large to be plugged into the top of the Ally.
It really is a shame that theres no option of an enclosure to use existing GPUs. Even on sale, just cant justify these things, but I do have a 2080 sitting around that would be perfect for this. Not even having the option of using my old thunderbolt enclosure is really disappointing.
Man that setup has me seriously thinking about ditching my personal room heater that is my desktop lol. I will need to see what kind of storage(hard drive) solutions pop up for the ally though.. 512 or even 1tb just wont cut it for desktop use especially when modern games are all 100+ gb these days
My last major build was 2014 and I'm right there with you right now. The xg 4090 is what I'm looking at but I'm surprised how good this older model works. My issue is having to transition my m.2 SSDs to an external dock through the USB hub on an XG and likely upgrading the onboard SSD to 2TB. I saw a video on RU-vid about that yesterday.
Price wise this is actually pretty competitive. I mean for 1500$ it's more powerful than my 2000$ ROG Zephyrus G14 from end of 2021 with a mobile RTX 2070.
idk. kinda disappointed because I own a Zeph m 16 ( 2 thousand dollar laptop)... I feel like I wasted 2k, had I of just bought the steam deck I would of saved a a lot of money because a year later and I'm selling the laptop and re-doing my entire home set up to accommodate handhelds instead of a laptop or gaming tower... My steam deck plays games at the same refresh rates, plays all the same games, connects to all of my set up accessories just like any PC would, but with just one cord, instead of 6. It looks cleaner too. I honestly think with this new trend, built gaming PC's will eventually fade away. laptops for sure.. you can do anything on it.. play a game, make a resume, write code even, literally anything you can do with a PC... I'm bout to buy the Ally too, and run both, rog for AAA, movies & TV, deck for steam games and emulation.
It would be better to try with the pico 3 as this has a direct display port rather than usb decoding. I've tried the oculus 2 with the xgmobile and I was disappointed with the result s. Mainly because you lose so much performs because the egpu has to feed back to the computer, then it codes to send via USB and then decoding in the headset, so many bottleneck! I believe a headset that supports a direct display connection like the pico 3 would work better on a egpu setup. I haven't tried it yet but am planning to once I can get hold of a pico 3😂
Folks, I have been doing a ton of research on this. Given that the CPU of the ally is equivalent to that of a I7 pared with this video card. You will be able play games maxed out at 4k with no issues. Other comparable machines with same or close to are running games at 4k over 60 - 100 FPS.
