ASUS’ ROG Ally is a Emulation Monster

ASUS’ ROG Ally system and its Ryzen Z1 series APU are ideal for emulating classic games 

ASUS’ ROG Ally handheld gaming system is powered by AMD’s new Ryzen Z1 SOCs, offering gamers Zen 4 CPU cores and RDNA 3 graphics. This is a powerful combination for a new gaming handheld, and some of the new capabilities of AMD’s Zen 4 processors have made this SOC ideal for emulating classic gaming systems, especially given the power limits of handheld gaming systems.

With Zen 4, AMD has added AVX-512 support to their Ryzen series processors, a feature that adds support for extended SIMD instructions and other advanced operations to AMD’s latest processors. Modern game emulators, particularly RPCS3 (the PlayStation 3 emulator) have used AVX-512’s feature set to great effect, enabling huge performance gains within the emulator. While performance gains are always welcome, another major benefit of AVX-512 support is that it can allow many emulators to run more efficiently, which is a big deal for a power-constrained/battery powered product like the ROG Ally.

ETA Prime has recently released the video below showcasing the emulation prowess of ASUS’ ROG Ally, showcasing the game running Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Switch, Wii, Wii U, PSP, and 3DS titles with ease. What was most impressive is the ROG Ally’s ability to run God of War 3 at 1080p at between 50 and 60 FPS while using 25-30 watts of power. At 30 FPS at the game’s native resolution, the game could run using 7-15 watts of power, enabling a longer battery life. 

Using an Xbox 360 emulator, ETA Prime showcased Red Dead Redemption running on the ROG Ally at playable framerates, which is a big deal given this game’s lack of an official PC version.  

ASUS’ ROG Ally gaming system has proved itself to be a powerful gaming handled for both native PC games and emulated classics. In terms of raw hardware potential, the ROG Ally has the Steam Deck beat, though the fact that the system is based on Windows does give the Steam Deck an edge in terms of its overall user interface.

For gamers who want to play classic titles on the go, ASUS’ ROG Ally is likely to become a must-purchase item. This is especially true for those who want to emulate powerful systems like the PlayStation 3 that benefit greatly from CPUs with AVX-512 support.  

You can join the discussion on ASUS’ ROG Ally and its emulation performance on the OC3D Forums.