Currently, ASUS is present on the market with two variants of its portable console ROG Ally: the most powerful version equipped with theAMD Z1 Extreme APU at the recommended retail price of €799 and the latest version with standard Z1 chip sold at the price of €699. The latter was designed to offer a more economical portable console, so it was equipped with a less powerful CPU, but which still guarantees optimal gaming performance and playback of multimedia content.
But how much does the performance actually differ between the two versions?
Comparison between Z1 Extreme and Z1 Standard
Let’s start with the technical specifications. L’AMD Z1 Extreme has 8 cores, 16 threads and 12 RDNA 3 cores, while the standard Z1 has 6 cores, 12 threads and only 4 RDNA 3 cores. Both Z1 chips have a configurable TDP between 9 and 30W, but the Z1 Extreme offers higher clock speeds.
The results below were shared directly by ASUS, which tested the two models in different usage scenarios and with various games, including demanding titles such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Forza Horizon 5. The results clearly show an advantage of the console with Z1 Extreme CPU. However, it is interesting to note that at lower resolutions, the cheaper version still manages to offer noteworthy performance.
Performance gap
Testing at 1080p shows 30-40% better performance in favor of the ROG Ally with Z1 Extreme. The latter can handle heavier workloads, ensuring greater fluidity. Two significant examples occur with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, where the most powerful model reaches 98 FPS against the 63 of the version with standard Z1and with Forza Horizon 5, where the cheaper counterpart reaches 52 FPS compared to 76 for the ROG Ally with Z1 Extreme.
The gap between the two versions narrows at lower resolutions, e.g At 720p on medium settings, the ROG Ally with Z1 Extreme achieves 66 FPS on Cyberpunk 2077, compared to 44 FPS on the standard version. Another example is with EA SPORTS FIFA 23, where the difference between the two is only 5 FPS: 74 FPS for the more powerful version and 69 for the economical one. This is also due to the use of technology Radeon Super Resolutionwhich improves the performance of the ROG Ally with Z1.
From this we can deduce that, despite the idea of offering a cheaper version of ROG Ally for gamers who don’t want to spend €700 for the highest performing model, the current price does not justify the compromise in performance. The price difference of just €100 between the 2 models, considering the performance offered, is not enough to convince players to opt for a console that offers on average 40% less power. The basic idea is good, but to make the version with Z1 more attractive, ASUS will have to consider a strong price reduction.
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