ASUS was expected to go big with the release of their handheld console – the ROG Ally, and provide competition to consoles like Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox.
Per the confirmed reports, the ROG Ally comes equipped with the Ryzen Z1 custom APU, based on the Zen4 architecture by AMD – codenamed “Phoenix.” This APU comes loaded with AVX512 instruction support, meaning that it can emulate games from PS3, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox 360 with ease, along with titles from PSP.
Tested by YouTuber ETA Prime using Big Box for ROG Ally, it has been confirmed to support PS3, Nintendo Switch, Xbox 360, 3DS, PSP, GameCube, PS2, and WiiU.
The reason why the AVX512 is essential is that the emulation engines can take advantage of the 256-bit SIMD vector extensions. This means that the capabilities are expanded, and advanced operations can be performed, like data conversion, scatter operations, and permutations.
Emulators are often found using these calculations and operations, and as a result, the ROG Ally hits the sweet spot for most emulating engines.
One of the most taxing games – The God of War on PS3, was emulated on the ROG Ally with ease. It ran easily at 50-60 FPS at 1080p resolution but required 25-30W.
Other games, when capped at 30FPS and native resolution, were easily running in the 7-15 W range. This would guarantee a longer battery life.
The ROG Ally packs an 8-core Zen 4 Z1 APU with a built-in RDNA3-equipped GPU. The GPU has 12 Compute Units and a boost frequency of 2.7 GHz, and the ROG Ally costs just USD 699.
Despite the fact that this price point is more than all the other consoles it’s emulating, the Ally is quite the package because it is portable with great display and controls.
The battery life is the only downside, which is one thing potential buyers should look out for. If players are looking for an even higher-performing handheld console, they could splash USD 2000 on the ROG XG with the RTX 4090 GPU, although this console hasn’t been tested with an emulating engine yet.
About ASUS
ASUS or ASUSTek Computer Inc. is a Taiwanese computer and electronic hardware company, based out of Beitou, Taipei. They became a common name with their EEE PC and Zenfone series. They have recently introduced Zenbo, a smart hobot robot.
ASUS continues to be one of the best motherboard and gaming brand with their leading technology and design.
No Comments on ASUS ROG Ally can emulate PS3, Xbox 360, PSP, Switch, WiiU with ease