ROG Ally Z1 varaint gets official benchmarks from ASUS
ASUS has shared official benchmarks for its ROG Ally with Ryzen Z1 non-Extreme silicon.
As promised, the Z1 console was launched later than its Extreme variant, hitting the market on September 10th. What sets it apart is that it’s built around an entirely new chip with a different core layout, rather than being based on a scaled-down version of the larger silicon. Both chips belong to the AMD Phoenix product family, but they differ in their core design. The Z1 chip utilizes 2 Zen4 and 6 Zen4c cores, while the Extreme chip boasts 8 Zen4 cores. While this might not seem like a significant distinction for gamers, the notably reduced GPU power is where the real difference lies.
The Small Phoenix chip (also known as Phoenix2 or Ryzen Z1) comes equipped with 4 Compute Units, in contrast to the 12 found in the Extreme variant. Both still employ the RDNA3 architecture, but the Z1 console’s GPU has only one-third of the GPU cores present in the Ryzen Z1 Extreme silicon. Despite this substantial difference in GPU power, the console remains capable of delivering a good gaming experience, especially for games that aren’t heavily reliant on GPU performance.
ASUS ROG ALLY Ryzen Z1 vs Ryzen Z1 Extreme at 1080p, Source: ASUS
ASUS has provided two charts for reference, one showcasing performance at the console’s native 1920×1080 resolution and the other at 1280×720 resolution, which is further enhanced by RSR (AMD Radeon Super Resolution). As AMD continues to roll out its Fluid Motion Frame technology for more games and hardware, it will be intriguing to observe how AFMF benchmarks become a part of such devices (and benchmarks).
The AMD Ryzen Z1 can handle even the largest game libraries, from AAA to indie and retro titles alike. In our testing, we found that even resource-intensive games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Diablo IV were capable of 30 FPS or higher at 1080p in Turbo mode, with many other games exceeding 45 or 60 FPS for a smooth handheld experience.
— ASUS
The official benchmarks make it clear that neither the Z1 nor the Z1 Extreme chips are capable of consistently delivering 120 FPS for the 120Hz screens featured on these consoles. However, it’s worth noting that the games chosen for these benchmarks have above-average requirements, especially for an integrated GPU. Worth adding that the platform still offers a vast library of games that don’t demand such powerful hardware to run smoothly, and Steam Deck using 8 CU config of RDNA2 architecture is a good example of that.
ASUS ROG ALLY Ryzen Z1 vs Ryzen Z1 Extreme at 720p, Source: ASUS
The ROG Ally Z1 console comes at a price point that is $100/€100 lower than its Extreme counterpart. It provides 2.8 TFLOPS of compute power compared to the Extreme model’s 8.6 TFLOPS, which is a 67% reduction. Nevertheless, as demonstrated by these real gaming benchmarks, the performance gap is narrower than expected.
At 1080p resolution, gamers can anticipate a 37% improvement in performance with the selected titles, and a 30% boost at 720p resolution when playing on ROG Ally with Extreme chip compared to the non-Extreme model, that’s 34% faster on average. Given this performance delta, it would be reasonable to expect the price to be significantly lower than $599 (15% lower than Extreme).
| Handheld Gaming Consoles | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| VideoCardz | ASUS ROG Ally RC71L-Z1E512 | ASUS ROG Ally RC71L-Z1512 | Valve Steam Deck |
| Picture |  | |  |
| Architecture | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 | AMD Zen4 & RDNA3 | AMD Zen2 & RDNA2 |
| APU | Ryzen Z1 Extreme 8C/16T up to 5.1 GHz | Ryzen Z1 6C/12T up to 4.9 GHz | AMD Van Gogh 4C/8T up to 3.5 GHz |
| SoC GPU | AMD iGPU 12CU @ 2.7 GHz | AMD iGPU 4CU @ 2.5 GHz | AMD iGPU 8CU @ 1.6 GHz |
| SoC TDP | 9-30W | 9-30W | 4-15W |
| External GPU | ROG XG Mobile (up to RTX 4090) | ROG XG Mobile (up to RTX 4090) | Not officially |
| Memory Capacity | 16GB LPDDR5-6400 | 16GB LPDDR5-6400 | 16GB LPDDR5-5500 |
| Storage Capacity | 512GB | 512GB | 256GB/512GB SSD 64GB eMMC |
| Storage Type | M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe 4×4 | M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe 4×4 | M.2 NVMe 2230 SSD PCIe 3×4 eMMC PCIe Gen2x1 |
| Display | 7″ 1920×1080, 120Hz (VRR), 500 nits, 7ms | 7″ 1920×1080, 120Hz (VRR), 500 nits, 7ms | 7″ 1280×800, 60Hz |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi AX, BT 5.2 | Wi-Fi AX, BT 5.2 | Wi-Fi AC, BT 5 |
| Battery | 40 Whr, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion | 40 Whr, 4S1P, 4-cell Li-ion | 40 Whr |
| Weight | 608g | 608g | 669g |
| Dimensions (LxWxH) | 28.0 x 11.3 x 3.9 cm | 28.0 x 11.3 x 3.9 cm | 29.8 x 11.7 x 4.9 cm |
| OS | Windows 11 | Windows 11 | Steam OS/Win 11 |
| Retail Price | $699/€799 (Z1E+16G+512GB) | $599/€699 (Z1+16G+512GB) | $649/€679 (16G+512GB) $529/€549 (16G+256GB) $399/€419 (16G+64GB) |
| Release Date | June 13th, 2023 | September 18, 2023 | February 2022 |
Source: ASUS
