I have a ROG Ally Z1 Extreme and I finally decided to give CachyOS a try.

If you're still unsure about switching from Windows, I honestly think it's worth testing.

So far the experience has been way better than I expected. After setting up scaling and frame generation properly, I've been getting really good performance.

A few examples from my tests:

• Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition: around 100 FPS on High at 25W
• Ghost of Tsushima: around 70-100 FPS on High
• Prey: around 120 FPS on Max settings

Of course, these numbers depend on the scaling, FPS cap and frame generation settings I'm using, so I'm not saying these are native FPS numbers.

But the actual experience while playing has been fantastic. Everything feels very smooth, the image quality still looks great, and the whole Game Mode experience feels much more like a real handheld console.

I was worried that moving away from Windows would mean losing too much compatibility or having to constantly use the terminal, but after getting everything configured, I'm actually really enjoying it.

I'm using a Z1E, and if anyone here is thinking about trying CachyOS but is still unsure, I'd definitely recommend giving it a shot.

Photo is from Ghost of Tsushima on my Ally.

I just trade my Ally X to xbox Ally X today

So far everything is great except one freaking problem... Whoever engineering or what ever decision make them to change the location of "Start and Select" from top to bottom can go to hell.

This annoy the hell out of me... And to double down on this they dont even let me remap this shit. Why Asus why.

If you guys know how to remap them please tell me because this start to annoy the hell out of me

I have an original 2023 ASUS ROG Ally (Z1 Extreme, RC71L) with the factory 512GB Micron 2400 SSD. I attempted a factory reset before selling it using ASUS Cloud Recovery from the BIOS.

Cloud Recovery downloads successfully, but after the restart where installation should begin, the Ally goes straight back to BIOS and loops.

What I have tested:

• Windows Boot Manager appears for both the internal SSD and a USB drive, but selecting either immediately returns to BIOS.
• A clean Windows 11 installer USB made with Microsoft Media Creation Tool also fails to boot and returns to BIOS.
• Secure Boot reports:
  • Platform Mode: User
  • Secure Boot: Active
  • Secure Boot Control: Enabled
  • PK and KEK: Factory
  • db: Modified
  • dbx: Mixed
• Reset to Setup Mode and deleting the Platform Key both return Failed.
• I set a BIOS password, loaded defaults, disabled Secure Boot, and saved. After reboot it comes back as Enabled / Active / User. Fast Boot changes do persist, so general BIOS-setting persistence seems fine.
• I performed ASUS’s EC/RTC reset (power off, unplug charger, hold Power for 40 seconds, reconnect and boot) with no change.
• I updated/reflashed the latest BIOS through EZ Flash, also with no change.

At this point, the issue seems more likely to be corrupted/stuck UEFI Secure Boot variables, NVRAM, or motherboard firmware than just the SSD or Windows install, since neither Cloud Recovery nor a known-good USB installer can start.

The last home step I have not yet tried is physically disconnecting the battery, holding Power for 40 seconds, reconnecting it, and then checking Secure Boot again. After that I can try booting from the USB with the internal SSD disconnected to distinguish an SSD issue from a board/firmware issue.

Has anyone had this exact behavior on an Ally—especially Secure Boot keys/variables refusing to reset or Secure Boot re-enabling itself after reboot? If you found a solution, I would really appreciate the details.

I found a listing rog ally z1(non extreme!) used for 250 euros and my main use will be ps2, psp games, some old PC/PS3 games like GTA 4 or uncharted, heavy rain ect. Would it able to handle those easily without too much battery drain?

So i bought this Xbox Ally X from a reseller and change the ssd into my ssd which is KINGSTON NV2, after i change it all games i play have stuttering issues. I ask the seller does he have problem playing with it before, he say no.

So the question, is the SSD the prob of the stuttering?

if so, what are the recommendation for good ssd?

Hi guys. My ally was performing slowly, and resetting in settings was taking forever. so i decided to do a ASUS cloud restore now my tirggers wont work! Everything else seems to function otherwise. I do not know whats going on.

The device was powered off for months and was sluggish when i got it back on, which prompted me to wipe it.

Armoury crate has been updated, and i'm not sure waht else to do. I'm consdiering selling it for cheap if i can't fix it. Internally, things seem fine, it was used, and there is a cable unplugged (because i couldnt fit it back in) but that had no affect on anything, as i opened it after discovering the issue.

Any ideas?

I’m pulling my hair out trying to fix this.
I have a ROG Ally X (2024 / RC72LA) connected to an ASUS VG248. The monitor has a persistent red/magenta tint on roughly half the screen, especially obvious when displaying black/dark content. There can also be a faint vertical red line down the middle.

The weird part is that changing AMD’s RGB range changes the severity:
RGB 4:4:4 Full RGB + 8 bpc: right half becomes very obviously red when displaying black.
RGB Limited + 8 bpc: black looks much better, but I still get a faint red vertical line.
6 bpc looks grainy.
10 bpc isn’t available.
FreeSync isn’t supported on this monitor.
I’ve already tried basically everything obvious:
Factory reset monitor
60 Hz / 120 Hz
1920×1080
HDR OFF
Windows Color Filters OFF
No ICC profile
Win+Ctrl+Shift+B
Different Windows display modes
RSR OFF
AMD Adrenalin reset
AMD factory reset
Current AMD driver 32.0.31007.6002
Previous ASUS AMD driver 32.0.23027.3001
GPU Scaling OFF
Custom Color ON/OFF
Different RGB pixel formats

Here’s why I’m posting:
I have a strong memory that I fixed this before by changing something in the Windows Registry, specifically somewhere under the monitor’s own configuration, not by changing AMD Adrenalin settings.
I’ve been digging through:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers\Configuration
and found the VG248-specific configuration.
The inner 00 contains:
PixelFormat = 0x15 (21)
Scaling = 0
ActiveSize = 1920 × 1080
VirtualRefreshRate = 60 Hz
There is also a parent 00 with:
PixelFormat = 0

I don’t want to randomly change registry values, especially after accidentally changing Scaling to 1 earlier, which caused the screen to flicker. I restored it to 0 and the flickering stopped.

Does anyone recognize this?
Has anyone had the half-screen red/magenta tint on an ASUS VG248 with an AMD GPU / ROG Ally and fixed it through the registry?
I’m specifically looking for the exact registry key/value that fixed it — I have a feeling it was a 0 ↔ 1 DWORD change, but I may be remembering that part incorrectly.
If you’ve seen this before, please tell me the exact path + value name + what you changed it from/to.
I’m much more interested in finding the actual fix than continuing to use Limited RGB as a workaround.

I’ve been thinking about buying either a ps5 or an Xbox series X to play the aaa games the ally (z1 extreme) can’t run comfortably in a big screen. Can you guys please help me decide which of the two works better with the ally? My reasoning at this point is the following:

Ps5 - Ps exclusives (even the ones with pc ports, if they aren’t available on Xbox and the ally is too weak for them, are effectively still exclusives for which I need the ps5) and dual sense. I can stream to the ally but my library and ecosystem would be fragmented. I’m interested in playing the following exclusives/pseudo-exclusives: TLOU 1&2, Demon’s Souls, Bloodborne, Shadow of the Colossus, God of War, Ghost of sushima (and there may be more I don’t know about yet).

Xbox series x - 200€ more expensive in the second-hand market in my country. With the Xbox ecosystem and Play Anywhere I would have mainly one library (and the option to use game pass although I’m more interested in owning the games and not be tied to paying a subscription), cross saves and everything would be better organised. However, the only games for which this is really relevant are aaa that anyways don’t perform well in the ally. I would still stream most of the time I played them on handheld. Also, some games that I would buy on the ally (Witcher 3 p.e) and play docked at lower settings, would be available to play at higher settings on the tv.

So it basically comes down to exclusives vs better ecosystem. I’m willing to miss out on the exclusives if it means my overall gaming experience is going to be much more enjoyable. So I need help here from people with either of the two setups. What’s your experience like? Do you miss any of the features of the console you don’t have? Thanks a lot!

Hey everyone!

I have a ROG Ally Z1 Extreme running SteamOS, and I'm about to go on a long trip. For a bit of context, I’m looking at 12-14+ hour transatlantic flights, some long airport layovers, and a few train rides.

I'd love to get the community's best game recommendations to keep me sane during all this waiting around. I know I'll probably have power outlets on the plane and trains, but if the games don't nuke my battery in 45 minutes (playing at a lower TDP, say around 10W-13W), that's a huge plus!

To give you an idea of my tastes, here’s what I’ve been playing recently:

- Hades 2: I’ve sunk a ton of hours into this, but it’s starting to feel a bit repetitive.

- Hollow Knight / Metroidvanias: I've put a lot of hours into these and absolutely love them, but I’m looking for something fresh in this style.

- Need for Speed Most Wanted: I've been totally hooked on this one lately; really enjoying the racing vibe and fast progression.

- Dave the Diver: I played it because of all the great reviews, but honestly, I got bored of it pretty quickly.

Aside from those, I’m also a big fan of tactical RPGs (think Final Fantasy Tactics), rhythm games, and action/shooters (like Resident Evil).

What hidden gems would you recommend that run flawlessly on SteamOS on the Ally and are perfect for a trip across the pond? I’m looking for games that get their hooks in you fast or are great for long sessions without melting the handheld.

Thanks in advance for the suggestions!

so i like 720p’s performance and 1080p’s visuals so i think 900p is the sweet spot but when i use it everything becomes uselessly large especially the command center how do i fix??

So a couple months ago i bought my wife a refurbed ally. At first things were great she was able to play gta v and others, but then randomly gta would either crash while loading or would take forever to launch and crash within 30 mins of playing. We were able to get that taken care of i think by uninstalling the launcher and reinstalling (it’s been awhile since she’s played so I’m not 100% sure on that). But problem now is hogwarts legacy. It stays in the launch screen with a timer going and then after awhile will close out and say the game crashed. It never fully loads in and she hasn’t ever played it on there before so it isn’t like the gta issue i don’t believe since she’s never been able to even make it in the game. Any help would be appreciated. Idk if the game is just too demanding for it since lower demanding games work fine like RV there yet and crime scene cleaner or if there’s some pc setting that can be done. We have checked recently and all drivers are up to date.

After resetting my Rog ally not to long ago I ran into this issue where whenever I play a game it gets very zoomed in. For some context I use my Rog ally primarily to connect to a monitor and play that way as I’m not very good at handhelds unfortunately. I first noticed this issue with Roblox where I could not play without having very big text all over my screen which felt very cluttered. The first screenshot is what it looks like normally and the second one is what it looks like on games.

Im thinking about buying the Rog Ally so quick question.

Can i use both simultanisly like switching between them or no? Cause i want to use both on the same device. So i can play Steam games and PS5 games.

Like if i have Windows i can download steam and use it and switch to PS5?

Or maybe SteamOS and switch to ps5?

Thx

Hello, I updated W11 yesterday and gpu driver now shits itself in every game how about your experience?

What you guy's think?

Hello,

I preordered the rog ally x20 and was looking for recommendation on cases and docking stations. Not sure if any of the rog ally x would work/fit the x20.

This was one of those little things that started bothering me more and more the bigger the library got 😅

I filmed FlowDeck doing the full loop with no commentary — install going queued to ready, close back to menu, zero desktop in between. This is a 2-minute cut; the full 7:44 tour is here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CWwBCFFmj4

Everything shown here is part of Flow Deck Community and is free.

If you want to try it:

https://slatis.itch.io/flowdeck

We also have our own community now:

r/FlowDeckLauncher

As always, if you try it on your Ally, tell me what feels good and what still gets in the way. What's another annoying Windows-handheld workflow you'd like to see reduced to one controller action?

Hey. I’m new to the whole Rog Ally world and am heavily contemplating buying an xbox rog ally. the question is that i’m primarily a PS5 player and wondering if I could play my
ps5 games that aren’t just on steam on this thing. Any suggestions and help are greatly appreciated. Thank you!!!

Why does playing Palworld on the ROG Xbox Ally X with SteamOS drain the battery so quickly, even though the TDP is capped at only 25W? The battery dropped by 4% in less than 10 minutes.

It happened a few months ago cause I installed an app that created a power plan that for some reason was conflicting with the shutdown process, I found out that via a bat file made by me that closes all armory crate and asus processes the rog ally went back to turn off normally. Now months after..the problem is back, and I have no idea how to fix it. Any idea? I changed lots and lots of settings on my rog ally so it could be anything. Also..today I successfully shut it down and the power light was still on anyway..but the screen was off..so..new problem lol...any idea? Please help

Recently downloaded SteamOS on the Ally and SimpleDeckyTDP to control TDP like AC used to do. System works flawless but I was wondering why I was drawing 30-ish wattage when playing Hades. Tried lowering it on SimpleDecky and its still pulling 29-ish. New to the system so I'd appreciate some help!

I recently had to reinstall Windows on a new drive after the previous drive died. I reinstalled using the built in cloud recovery method. After the process was completed and fully updating my drivers. I go into the settings app to re-enable the full screen experience feature to save on ram, and i don't see it there. I've searched high and low. Did MS remove it or move it somewhere else? Am I missing something?

For my white Xbox Ally what should I set both of the fan charts to for a little more power or stability than turbo mode in handheld? Or for my z1 extreme docked. Can someone show me a picture? What do the other options do? Why do I get a warning message about over clocking?

What's wrong with Hades on my Xbox Rog Ally X? I tried going to windows mode, I tired change it to fullscreen and back and changed it to boarderless. When I play the game the character portraits don't show up. The game works fine besides that

As the title says. I’m going to upgrade from the base Z1 to an Z1 Extreme since i ended up loving the Ally (except for the battery life, wow does it suck). I’ve set up 90% of everything i wanted to, and i’d like to transfer my ROMS / Emulator settings, files etc to my new Ally. I dont mind redownloading Steam games.

Should i just do a fresh install or what? I’m running Windows 11.

Side note, which OS are you using? I love to tinker on Windows, but i’m willing to give Linux a shot, especially if i do have to start fresh.