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Note that the Deck uses a AMD SoC explicitly designed for ~9W, but the Asus handheld is stuck with laptop silicon aimed at 15W-45W. Its kinda a one hit wonder

Note that the Deck uses a AMD SoC explicitly designed for ~9W, but the Asus handheld is stuck with laptop silicon aimed at 15W-45W. Its kinda a one hit wonder for handheld battery life, as AMD canceled the low power CPU line the Deck uses. Even Valve would be stuck with power/cost issues using a newer SoC.

ChuckNorris89 3y ago
You're talking about apples and oranges. Deck can also be pushed to 25W but most users have it at 15W witch the Asus can also scale down to. Then you have the manufacturing process, with the Deck using an older less efficient TSMC process node than the SoC in the Asus. So the fight is on.
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  Yeah don't get me wrong. Technically the Asus SoC is straight up better in every way, but - It could be even better if it was a true low power chip like the Deck, with a 4 core config, a lower voltage target for the transistors and such. - It practice, Asus runs the chip kinda hot? It doesn't handle low stress loads as efficiently as it should, and again this might be a consequence of using a laptop chip.
- goosedragons 3y ago
  Reviews have suggested the Deck is a lot better at running lighter/older games. You can get the Steam Deck down to 6W total which will give you about 6 hours. The ROG Ally doesn't seem to be able to go that low and so battery life suffers in comparison.
CameronNemo 3y ago
Your comment is full of falsehoods. The Ally's CPU is designed for handheld gaming, not laptops, and the TDP target is 9-30W, not 15-45W. Furthermore AMD didn't cancel any CPU line used by the deck, the Deck CPU was a one-off that was never available to anyone besides steam and evolved into the Z1 which is used in the Ally. https://www.amd.com/en/processors/ryzen-z1 https://www.amd.com/en/processors/ryzen-z1
- brucethemoose2 3y ago
  The ryzen z1 is based on the laptop phoenix silicon. Its tuned, but underneath it is the same die size on the same proccess with the same core/gpu config. Van Gogh (the steam deck chip) was originally supposed to be in more products, and showed up in multiple leaks with details that were confirmed later: https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-mobile-apus-for-2021-2022-detailed-first-navi2-igpu-coming-with-vangogh https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-mobile-apus-for-2021-2022-de... The same leaks specified a van gogh successor as well. What happened afterwards is speculation, but it seems logical to assume AMD canceled that line.
  - CameronNemo 3y ago
    Okay I guess with that extra context your comment makes more sense. But you are still off on the tdp, unless you dispute AMDs numbers.
    - brucethemoose2 3y ago
      That kinda comes from my own experience with ROG laptops. Not sure about the Z1, but Asus's and AMD's "power saving" mode for renoir and cezzane was still too zealous. They clocked too high under light loads and burned lots of power, in spite of their advertised power savings. In addition, for gaming workloads, they didn't manually underclock to 6W or even 9W very well. They just burned too much power to split between 8 cores, the GPU and the rest of SoC, while the Deck chip (of the same generation) seems quite happy under heavy load at 6W. Hence, being such a big chip, I am skeptical the Z1 likes to run at 6-9W.

ChuckNorris89 3y ago

You're talking about apples and oranges. Deck can also be pushed to 25W but most users have it at 15W witch the Asus can also scale down to. Then you have the manufacturing process, with the Deck using an older less efficient TSMC process node than the SoC in the Asus. So the fight is on.

brucethemoose2 3y ago
Yeah don't get me wrong. Technically the Asus SoC is straight up better in every way, but - It could be even better if it was a true low power chip like the Deck, with a 4 core config, a lower voltage target for the transistors and such. - It practice, Asus runs the chip kinda hot? It doesn't handle low stress loads as efficiently as it should, and again this might be a consequence of using a laptop chip.
goosedragons 3y ago
Reviews have suggested the Deck is a lot better at running lighter/older games. You can get the Steam Deck down to 6W total which will give you about 6 hours. The ROG Ally doesn't seem to be able to go that low and so battery life suffers in comparison.

CameronNemo 3y ago

Your comment is full of falsehoods. The Ally's CPU is designed for handheld gaming, not laptops, and the TDP target is 9-30W, not 15-45W. Furthermore AMD didn't cancel any CPU line used by the deck, the Deck CPU was a one-off that was never available to anyone besides steam and evolved into the Z1 which is used in the Ally. https://www.amd.com/en/processors/ryzen-z1 https://www.amd.com/en/processors/ryzen-z1

brucethemoose2 3y ago
The ryzen z1 is based on the laptop phoenix silicon. Its tuned, but underneath it is the same die size on the same proccess with the same core/gpu config. Van Gogh (the steam deck chip) was originally supposed to be in more products, and showed up in multiple leaks with details that were confirmed later: https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-mobile-apus-for-2021-2022-detailed-first-navi2-igpu-coming-with-vangogh https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-mobile-apus-for-2021-2022-de... The same leaks specified a van gogh successor as well. What happened afterwards is speculation, but it seems logical to assume AMD canceled that line.
- CameronNemo 3y ago
  Okay I guess with that extra context your comment makes more sense. But you are still off on the tdp, unless you dispute AMDs numbers.
  - brucethemoose2 3y ago
    That kinda comes from my own experience with ROG laptops. Not sure about the Z1, but Asus's and AMD's "power saving" mode for renoir and cezzane was still too zealous. They clocked too high under light loads and burned lots of power, in spite of their advertised power savings. In addition, for gaming workloads, they didn't manually underclock to 6W or even 9W very well. They just burned too much power to split between 8 cores, the GPU and the rest of SoC, while the Deck chip (of the same generation) seems quite happy under heavy load at 6W. Hence, being such a big chip, I am skeptical the Z1 likes to run at 6-9W.