The portable console market has continued to grow with a host of recent launches, from the older Steam Deck to the more recent Ayaneo 2 to the more recent Asus ROG Ally. Compared to the Nintendo Switch, these consoles have had hardware capable of running Steam games and emulators, rivaling the performance of entry-level gaming PCs. But how far can performance be pushed on these handheld consoles? Above all, let's say if, the infamous Intensive Raytracing were to be introduced into the equation.
According to the tests carried out by ETA Prime in this video, the ASUS ROG Ally displays impressive performance with raytracing, approaching 60 FPS on games like Doom Eternal with the RT pushed to ultra at 1080p. For these tests, the ROG Ally was plugged in and set to a TDP of 35W.
Starting with the popular Minecraft, at 1080p resolution for the device, the ROG Ally manages an average of 20 FPS with RT enabled. That's not bad considering that the RT-based global illumination used here tends to be intensive. Portal RTX is next with an average of 20 FPS on the ROG Ally, another game with RT GI.
This is where it gets really impressive, with Doom Eternal running at almost 60 FPS at 1080p on medium settings (56 FPS average), with RT set to quality mode and no upscaling option. resolution enabled. Doom Eternal has always been an impressively optimized title, running on most handhelds with minimal performance issues, and the ROG Ally seems to be able to continue that tradition with RT enabled in this case.
Forza Horizon 5 is next on the list, another well optimized game and in this case it runs around an average of 54 FPS at 1080p with the graphics preset high and the RT set to Ultra. Lowering the resolution to 720p results in an average of 64 FPS, which is more than decent for a portable console game. We could also get an average of 60 FPS at 1080p if the RT was set to High instead of Ultra.
Quake 2 RTX is next, where ETA Prime noted some minor bugs with RT mode enabled, with balls not always lighting up. An average of 27-28 FPS was noted, which is still impressive considering the use of RTX global illumination in this game once again.
The latest game is Cyberpunk 2077, which has recently been the epitome of RTX features with the recent implementation of Path Tracing released as a “tech preview” for the 40 series cards. At 1080p at the lowest settings, RT is enabled with an average of 55 FPS, while the game originally ran at 72 FPS without RT.
By increasing the RT settings to a medium level (RT reflections and local shadows enabled, RT lighting to a medium level), the game drops to 21 FPS at low graphics settings at 1080P. By dropping the resolution to 720p, the game goes up to 30 FPS, which is excellent for a portable console equipped with an iGPU.
When trying to switch to RT Ultra (with Path Tracing enabled) at the same 720p resolution, the game crashed in their tests, so perhaps the Ultra presets should be left for more powerful desktops.
Overall, the ROG Ally offers impressive performance with Raytracing enabled for a handheld console, although using it unplugged would have a significant impact on battery life and is not really recommended. This is still a nice feature to have on a portable device if you ever feel the need to play with RT enabled while on the go and find a nearby power source to plug into.