ROG Xbox Ally X: Why Windows is Embarrassing This Handheld

The Handheld PC Market

• 💡 The current market for handheld PCs is seeing a surge in devices, leading to innovation but also some obscure decisions.
• 🎯 Examples of these decisions include the Legion Go's Joy-Con style controllers, Iono Flip, and the PlayStation Portal.

ROG Xbox Ally X and Windows 11

• 🎮 The ROG Xbox Ally X aims to leverage the full Windows 11 experience as Microsoft's answer to Steam OS.
• ⚠️ However, it was discovered that Windows 11 is not the optimal operating system for this device, with users finding performance improvements by installing Basite (Steam OS for non-Valve hardware).

Performance Benchmarks: Windows vs. Basite

• 📊 Numerous games were benchmarked on the ROG Xbox Ally X using both the stock Windows 11 full-screen experience (FSE) and Basite.
• 🚀 Games like Garfield Cart 2, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, Far Cry 6, Hellblade Senuous Sacrifice, and Hogwarts Legacy showed significant FPS boosts when running on Basite compared to Windows 11.
• 📉 Conversely, Black Myth Wukong performed worse on Basite, and some games like Skate, Minecraft for Windows, and Fortnite are not playable on Basite.

Dual Booting and Non-FSE Windows

• 🛠️ An attempt to dual-boot Basite and a non-full-screen-experience Windows 11 revealed that this setup did not yield better results than the stock Windows FSE.
• ⚠️ In many cases, the non-FSE Windows partition showed worse performance and stability issues, including severe frame rate drops and crashes, compared to both stock Windows FSE and Basite.

Conclusion: Basite is Superior

• ✅ The benchmarks indicate that Basite provides a substantially better gaming experience on the ROG Xbox Ally X, with higher average FPS in most tested games.
• 💡 While Windows 11 FSE performed better on a few specific titles (Black Myth Wukong, Skate, Minecraft, Fortnite), its overall performance and stability were consistently lower than Basite.
• 🚫 The author concludes that the non-stock Basite experience is more seamless and that Windows 11's performance issues on this device make it not worth the high price.