Rumor: ROG Ally Will Be $ 699 With AMD’s Latest CPU

gameranx.com:

The floodgates have opened on ASUS’s ROG Ally, as specifications and price for the Windows gaming handheld have leaked.

As reported by The Verge, the handheld will retail for $ 699.99. While it doesn’t match Valve’s Steam Deck entry level price of $ 399.99, it’s dangerously close, especially when you consider the twist.

That twist being that it will have the AMD Z1 Extreme CPU. As AMD have revealed on its new page for the chip, The Z1 Extreme boasts 8 CU cores, 16 threads, and 12 RDNA 3 Compute Unites. It will run in 24 MB cache at a TDP of 15 to 30 watts. This is AMD’s latest, most powerful chip, made for portables.

In plain English, it’s considerably more powerful than the CPU found in the Steam Deck. That is a Zen 2 CPU, with 4 cores and 8 threads, built around a bespoke APU codenamed Aerith. Given that the Zen microarchitecture debuted in the market in 2019, that’s no surprise.

This leaked SKU at a $ 699.99 price will also come with 16 GB RAM and a 512 GB SSD. That makes it$ 50 more expensive than the Steam Deck SKU with an equivalent 512 GB SSD.

Now, let’s put that in further perspective. Here are the prices of this ROG Ally, compared to the current generation consoles, handheld and home based alike.

As you can see, the ROG Ally is priced significantly higher than any game console, which is of course subsidized by the console manufacturer. However, it is very favorable pricing for what amounts to a Windows computer with the most powerful gaming CPU available in the market. It’s also notable that all these companies except Nintendo have AMD produce their APUs and CPUs.

It’s also considerably cheaper and better value than the panoply of bespoke Windows handhelds that emerged in the wake of the Steam Deck’s original