Why the ROG Ally Could Become the Ultimate Emulation Machine

howtogeek.com:

While the Steam Deck is the best retro gaming console you can get right now, the ROG Ally from ASUS could dethrone it if its $700 price leak is true. Here’s why.

The Deck is the definitive emulation machine you can get right now, but even it has a few tough-to-crack nuts. The first is PS3 emulation.

PlayStation 3 emulation has come a long way in the last decade, with the RPCS3 evolving into a powerful emulator capable of running many PS3 games with excellent performance. If you have the hardware powerful enough to provide playable performance, that is.

And Steam Deck’s CPU —remember, the CPU is usually responsible for emulating older systems— is just below what we would call an optimal solution for PS3 emulation. Yes, many games work fine and some, like Skate 3 or Dante’s Inferno, can even run at 60fps. But other titles refuse to run at playable frame rates, such as Metal Gear Solid 4 or Killzone 2. Lastly, you need to tweak RPCS3 settings in many games to make them playable, and a number of titles are still unplayable on the Deck. This includes Red Dead Redemption, which runs at around 10 frames per second.

The 4-core/8-thread Zen 3 processor found in the Deck with its 15W TDP is the main reason for the poor PS3 emulation performance. Add the fact that RPCS3 works best on Windows, and not on Linux-based SteamOS, and we can conclude that you need a more powerful CPU and Windows for the best PS3 emulation experience. After all, RPC3 demands a beefy CPU, with the recommended AMD CPU listing on the RPCS3 website asking for at least a 6-core Zen 2 part or better. The Steam Deck just cannot hit that mark, leaving lots to be desired regarding PS3 emulation performance.

The limited CPU performance also hurts the Deck in certain