ROG Xbox Ally runs better on Linux than the Windows it ships with — new test shows up to 32% higher FPS, with more stable framerates and quicker sleep resume times

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Jury's still out on Microsoft's optimization.

ROG Xbox Ally X running Bazzite
(Image credit: Cyber Dopamine on YouTube)

Even though the value proposition was put in the backseat, Microsoft and Asus took a step in the right direction for PC handhelds with the new ROG Xbox Ally, especially with the work done to optimize Windows and create the Xbox Full Screen Experience (FSE). By turning off unnecessary background tasks and disabling much of the telemetry, the team was able to squeeze out more FPS without upping the power limits — all while sporting a polished, console-like UI. Turns out, the hardware is actually capable of even more than that, courtesy of Linux, of course.

Fixing the Xbox Ally with SteamOS - YouTube Fixing the Xbox Ally with SteamOS - YouTube
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When testing Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Cyber noticed a shockingly significant jump in FPS, with Linux generating ~32% more FPS compared to Windows. This trend follows at lower wattages, albeit with less noticeable differences, and the delta actually plateaus in Hogwarts Legacy to the point that both Bazzite and the Xbox FSE offer the same FPS at 13W. That being said, those frame rates are much more consistent on Linux, according to Cyber, who shows that the FPS graph on Windows fluctuates regularly, while staying mostly flat on Bazzite.

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Rog Xbox Ally X performance compared

Game

Power Mode

Windows (Xbox FSE) FPS

Linux (Bazzite) FPS

Difference

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

17W

47

62

+15 FPS (+31.91%)

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2

13W

35

37

+2 FPS (+5.71%)

Hogwarts Legacy

17W

50

62

+12 FPS (+24.00%)

Hogwarts Legacy

35W

60

65

+5 FPS (+8.33%)

Hogwarts Legacy

13W

38

37

−1 FPS (−2.63%)

Average FPS gain (Linux vs Windows)

+6.6 FPS (+13.47%)

So, not only do you get higher frame rates, but those frames stay stable. On top of all this, Cyber highlights that waking up the Xbox Ally from its sleep state is instantaneous on Bazzite, similar to how it's on the Steam Deck. On Windows, however, it takes up to 40 seconds for the handheld to actually go into its sleep state with the fans turned off, and then a good ~15 seconds to come back on. Cyber compares a handheld to a book, arguing that you should be able to get into it without having to wait or think about any issues, like the controller sometimes becoming unresponsive on Windows.

Fascinatingly, Xbox Ally's release of Bazzite was being patched as Cyber was testing it. Our host would play a game, hop around the OS, fiddle with some settings, and report back any bug to "Antheus" (part of the dev team), who would then write new code for it live and quickly push the update in real time. Bazzite devs took bug-fixing to an entirely new level and made the end-user experience better for all Rog Xbox Ally owners. Even if you don't want to always stay inside Bazzite — for instance, when playing Battlefield 6 that requires anticheat — you can just dual-boot back into Windows and enjoy the best of both worlds.

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Hassam Nasir
Hassam Nasir
Contributing Writer

Hassam Nasir is a die-hard hardware enthusiast with years of experience as a tech editor and writer, focusing on detailed CPU comparisons and general hardware news. When he’s not working, you’ll find him bending tubes for his ever-evolving custom water-loop gaming rig or benchmarking the latest CPUs and GPUs just for fun.

30 Comments Comment from the forums
  • heffeque
    Yup... Definitely Bazzite is a powerhouse for gaming, and it's extremely easy to configure and use, and it's not riddled with OS-level spyware, nor crapware that nobody asked for.
    You can also easily create a local user, no need to hack your OS, like on current W11.

    It can be used in desktop mode too, so you can install it in your laptop or desktop PC and use it as your normal main OS.
    Reply
  • hotaru251
    i mean not shocking.

    even "optimizing" windows would be worse than Linux.
    Windows has a lot mroe stuff running and using resources even at the basic fucntion level....Linux on other hand is much more optimized and streamlined so more resources for application/game as well as less hoops to go throguh which both impact performance.
    Reply
  • -Fran-
    Don't worry guys. The AI engineers will fix this as soon as they know what to put in the prompt.

    Just you wait... Seated... And I hope the seat is comfortable.

    Heh.

    Regards.
    Reply
  • Notton
    Hopefully Microsoft figures their portable OS soon, otherwise it's so over for them.

    Having said that, the Xbox game launcher looks easier to use with other stores. Linking Epic and Microsoft store to the SteamOS launcher isn't as seamless and requires following a guide.
    Reply
  • ezst036
    I suspect battery life on the Linux ROG is also superior.
    Reply
  • ezst036
    heffeque said:
    and it's not riddled with OS-level spyware, nor crapware that nobody asked for.
    When you get off of the Tom's forum and have conversations with people about the factory spyware built into Windows, you are often met with the "well everybody is doing it" fallacy. That is, everybody as in Google, Microsoft, the websites, etc etc etc.

    It's a form of cognitive dissonance because of the performance. Performance, performance, performance. Not only are you being monetized into the product, but also all that spyware is eating up your CPU cycles and memory gigabytes. The real world result is when you uninstall Windows and install Linux. You get more frame rates because you're not using your computer to power spyware. See, these things relate. They aren't separate disparate islands located in two different oceans. They're the same thing.

    Spyware = less performance.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    ezst036 said:
    When you get off of the Tom's forum and have conversations with people about the factory spyware built into Windows, you are often met with the "well everybody is doing it" fallacy. That is, everybody as in Google, Microsoft, the websites, etc etc etc.

    It's a form of cognitive dissonance because of the performance. Performance, performance, performance. Not only are you being monetized into the product, but also all that spyware is eating up your CPU cycles and memory gigabytes. The real world result is when you uninstall Windows and install Linux. You get more frame rates because you're not using your computer to power spyware. See, these things relate. They aren't separate disparate islands located in two different oceans. They're the same thing.

    Spyware = less performance.
    Dude, go check you medication.......
    And then go look at the video.
    Under linux the CPU runs 1Ghz faster and the GPU runs at twice the speed,
    it's either because he screwed something up or because he wanted clickbait.
    Reply
  • ezst036
    TerryLaze said:
    Dude, go check you medication.......
    And then go look at the video.
    Under linux the CPU runs 1Ghz faster and the GPU runs at twice the speed,
    it's either because he screwed something up or because he wanted clickbait.

    In Windows: (he claims)
    At 5:03-5:05 minutes of the video I see on the HUD between 2400 and 2300 mhz.
    In Linux: (he claims)
    At 5:07 minutes I see on the HUD 2279 mhz and 2283 mhz.
    Reply
  • thestryker
    It actually has nothing to do with "Spyware" or "Windows overhead". It's about the generally awful scheduling and power optimizations on Windows (I'm not familiar enough to know if it's AMD who should be optimizing this or Microsoft). You can see clearly in this video that on Kingdom Come the GPU clock is significantly lower under Windows in the lower power modes. This comes down to a CPU first optimization for power limited circumstances. Intel did some work on this with LNL which is where the recent performance increase on the Claw came from.

    Frame time consistency is generally better on SteamOS/Bazzite but a lot of that is down to how they're packaged.

    Both of these things should absolutely be addressed, but it's a matter of convincing someone to do it. There has been very little work on properly compiling shaders which is part of the frame time consistency problem. AMD and Intel have done very little to optimize power limited performance for gaming and as near as I can tell Microsoft has done nothing at all.
    Reply
  • TerryLaze
    ezst036 said:
    In Windows: (he claims)
    At 5:03-5:05 minutes of the video I see on the HUD between 2400 and 2300 mhz.
    In Linux: (he claims)
    At 5:07 minutes I see on the HUD 2279 mhz and 2283 mhz.
    Yes, that's in hogwarts where linux is 1% slower (or 5% faster in the best case) than windows..............................................................................................................

    Look at clocks during KCD:2 where he got the 30% difference.
    Reply