Doom: The Dark Ages Struggles on Handheld Gaming PC

If you're a fan of handheld gaming PCs and eagerly awaiting the release of Doom: The Dark Ages, you might be curious about how well the Asus ROG Ally X can handle this highly anticipated game. For a satisfactory gaming experience, a minimum of 30 frames per second (fps) is essential, though achieving 60fps would be the dream—albeit a challenging one given the game's demanding nature.

While Doom Eternal performed admirably on the Asus ROG Ally, don't expect the same smooth sailing with The Dark Ages. The new installment is significantly more taxing on hardware.

A Note on the Hardware

The world of PC gaming handhelds is buzzing with diversity, but the Asus ROG Ally X stands out as the cream of the crop. It boasts the same AMD Z1 Extreme chip as many of its rivals but comes with a significant advantage: a whopping 24GB of RAM, with 16GB dedicated to the GPU. This memory operates at a brisk 7,500MHz, providing superior memory bandwidth crucial for the Z1 Extreme's integrated graphics.

This configuration makes the ROG Ally X an ideal candidate for testing Doom: The Dark Ages, offering the best chance to meet the game's demanding requirements. As games become increasingly intensive, the Ally X will serve as a benchmark to gauge the capabilities of less powerful handhelds—until the next generation arrives later this year.

The Best Handheld Gaming PC

Asus Asus ROG Ally X

With double the battery life and significantly faster memory, the Asus ROG Ally X has firmly established itself as the top handheld gaming PC on the market. Check it out at Best Buy.

Can the Asus ROG Ally Handle Doom: The Dark Ages?

Before diving in, make sure to update your chipset for the best performance in Doom: The Dark Ages. Updating on the ROG Ally X is straightforward: Open Armoury Crate (located in the bottom right menu), click on the cogwheel at the top, and navigate to the Update Center. Look for the AMD Radeon Graphics Driver update; if it's not visible, hit Check for Updates. When the RC72LA update appears, select Update All.

For my tests, I connected the Ally X to an outlet and operated it in Turbo Mode (30W) to maximize performance. I also set the Texture Pool Size in the game's graphics menu to the maximum of 4,096 megabytes—double the default 2,048. Given the Ally X's 24GB of RAM (16GB usable), there's ample headroom even at the highest settings like Ultra Nightmare.

I conducted all tests with resolution scaling disabled. Although I also tested with dynamic resolution, the results mirrored those at 720p, so I've omitted them here. This is because the target frame rates were unattainable, causing the dynamic resolution to revert to 720p anyway.

Here's how the Asus ROG Ally X performed with Doom: The Dark Ages:

For the testing, I repeatedly played through the opening section of Doom: The Dark Ages' second mission, Hebeth, as it's an intense segment that pushes the hardware to its limits with its plethora of effects and particles. The results were eye-opening.

Running Doom: The Dark Ages at 1080p on the Asus ROG Ally X was a struggle. The average frame rate at Ultra Nightmare was a mere 15fps, making it unplayable. Lowering the settings to Nightmare, Ultra, and High barely improved this, with averages hovering around 16fps. Even on Medium, the frame rate only reached 17fps, and on Low, it climbed to 20fps—still not smooth enough for enjoyable gameplay. Achieving a playable frame rate at 1080p is simply not feasible.

Switching to 720p yielded slightly better results, but they were still far from ideal. Ultra Nightmare, Nightmare, and Ultra settings averaged 24fps, while High settings managed 26fps. These are not what I would call playable, but they might suffice for die-hard fans eager to experience the game on a handheld. It wasn't until I set the graphics to Medium at 720p that the game became playable, averaging 30fps. Lowering to Low settings pushed this to 35fps.

Asus ROG Ally X Isn’t Ready for Doom: The Dark Ages

As much as I love handheld gaming PCs and my Asus ROG Ally X, it's clear that current hardware isn't up to the challenge of Doom: The Dark Ages. To hit the minimum playable frame rate of 30fps, you're limited to Medium and Low settings at 720p.

Steam Deck users will face similar challenges, as its hardware is less potent than the Ally X. If the Ally X struggles, the Steam Deck will likely be restricted to 800p on Low settings just to achieve 30fps—a scenario that holds true for all current-generation handhelds.

However, there's a silver lining on the horizon. The next generation of mobile chipsets, such as the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, is set to hit the market this year. Rumors suggest it might power the Asus ROG Ally 2, and there are even whispers of an Xbox-branded model. We'll have to wait and see how well demanding titles like Doom: The Dark Ages perform on these upcoming devices.