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.
In a not-so-scientific benchmark conducted by YouTuber Cyber Dopamine, the Rog Xbox Ally managed to perform better without Windows, the operating system it ships with out of the box. Cyber installed Bazzite, a popular Linux distro for handhelds built specifically to offer that console-esque, seamless experience. Visually, Bazzite looks identical to SteamOS because it uses Steam's Big Picture Mode as its main launcher. It also behaves similarly, but has its own custom menus and settings for customizing things like power profiles (which override Asus' built-in ones).
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.
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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