There's a lot to like about the ROG Xbox Ally X, even if its price tag isn't one of those things. And for those who prefer a more, err, reasonably priced handheld gaming PC, the original ROG Ally or ROG Ally X are still great choices, especially when they're on sale. So it's good news for a bunch of handheld gamers that Asus has just released a big batch update for the three handhelds, plus the oft-forgotten ROG Xbox Ally (non-X).
And when I say a 'big' batch update, I mean a BIG one, at least if Asus' announcement post on X is anything to go by: "Everyone! This is a BIG week for updates on the ROG Ally, ROG Ally X, ROG Xbox Ally, and ROG Xbox Ally X! A new Armoury Crate SE update is on the way, bringing expanded CPU and power controls, stability upgrades, and a series of fixes and improvements across both devices."
I'm not sure what "both" refers to, given the company lists four devices, not two, but what I can say is the most exciting updates are for the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X. The latter gets 'P-core' and 'E-core' options in the Armoury Crate SE software.
Note that 'core' is all lowercase there, because 'P-Cores' and 'E-Cores' refer to Intel cores. AMD has its own version of big performance cores and smaller efficiency cores, though, which feature in the Ryzen Z2 Extreme chip at the heart of the ROG Xbox Ally X. These are the full-fat Zen 5 cores and the skinny Zen 5c cores, respectively.
Everyone! This is a BIG week for updates on the ROG Ally, ROG Ally X, ROG Xbox Ally, and ROG Xbox Ally X! A new Armoury Crate SE update is on the way, bringing expanded CPU and power controls, stability upgrades, and a series of fixes and improvements across both devices.… pic.twitter.com/saljWN9r7QNovember 18, 2025
The update here should let you adjust the power for both kinds of chips separately, which might help eke out some more battery life depending on what you're doing. It'll be interesting to see whether manual adjustments can do better than the CPU and software's automatic ones.
In addition, the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X also get updated AMD GPU drivers which should improve gaming performance, and the latter gets an updated AMD chipset driver to improve overall system performance. The AMD GPU driver was released a couple of weeks ago but is now coming to the handheld via Asus' software.
The two Xbox handhelds also get a new BIOS with improved power delivery firmware, among other things. This should improve power consumption in standby. Standby power consumption in Windows handhelds is one thing that drives many towards SteamOS, so seeing improvements there could be a big deal, depending how big those improvements are.
The non-Xbox ROG handhelds, the ROG Ally and ROG Ally X, don't get anything quite so exciting. But they do get some nice changes such as the integration of AMD Radeon Chill into the FPS Limiter, and an "improved gyro aiming algorithm". For, y'know, better gyration. And some other, even less exciting changes.
So, there's definitely more to get excited about for ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X owners, but still some nice-to-haves for the pre-Microsoft machines. Worth diving into Armoury Crate for an update, I say.
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