Interesting experience and very different than my and my sons. We’ve found it quite playable for the most part though it’s still a bit glitchy overall
My ISP is rated for 100Mb/s although typical speeds on speedtest are in the 80Mb/s range.
I strongly suspect high latency is the core issue possibly as we’ve seen a lot of that with Windows 365 and Xbox unlimited is built on the same bones.
We’ve seen significant issues with stability etc. with Windows 356 if your latency is regularly above 100ms. That does seem to be a weakness of the 365 suite.
There could be multiple causes including but not limited to your modem (including firmware), the number of users on the circuit, the distance from the major connection point and even other devices connected to the router at the same time.
Again, these are things to take a look at, and not a diagnosis per se.
And FWIW the type of issues you describe is what we most commonly see with LTE hotspot connections (5G helps a lot here).
Just my two cents on the topic.
It would be interesting to see how something like GeForce now performs on your connection. It’s less sensitive latency, at the price of being significantly more oveall bandwidth intensive.
Thanks for the analysis. I agree that it’s likely because I’m using an LTE hotspot—Netgear Nighthawk on the 5G band. I didn’t think I had a chance of it working out for me but it’s still disappointing.
Oh, and I did take a look at Geforce Now but they don’t have that particular game available.
I figured I’d give it a try since it’s free. But I’m afraid at the moment it’s a non-starter. It failed starting up Witcher 3 and now it stalls on these screens (15+ minute attempts). Sort of maybe my fault for not linking Steam before trying to play Witcher 3? I though it would ask me to sign in as part of the process.
OK, closing out the webapp and restarting seem to clear that. My Time in Portia is playable, Witcher3 wants a 13 GB download first and that’s beyond what I want to do for a test so I don’t know how that works.
I had a complete turnaround on my experience with Xbox Unlimited cloud gaming. On a whim I tried it on my Mac mini and it was playable, though the graphics weren’t perfect. My controller was very responsive and didn’t feel any slower than when I was playing the game directly on my windows laptop.
After playing for a little bit I decided to try it on the iPad Pro 12.9 again and it was the same experience as the Mac mini. No controller lag at all this time. Quite playable although there would be screen tearing and pixelation now and then. I guess anything less than a wired home connection isn’t going to get you a smooth experience.
This was with Persona 5 Royal again, by the way. Such a shame that GeForce Now doesn’t have that game available from my Steam library since I paid over 40 bucks for it. $15 a month for Xbox unlimited is actually a decent deal if I hadn’t already paid for the game. Assuming I finished it up over the period of two or three months, which would be my likely pace. As it is, if I play it on the Xbox Unlimited I could end up paying the full price twice or near enough.
I got a very brief hands on with the 18 inch model at CES though no testing allowed. It was impressive especially in sheer speed and had a vibe like the old Toshiba Qosmio gaming systems back in the day. Though it was no where near as hot to the touch.
Following up on that Gulikit KingKong 2 controller: I haven’t used it for a while, too busy with things that don’t use a controller, and when I recently started trying cloud gaming with it I discovered that the ZR trigger (R2) has reversed itself so that it’s activated when idle and decreases to zero when pulled. The opposite of the left one. It’s also a little sticky and can go into a fluctuating state which plays havok with the Xbox game choice screen, forcing it to scroll to the bottom and stay there.
On-device settings are wacky, too. Trying the A/B and X/Y key exchange operation fails to do anything but cause lots of random vibrations. No improvement after applying the latest firmware that mentions the problem.
Anyway, I bought it 2 1/2 months ago through Amazon and it’s way past the return period. So I figured I would get an RMA when I contacted the Amazon Seller - ZHUFON-US. Surprisingly, they got back to me the next day (today) asking for my address so they can mail me a new one. It’s now on its way.
Wow. In this day and age when even the (often) second richest company on Earth decides not to do advance replacements on their premium devices due to mistrust of their consumer customers, this little company takes my word for the defect and gives me a new $70 controller and does so ASAP.
All that aside, hopefully the new one is flawless. I like it a lot when it works.
Fo mobile gamers which is a rapidly growing market that may already be eclipsing PCs and soon consoles as well, this is one of those “what took them so long” ideas.
PS Mag appears gets it at least slightly wrong as I got the update on my S22 Ultra yesterday, but anecdotally it seems to work.
One of the big boys is interested in joining the handheld arena. ASUS ROG Ally.
Custom AMD x86 APU. Hopefully RDNA3 iGPU. It will connect to the ROG mobile eGPU.
Dave 2D’s take:
He got an engineering sample and has played with it for a week. ASUS claim 2X the performance of the Steam Deck. Zen4 & RDNA3.
3 Likes
Hifihedgehog
(Hifihedgehog - Waiting for Surface Pro 10!)
117
I just saw this today and am already dstraussing my Steam Deck. The custom silicon at 4nm is going to make this the true Steam Deck rival until the second-generation model hits the market. We already know that AMD now beats Apple in performance/watt in multi-chip module (MCM) which is hard trick to pull off.
As I have mentioned before, if AMD made a single-die or monolithic Zen 4 chip, it would get Death Valley low idle power draw. This combined with it being custom means it is geared for handheld use and will very well be the handheld to beat for the next 2-3 years. The whisper quiet max fan noise at load (~20 dB) is the tell-all or bellwether of extremely low power draw across this custom APU’s entire performance/power/voltage curve.
Speculation seems to be putting the Steam Deck 2 at a ~2025 release. I wonder if Asus is planning to beat Valve to the punch with this in 2024. (Teasing this on April Fools, one year in advance, seems like the right amount of time to build hype.)
If ASUS switches in Hall Effect sticks and adds a separate USB4/TB4 port (maybe also adding a higher end OLED model ), I could see this becoming the goto Steam Deck alternative / laptop replacement.
Hifihedgehog
(Hifihedgehog - Waiting for Surface Pro 10!)
120
Based on the state of the device, I would estimate 1-3 months for the release date. The sign-up for preorders on Best Buy’s website would strongly suggest that it is imminent.
From what I read and watched, we know it will have standard potentiometer-based joysticks and a regular USB-C port. Given this is near retail release due to the Best Buy preorder sign-up being up, I think the hardware that we saw is finalized. I suspect aftermarket upgrades will be available for the joysticks just like the Steam Deck since they are also modular. On the other hand, we see only standard USB 3.2 ports since ASUS wants to push their xGM eGPUs.
Oh wow, that’s super fast compared to Valve. The Steam Deck opened pre-orders on July 2021, but didn’t actually start shipping until Feb 2022. It was also a pretty slow rollout if I recall, with volume shipments not picking up pace until mid-2022.
If this is the case, I have to give props to ASUS for diving in headfirst, when most companies are shrinking back. (Though they should take at least one round of public feedback, before finalizing hardware imo.)
reaction.
), I could see this becoming the goto Steam Deck alternative / laptop replacement.