Discussion Handheld PC Gaming devices

[GodisanAtheist]

the Phawx goes over gpd win5 specs

ai 385 and 395 options
32/64/128 gb ram
2x m.2 slots: 2280 and socket3
7" 120hz vrr
80 W hr battery

pcworld tests win11 vs steamOS on handhelds.

some odd outliers in the benchmarks but anywhere from 10% to ~2% penalty, per the Phawx the problem isnt all the background windows stuff but rather the power scheduling/allotment. Z1 extreme is still surprisingly performant.

- Damn that's a beast of a handheld, and it's a nice and small form factor as well.

Wonder if the Halo part is tuned to keep frequency and power down at all or if it's going to eat through battery like sumo wrestlers at a buffet.

 

[gorobei]

- Damn that's a beast of a handheld, and it's a nice and small form factor as well.

Wonder if the Halo part is tuned to keep frequency and power down at all or if it's going to eat through battery like sumo wrestlers at a buffet.

there is some unclear wording on the battery, the speculation is that it may have a removable 80wh external battery pack that goes on the back along with a small internal battery that covers the few minutes when you swap the external pack. old school user replaceable battery tech makes a comeback because halo parts will probably chew thru those 80wh.

ayaneo flip 1S review

small battery and way to expensive $1300-1600 on indiegogo early adopter, so more expensive on full release. they are coming out with an android version that should be cheaper. gets warm.

you have to jump through some 3rd party apps to get the 2 screens to work the way you want, including juggling 3 to 5 emulators to get best results. even then it isnt a perfect nintendo DS experience. but the built in ayaneo software does look pretty good on sorting out what display gets the feed, very handy if you are multitasking guides/tutorials on the desktop side. pretty good on managing low power and display shut down to extend battery life.

not my cup of tea but im glad it is out there for those who do want a better ds option.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

Wonder if the Halo part is tuned to keep frequency and power down at all or if it's going to eat through battery like sumo wrestlers at a buffet.

The only tuning it needs is a TBP limit in the BIOS. Cary already showed that STX Halo behaves pretty well even at 10W, and past 50W the gaming performance doesn't scale a lot (probably because the iGPU hits a memory bandwidth wall at this point). STX Halo's >90W modes seem to be there mostly for CPU-heavy tasks.

 

[gorobei]

the phawx goes over xbHH gamescon info release and specs

ROG ally xbox coming oct 16
xbox compatible/verified and "mostly" compatible cert for games
handheld optimized feature preloads/compiles shaders at game boot up
auto super resolution upscale for Z2e tensor units

ign with MS explainer video

 

[quikah]

Hope we get some comparison between the regular and the X version. Not sure I could stomach the $900 price tag on the X.

 

[marees]

Imo Medusa Premium (not halo but one tier below, 128bit bus lpddr6/lpddr5x 24 CU RDNA 5) is the next 'xbox' rog Ally handheld — To be launched in 2027. Not the current one launching in 2 months

wow if Medusa premium survived that would be kinda interesting

 

[marees]

Imo Medusa Premium (not halo but one tier below, 128bit bus lpddr6/lpddr5x 24 CU RDNA 5) is the next 'xbox' rog Ally handheld — To be launched in 2027. Not the current one launching in 2 months

A peek at the future (2027)

Background: currently AMD has a halo APU which is medusa halo (mainly used in tablets such as Asus rog flow but also a few $1500+ upcoming handhelds). The primary handheld APU right now is the strix point widely used including the new Asus rog xbox Ally X. there is also a low power apu Krackan mainly for budget laptops & not gaming


All this is set to change in 2027 (when RDNA 5 will be launched worldwide)

1. Medusa point with CPU iod & bare minimum RDNA 5 CU complex — this will replace krackan in budget laptops — at the max this can go to sub-$500 budget handhelds
2. Same as above but an extra cpu iod with 12 more zen 6/c cores — will replace strix point in premium laptops. Note that GPU CU count remains the same as above
3. Medusa premium (also known as medusa halo mini — lets just call it medusa not so halo) — this will be the new z3e replacement & hence new 'xbox' handhelds
   
   1. 14x zen6 cpu in a iod chip — mix of zen 6 p/c/lp cores
   2. A separate 24 CU RDNA 5 chip that uses 128 bit lpddr5x (or lpddr6)
   3. This apu is also a drop in replacement for strix halo strix point as it will supposedly use the same socket
   4. Note above gpu chip can also be sold as a standalone entry level graphics card. Which will make a decent upgrade for 3060 12gb users
   5. Handhelds using this configuration likely to cost less than $1000
   6. Can also be used for AI devices upto 64gb unified ram I think
4. Medusa halo — the big chungus (let's call it the medusa halo mega)
   1. Same cpu-iod complex as above with 14 mixed zen 6 cores
   2. Additional 12 core zen 6 cpu ccd
   3. The graphics chip will double the CUs to 48 CUs
   4. Again will use lpddr5x or lpddr6 but most likely 384 bit. (Maybe 256 bit ?)
   5. So the ram should max out at 128gb or 192gb. Hence primarily for big AI machines
   6. New socket obviously
   7. This will functionally replace the current medusa halo devices such as Asus rog flow tablet or framework builds
   8. In rare case somebody like Aya neo might be mad enough to build a handheld that will definitely cost more than $2000
   9. This gpu chip also will go to stand alone gpus although the lpddr5x/6 vram will be slower than nvidia's competing gddr7 products. I don't expect too many of these to sell but will mostly be in the range of $400 to $500

https://www.techpowerup.com/340216/amd-medusa-halo-apu-leak-reveals-up-to-24-cores-and-48-rdna-5-cus

 

[quikah]

This makes no sense to me. Zen 6 and 6C are not really different cores. They are different ways of packaging the core. It makes no sense to mix them together. Speaking from the Zen5 classic and dense core info, the cores were identical.

 

[marees]

This makes no sense to me. Zen 6 and 6C are not really different cores. They are different ways of packaging the core. It makes no sense to mix them together. Speaking from the Zen5 classic and dense core info, the cores were identical.

If all cores were normal cores then you would need more die size. If all cores were c cores then you'd be bottlenecked on bursty loads or on the first few threads which handle most of the game load

So you mix & match normal cores & c cores
Lp cores are for background o/s tasks & standby mode etc. They are usually on a separate power island of their own

 

[Mopetar]

It's not so different than the mix of P and E cores found in many processors already or the big.LITTLE approach that's been used in phones for a while now.

There are more and more games that can make use of a large number of cores and developers are getting better and better at it. However, most games still have a single thread bounding the performance and few titles can distribute load across all cores evenly. Having a few cores capable of high performance and then using more dense cores to pad out the total number is going to offer a good mix.

 

[quikah]

This is nothing like the P & E cores of intel. The only difference of regular and C is the layout. The C is laid out for more density. This is information from Zen 4 & 5. AFAIK this hasn't really changed in Zen 6.

 

[gorobei]

abxylute 3d One

Abxylute will actually sell Intel and Tencent’s gigantic glasses-free 3D handheld

Sunday Dragon is now Abxylute 3D One.

www.theverge.com

lenticular type 3d display
11" 120hz screen 2560x1600
intel Core Ultra 258V chip and 32GB
detachable controllers
2.45 pounds
50 Whr battery

the 11' size really puts the controller proportioning choice of these jumbo HH in focus. do you make them look like they are integrated and suffer the ridiculous oversize look or use ordinary sized controllers and have them look tacked on.

 

[gorobei]

Legion Go 2 additional specs

$1050
8.8 oled 1920x1200 vrr 30-144hz
better cooling and vents, bigger speaker griles
releasing mid sept EU, oct US
better ergonomics on controllers

[update]
bestbuy pricing:
$1350 for Z2 extreme version
$1100 for Z2 version

https://www.bestbuy.com/product/legion-go-2-8-8-144hz-2k-oled-gaming-handheld-amd-ryzen-z2-extreme-32gb-1tb-windows/JJGH3YZPLW

tariffs may be giving lenovo cover to bump the price. if it was $900(200 over original Go) i could be ok with it given the oled landscape screen and almost double the Whr battery. but at $1350 it seems like a dealbreaker for something that isnt in a strix halo performance range. i was planning on getting this and waiting for a Go 4 with strix halo performance, but now i may wait and see what a Go 3 looks like instead.

 

[gorobei]

gpd win 5 review by retrogamecorps

$1500-2100 configurations on indiegogo, extra external battery $93
screen is ok, ergnomics and layout ok but compromised by external battery/tether, ok on heat but loud at full power when plugged in, needs 7w charger to power gaming

phawx quick takeaways.

ryzen strixpointe is bandwidth limited so more power doesnt scale. strix halo can benefit from the 75w.

basically we want to wait for whatever comes after medusa in order to get strix halo like performance at a reasonable price. it may only be a case of needing halo mem bandwidth or better balance of cpu cores vs gpu cu, so HH wont need the prestige config of strix halo.

 

[marees]

The ultimate PC handheld until 2028 — when RDNA 5 based handhelds are expected to be widely available

Looks like almost linear gains in the 25w to 45w tdp range

https://twitter.com/x/status/1973750063626068304

 

[gorobei]

pcworld's lenovo legion Go 2 review

performance is a minor improvement, ergo and some additional buttons are big upgrade, some minor downgrades/sidegrades on ports and the kickstand. obvious knock is the price.

Go 1 with Go2controllers

 

[gorobei]

retrogamingcorps review of Go 2

he does a good job of putting the Go 2 in perspective: ~17% fps performance improvement over Go 1, but $600 bump over Go 1, and for a few hundred $ more you are in gpd win5 territory with strix halo. the ergo improvements are great but you can just buy the controllers and slap them on the Go 1.

so the question is if the oled screen and better battery/playtime is worth it for a minor improvement over z1e.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

phawx quick takeaways.

What matters about this review:









This is why we want STX Halo handhelds. Best-in-class performance at 20-35W for handheld operation, but when you put it down and connect it to a TV you get PS5 performance at 50-75W.

 

[marees]

What matters about this review:

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View attachment 131628

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This is why we want STX Halo handhelds. Best-in-class performance at 20-35W for handheld operation, but when you put it down and connect it to a TV you get PS5 performance at 50-75W.

Yeah, it is good in the entire 25 watts to 45 watts tdp range

Not worth it below 25 watts
Gains start tapering off from 50watts onwards

What we should watch is how medusa halo (zen6 + rdna 5) scales 😜

(Edit: that is the power of a PS6 in a handheld !!!)

 

[gorobei]

GN on upcoming intel xe3.
IBC v3 lets the system identify the application(game) being run and adjust power allocation to where you want it(gpu). bias towards using e-cores but it shouldnt affect games hopefully. this is what handhelds have been waiting for.

 

[gorobei]

if you want the worlds 2nd most expensive emulator after the gpd win5, RGC goes thru all the console emulators on the Go2. the detachable controllers really helps for nintendo ds and vertical shooter games. the oled screen means letterboxing isnt noticeable due to being pure black blending into bezel.