ROG Xbox Ally’s tuned performance profiles will extend battery life

Anyone who’s ever owned a gaming laptop knows its fundamental weakness: Plugged in, it can play forever. Unplugged, its gaming capabilities can be measured in minutes. Microsoft and its “portable gaming PC,” the ROG Xbox Ally, have struck a balance with new default gaming profiles.

It’s a smart addition to the laptop. Microsoft knows that most gamers want to hit a target frame rate on their favorite games, and anything else is just overkill. (Well, not really, but when battery life is taken into account, of course.) These new default gaming profiles are available through the “latest updates for Armory Crate SE, the Xbox PC app, and Windows 11,” Microsoft says.

Around 40 games are supported, according to Microsoft, including these:

• Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
• Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
• Call of Duty: War Zone
• Eternal DOOM
• DOOM: Dark Ages
• Forza Horizon 5
• Speeds 5
• Gears of War: Reloaded
• Gear Tactics
• Halo: The Master Chief Collection
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
• Minecraft
• Sea of ​​Thieves
• Tony Hawk’s Professional Skater 3+4

Here’s what happens: Each game has a targeted frame rate, which Microsoft “hand-designed” for the specific game itself, according to Microsoft’s blog on the subject. If the game does not consistently reach this frame rate, Microsoft’s Xbox app and ROG Xbox Ally will increase the power supplied from the battery to the GPU. If the game runs too well at the expense of battery life, Microsoft will reduce the components of the ROG Xbox Ally, thereby reducing consumption and extending battery life. In Hollow Knight: Song of SilkFor example, Microsoft claims that these new settings will extend the handheld’s battery life by an hour while maintaining a frame rate of 120 fps.

(Here’s how to enable the new default gaming profiles on Xbox Ally: Go to the Armory Crate Command Center widget, then scroll down to the Gaming Profiles entry. Next to it is a toggle switch, which must be turned on to enable the new profiles.)

November updates also include faster library loading and improved performance on the Cloud Gaming page, as well as a performance filter for your games gallery. The final filter will allow you to see how well each game will run on your device, a nice complement to updating the default game profile.

On the agenda: a game save indicator which will debut next week. Microsoft also plans to introduce Auto Super Resolution (Auto SR) and Highlight Reel to the platform, thereby increasing frame rates using AI. The addition is expected to happen “early next year,” Microsoft said, following the recent release of Xbox Full Screen Experience on all Windows handhelds.