Xbox, in collaboration with Asus, has announced a brand new feature for the ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X handheld gaming PCs. The major feature – available through Preview – is Default Game Profiles, which allows players to set up a game to use default performance profiles for optimal performance. The goal of this feature, according to Xbox, is to let players spend less time fine-tuning graphics settings and more time just playing the game.
The crux of the Default Game Profiles feature is that it provides “hand-crafted per-game” settings that can be applied directly to the game and the overall system through the Command Center. It is also only available when using the ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X on battery, and can’t be enabled if you try playing the system while plugged in.
When the feature is enabled, there are two possible outcomes. If a game falls short of the target frame rate, the game profile works to boost the handheld systems’ power to reach the desired target. Through this, some battery life is traded for improved performance. On the other hand, if a game is running at over the target framerate, the game profile instead trades some power to maintain the target FPS while also saving some battery life.
Default Game Profiles is currently supported across 40 games, and while a full list isn’t available, some of the titles that will use the feature include Gears of War: Reloaded, Fortnite, and Hollow Knight: Silksong. Check out a list of 16 games that Xbox has confirmed to be making use of the feature below. It is worth noting that the feature extends to first and third-party releases, but the confirmed list so far is largely made up of titles published by Xbox Game Studios.
Along with this, the update also brings in some smaller improvements to the ROG Xbox Ally and Xbox Ally X. These include improved gamepad response after logging in, quicker library loading, improved Cloud Gaming page performance, a new Game Gallery filter that can filter titles depending on their performance, and a host of bug fixes and stability improvements.
Xbox has also confirmed that it is investigating player feedback as it works on future updates for the devices. Some of the enhancements that the company is working on include reliability of sleep and wake and more options for formatting microSD cards. Next year will also see an update for the ROG Xbox Ally X that brings with it AI-based features, including Automatic Super Resolution and highlight reels.
For more details about the ROG Xbox Ally X, check out our review of the handheld gaming PC.
Confirmed games with support for Default Game Profiles:
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 6
- Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
- Call of Duty: Warzone
- DOOM Eternal
- DOOM: The Dark Ages
- Forza Horizon 5
- Gears 5
- Gears of War: Reloaded
- Gears Tactics
- Halo: The Master Chief Collection
- Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
- Minecraft
- Sea of Thieves
- Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4
- Hollow Knight: Silksong
- Fortnite
