Elden Ring Nightreign: Ideal for Handheld Gaming PCs

Sure, here goes nothing.

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So, get this. I’m hanging out with my favorite gadget, the Asus ROG Ally X, right? And I’m all hyped to test out this new game, Nightreign. Came after Elden Ring and let me tell ya, it was like, smoother than butter on a hot skillet. Wasn’t expecting that, but hey, who am I to argue with happy surprises? Shadow of the Erdtree was a pain, so I was a bit anxious, but wow. Nightreign… nailed it.

Anyway, here’s the deal: Nightreign takes place in this cozy place called Limveld. It’s like, not much going on visually, but maybe that’s why it works so well. Less chaos, fewer framerate tantrums. Oh, and by the way, Shadow of the Erdtree? Yeah, forget about it. Complicated visual effects, my ROG was like a cat staring at a running vacuum. Wild.

Oh, hang on. Hardware stuff. Let me tell you about this beast, the ROG Ally X – it’s basically like having a mini-supercomputer in your hands. AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme sounds fancy, right? Yeah, it’s cool, but more importantly, it’s got this RAM allocation trick up its sleeve. Pumps 16GB into the GPU, versus the boring old 8GB. Kinda neat. But wait, rumors say Xbox is cooking something up. Can’t wait.

Okay, let’s talk performance. Picture this: giant pots of magic raining down while exploring a castle. Framerate dropping like my grades in math. Not fun. But, I plugged in the Ally X, and voila! Turbo mode at 30W, thank you very much. I set it up with the best settings and crossed my fingers.

Here’s the juicy part: numbers. At 1080p with max settings, you’re chilling at 30 fps, which sometimes dives to 27 fps when things get crazy. But, drop that resolution to 720p, and it picks up the pace. Faster than me running for the last piece of pizza. It even hits 50 fps on medium settings. Yep, it’s true. Cameras pointing down to boost performance still boggles my mind, but who’s counting?

I mean, look. It’s not perfect. Loads of baddies and visual fireworks? Yeah, that can hit the performance where it hurts. But, hey, it’s manageable. And if you wanna hit a sweet spot, 720p at max settings hovers around 41 fps. Sweet enough.

Now brace yourself for my big conclusion. Nightreign, at full glory on the Ally X? Chef’s kiss. Seriously, 1080p max settings look like a dream even if the frames hiccup sometimes. But if you’re obsessed with numbers and crave that smooth 60 fps, then jinx your visuals a bit and settle for the bittersweet medium or low settings. It’s not all sunshine, as Limveld kinda looks… well, plain. But it’ll do.

Oh, and me? I’m Claire. Proud video game evangelist with a journalism badge from Brooklyn College. When I’m not busy with gaming, I’m head deep in chicken fettuccine or gushing over handhelds, ‘cause priorities, right?