Blizzard held a final test weekend for Diablo IV. The opportunity for us to test the game on the portable console from Asus.
Diablo IV promises to be a jubilant experience for fans, which officially begins on June 6. As for the portable console from Asus, baptized Rog Allyit’s a stunning machine, the launch of which is scheduled for June 13th.
You will have understood it: a week separates them. Mere coincidence? We prefer to see the opportunity to marry the best of both worlds: the possibility of killing dozens and dozens of monsters anywhere and almost anytime (you still need an Internet connection). From his bed, for example, with undeniable comfort.
However, a crucial question remains: Diablo IV does it run correctly on the Asus Rog Ally, a machine capable of investigating the races of Forza Horizon 5 without any problem ? On the weekend of May 13 and 14, Blizzard held a final server test. Being in possession of a Rog Ally, we jumped at the chance to launch into Sanctuary with the “console” designed by Asus. A convincing essay? Overall, yes.
Diablo IV runs pretty well on the Asus console, but…
On paper, the Rog Ally is a console powerful enough to run Diablo IV, knowing Blizzard’s propensity to design games optimized for a maximum of configurations (which allows old PCs to be compatible). During our test of the product, we had no problem playing ambitious titles like Forza Horizon 5, Gears 5 or Elden Ring — moreover in exemplary conditions (that is to say with a display at 60 frames per second). As a bonus, the console has a very nice 7-inch 1080p screen, enough to do justice to Diablo IV and its magnificent artistic direction.
Diablo IV runs well on the Asus Rog Ally, but we still perceive a lack of optimization, evidenced by an unstable frame rate (fps). When the console is pushed to the bottom (Turbo mode), it struggles to reach 60 fps, even with graphics settings at the bare minimum. We also put a limit at 45 fps to avoid suffering too many drops during our games – which can happen when during certain overloaded sequences. By playing with parameters set to medium, we lose 5 to 10 fps. Note that we have voluntarily kept a resolution in 1080p, perhaps it is possible to gain stability in 720p (the magic ofupscaling doing the rest). On the other hand, avoid switching the Rog Ally to Silence mode: in these conditions, Diablo IV is unplayable.
“ The Asus Rog Ally runs Diablo IV very well at medium settings and FSR2 in quality, with a framerate between 50 and 60 fps, and drops to 40 fps in very busy scenes », https://twitter.com/aschilling/status/1657287565630734337. He pushed the machine more, but shares the same observation as us – an unstable framerate. As for autonomy, do not expect any miracles: the Rog Ally will not last more than an hour if it is pushed to its limits. But it is in its Turbo mode that it offers the best performance. Diablo IV nor the Rog Ally not being officially released, it is not to be ruled out updates which could improve the optimization in June.
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Even with low quality graphics, Diablo IV is very pleasant to watch on the small screen of the Rog Ally, knowing that the control scheme modeled on an Xbox controller guarantees impeccable ergonomics and a certain comfort. It will just be necessary to enlarge the texts to make them more readable. In any case, our Barbarian was able to evolve without worry in the detailed environments offered by Sanctuary. We even enjoyed it a lot: being able to play Diablo IV in nomadic format is still a great opportunity, despite some small grievances (little autonomy, optimization to work on). Diablo III had proven it with a Nintendo Switch port of excellent quality.
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