Can you play Baldur's Gate 3 on the Asus ROG Ally?

After years in development, Baldur’s Gate 3 is finally here, and oh boy is it good. Larian Studios’ Dungeons and Dragons RPG offers one of the most compelling single-player experiences in years, but what if you don’t want to be tethered to a desktop to play it?

Here’s everything you need to know about playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Asus ROG Ally.

Can you play Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Asus ROG Ally?

Baldur’s Gate 3 plays very well on the Asus ROG Ally. In fact, in many ways, it’s a great example of what the handheld is capable of, particularly on higher power settings. This is something that competitors like the Steam Deck simply can’t match without a hardware upgrade. Framerates will never max out the ROG Ally’s 120Hz display, but it’s more than playable — at least while the battery lasts.

As of the official production version release, Baldur’s Gate 3 also features full controller support. This makes it much more playable than it was during the extended early access period. It uses the same basic control scheme as similar RPGs like Divinity: Original Sin 2.

Speaking of which, make sure to uninstall the early access version if you have previously tried playing it on the Asus ROG Ally. Delete your save files as well, as this can cause conflicts with the final version of the game.

Also note that the game takes up about 120GB on your hard drive, so you may need to clear up space or purchase a compatible microSD card if you’ve already used up the full 512GB (or 1TB) of onboard storage. Performance should largely be the same regardless of where the game is installed.

One way to get around this and optimize performance is to play Baldur’s Gate 3 on a cloud gaming service like GeForce Now. This will allow you to get the full 120 frames per second while playing on the Asus ROG Ally, provided you have a stable internet connection at home and pay for the top-of-the-line GeForce Now Ultimate subscription, which costs $20 a month. It will also run at the lowest 7W silent mode, extending battery life significantly.

Best settings for Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Asus ROG Ally

Depending on whether you want better battery life or better visuals, there are two settings profiles we recommend for Baldur’s Gate 3 on the Asus ROG Ally.

Balanced settings

• 15W Performance mode
• 1080p (lower to 900p for better performance)
• Low graphics settings
• FSR2 enabled (balanced)
• Expect 40-50fps

Best visuals settings

• 30W Turbo mode (preferably plugged in)
• 1080p (lower to 900p for higher fps)
• Low/medium graphics settings
• FSR2 enabled (balanced)
• Expect 40fps

While the game runs great with either of these settings, don’t expect to get more than a few hours of battery life. As is always the case for recently released games in the modern era, you can also expect a number of optimizations to improve performance in upcoming patches.

If performance is lower than expected, make sure the game is set to full screen rather than borderless window mode. You may also want to try increasing the VRAM from 4GB to 8GB, which can be done in the Armoury Crate app under the Settings tab. Open Operating Mode then switch to GPU Settings. another easy way to get higher framerates is to lower the resolution to 900p, which still looks amazing on the ROG Ally display.

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