Once Human Handheld Performance Benchmark

[17th Dimension]

Once Human is a third-person multiplayer survival game that can be played solo or with friends. It shines on a powerful PC with settings maxed out, but how well does it perform on the Steam Deck and ROG Ally? In this performance review, we're checking how the game runs and looks on the two most popular PC gaming handhelds from Valve and ASUS.

Show full review

 

[17th Dimension]

A question for our readers regarding our future handheld performance benchmarks: would you rather see screenshots taken on a high-end PC showcasing the graphics (I'm talking about the screenshots found in the Screenshots section of the piece), or would you prefer to see screenshots taken on the Steam Deck/ROG Ally, showing how games actually look on the handhelds we're testing them on?

 

[GreiverBlade]

personally (no ROG pun intended) i would prefer to see the screen taken from the handheld

i got surprised recently when i finally (again ... no pu... eh, nevermind) installed The First Descendant and got a satisfying FPS rate using low settings and the image quality wasn't even ugly or pixelated ..
tested it @1080p well nothing big but it was playable and for an UE5 game it was a bit impressive ... ofc i would run it at lower res for various reasons
(that one would also be an interesting one to run test on the deck and ally, although it produce audio glitch if played with any power setting lower than 25w )


also welcome and good start

 

[Rubinhood]

> would you rather see screenshots...PC vs. handhelds
Some side by side pictures (PC highest vs. handheld realistic settings) would be the most informative..
The next good option is handheld based pics.

 

[ViperXZ]

So if the game is really CPU heavy the Ally finally outshines the Deck, interesting and rare exception. It’s also questionable how much the Ally is held back by Windows 11, as came to light a few days ago that Windows 11 is bad for Ryzen performance, and the Deck luckily doesn’t use Windows, though this is maybe a topic for another discussion.

 

[Tech Ninja]

Love that you are doing these. Need more systems. Importantly need to add BATTERY LIFE, while playing.

 

[Lianna]

Great idea for review/benchmark, thanks.
Screenshots in 'handheld quality' mode - nicest settings on Ally/Legion for rare dips below 30 fps - preferred.
If a game has one setting that can be turned from high to medium and offer much better framerates - please tell us (sometimes changing shadows from ultra to high does the trick, for Deck the crowd setting in CP2077).
If a game really likes some hardware settings - say, Baldur's Gate 3 apparently prefers 3-4GB VRAM because it needs 12+GB RAM - please tell us.
I guess new popular games 'known' for heavy hardware requirements should be prioritised... so you could offer praise for developers that offer good scaling for handhelds.

 

[HOkay]

Ooo, I'm happy to see some handheld love! I thought this covered all the things I'd want to know if I was considering playing this game on a handheld of course with the Ally X out now I think that's really the one to beat so you should demand TPU buy you one I have a Legion Go, but I'm pretty sure it's the least popular of the big three so I don't mind it not getting included, & I can just take the Ally numbers as close enough.

 

[Chrispy_]

Handheld screenshots please, it's super easy to find screenshots at 1080p ultra or 4K ultra because that's what just about everyone else publishes.

Hell, a 1080p ultra and 800p lowest with one of those overlapped screenshots with an interactive divider like in the DLSS/FSR/Native comparisons would be even better, but I totally understand if that's too much work...

 

[Jun]

Love that you are doing these. Need more systems. Importantly need to add BATTERY LIFE, while playing.

Agree with battery life. One of the most important aspects of portable.

 

[vbq7qK68eyYAH4iR]

I've checked but can't seem to find it. Is this Ally with the Z1 or Z1 Extreme (The device link goes to the Asus Z1X link)? Also, given that the Ally is tight on ram, in the optimized section, is there a chance to include a optimum VRAM setting? Does a game benefit more from having an extra GB or two of system memory or VRAM?

I'd prefer screenshots from the device being tested. Lets me know what i can expect. Thanks for asking.

Love the handheld coverage. Nicely done.

 

[SN2716057]

@17th Dimension In the 2nd graph; Min FPS, the green bar show Asus at 25 W but I presume that supposed to be 15 W?

 

[17th Dimension]

@SN2716057

Nice catch! Corrected.

 

[Vayra86]

A question for our readers regarding our future handheld performance benchmarks: would you rather see screenshots taken on a high-end PC showcasing the graphics (I'm talking about the screenshots found in the Screenshots section of the piece), or would you prefer to see screenshots taken on the Steam Deck/ROG Ally, showing how games actually look on the handhelds we're testing them on?

Would definitely prefer a Deck/Handheld based screenshot gallery. Doesn't need to be this big. I think a half dozen to a dozen screenshots in several quality settings should be more than enough in general.

Great to see these handheld comparisons, definitely something I was looking for.

Agree with battery life. One of the most important aspects of portable.

This. Battery life is huge in this segment.

 

[AKBrian]

The game is slated to receive a DirectX 12 update sometime in August 2024. Upscaler-wise, only AMD FSR is supported.

It already does feature DLSS, you need to switch to DX12 mode to access and enable it.

This won't matter for the current crop of handhelds, mind you.

 

[colossusrageblack]

I'm just happy to see handheld PCs have been added to reviews. I especially like that you're including optimized settings. Settings for these handhelds don't always translate from what can be done on a desktop. For instance, I tried using Hardware Unboxed settings for Black Myth Wukong on my Legion Go. Their video showed that several of the settings could be left on cinematic mode (the highest setting) without a hit to performance. That was not the case for the Legion GO. I had to turn pretty much everything down, even things that didn't affect the desktop, like draw distance, was a huge hit to the Legion Go's FPS.

 

[human_error]

Very happy to see a handheld review!

As other have been saying, I prefer to see the screenshots as they would appear on the device. It would also be good where you show the optimized performance screenshots to use the same widget Wizzard uses in the DLSS/FSR comparisons where half the image is one preset, the other a different preset. Makes it easier to compare the differences. Battery life expectations would be good - as someone without a handheld right now it would be good to know the battery life I'd get by running optimized for say 30fps vs 60fps - what time do I gain by choosing those settings.

Would be fantastic to see some head to head multi-game handheld comparison reviews as well, given we will have more and more devices launching.