Can you boost the Asus ROG Ally with new thermal paste?

The Asus ROG Ally has a lot in common with the Steam Deck. It should — it’s a direct competitor, after all. And a popular mod for the Steam Deck is to re-apply the APU thermal paste for higher performance. Can you do the same thing with the Ally, and its beefier dual-fan cooling setup? Adam Patrick Murray finds out in the latest PCWorld video.

First, Adam grabbed some benchmark data for an unmodified ROG Ally, testing for frames per second and internal heat measurements. He then cracked the sucker open, which is surprisingly easy with a few standard electronics tools, disconnected the battery, and removed the all-in-one cooler apparatus with its six screws and power connector. The super-thin design includes a standard copper heat spreader with twin heat pipes going out to two fans.

Then he cleaned up the existing paste of the Z1 Extreme APU and applied a bit of Thermalright TF paste, spread it evenly, and plugged the fans back in (a tricky step). It’s also pretty delicate work getting the fans and contact plate realigned before screwing them back down. With the battery plugged in again and a static shield reapplied, the back is snapped back into place with its original screws, and the Ally is ready to go (with a terrifying minute or so when it wouldn’t boot and needed a boost from a charger).

And the results? Cyberpunk was a few frames per second faster, and ran a little hotter at the full wattage. In Horizon Zero Dawn, the temperatures and frames per second were almost exactly the same. The conclusion is that the new paste might allow for the CPU to run a little hotter, but you’re not going to see the kind of performance boost that some users have seen in the Steam Deck. Not really worth the effort, in other words. For more nerdy deep dives into the latest hardware, subscribe to PCWorld on YouTube.