Why ASUS ROG Ally (Z1 & Extreme) stutters (or pages)
Unlike SteamOS, Ally boots a full Windows 11 stack (DWM, Game Bar, Armoury services) that already eats 3–4GB idle. Pushing GPU Shared Memory to 8G leaves ~8GB for OS + game threads, so Cyberpunk/Alan Wake 2 hitch when DirectStorage and shader caches allocate. The hitch is often pagefile thrash, not a weak 780M.
What to buy or configure
If you still own a 16GB Ally and constantly OOM, budget for an Ally X (24GB) or a dual-channel mini-PC — not aftermarket LPDDR. For the chassis you have: 6G GPU share, fixed ~16GB pagefile, and disable startup bloat before chasing TDP presets.
Memory deep dive
The ASUS ROG Ally (Z1 / Z1 Extreme) feeds Radeon 780M graphics from 16GB soldered LPDDR5-6400 on a 128-bit bus. Bandwidth is excellent; capacity under Windows is not. There is no user SO-DIMM path — every “RAM upgrade” conversation should be about UMA partitioning and OS footprint, or stepping up to Ally X / a socketed mini-PC.
Clearance / form factor: Not applicable — memory is soldered; no SO-DIMM clearance path.
Tuning notes: In Armoury Crate SE → Settings → Operating Mode → GPU Settings, set Memory Assigned to GPU to 6G (best balance on 16GB). Auto can bounce allocations mid-session. Pair with a fixed Windows pagefile (~16384 MB) so AAA spikes do not spike disk latency.