It wasn’t exactly an eternity ago when Valve itself acknowledged plans of bringing SteamOS support to third-party handhelds like the ASUS ROG Ally, and now a new development spotted online seems to show that some progress is being made on the project. Back in August, we found out that SteamOS will no longer be Steam Deck exclusive, though an exact date on this is unknown.

Now, thanks to a commit on ValveSoftware’s GitHub, we can see that a ‘display configuration’ is being worked on for the Windows-based handhelds to get them up and running on Valve’s Linux-based operating system, SteamOS.

ASUS ROG Ally + ROG Ally X display configuration update

As you can see from the image above, there have been references made to both the ASUS ROG Ally and ROG Ally X in a recent GitHub Commit under the ValveSoftware Gamescope repository. For the uninformed, Gamescope is a microcompositor used for the Steam Deck that deals with display-based gaming features such as upscaling, variable refresh rate, and HDR support.

The key takeaway from what we can see here is that the new display config was been tested on SteamOS (for both devices), crucially reporting that “Both function exactly the same through multiple games with the entire refresh rate slider within Steam”.

What else do we know so far?

The story so far for SteamOS on the likes of the ROG Ally (or indeed other Windows alternatives like the Legion Go in the future) is that Valve “added support for extra ROG Ally keys“. Following this sneaky patch note, Valve went on to clarify that they are indeed working on supporting additional handheld devices on Steam OS.

SteamOS is praised for its lightweight architecture, whereas Windows 11 can be seen as quite bloated on a compact gaming handheld. As such, many people have been looking forward to tinkering with their device once SteamOS support on the ROG Ally finally comes along. We still don’t know when, but this new development is promising.

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Charlie Noon

Charlie is the Affiliate manager for PC Guide. He has a vast understanding of most PC hardware and consumer essentials, using his knowledge to provide the best products and the biggest deals.