- id Software’s Doom: The Dark Ages is facing crashing issues on handheld gaming PCs
- The issue appears to stem from outdated drivers on AMD Ryzen Z1-powered handhelds like the Asus ROG Ally
- It seems that neither AMD nor id Software are reponsible, but rather the handheld PC vendors like Asus and Lenovo
The long wait for id Software’s Doom: The Dark Ages is finally over, as the Premium Edition, providing two days of early access, is now available – but if you’re using any AMD-powered handheld gaming PC, it’s probably best to steer clear for now.
As reported by our friends over at PC Gamer, Doom: The Dark Ages is unplayable on handheld gaming PCs, notably those using AMD’s Ryzen Z1 chips, due to constant crashes. This is evident in the video provided by PC Gamer, which sees the game crash in a matter of seconds due to an AMD driver failure.
I can corroborate the same crashing issues; while booting into the game’s campaign was all fine (on my Asus ROG Ally Z1 Extreme), it didn’t take any longer than 10 seconds for the game to come to a crashing halt. This would result in either a black screen, with the game still audible in the background, or worse, artificating – however, the blame seemingly isn’t on id Software and its new title.
Since the game requires the latest AMD Adrenalin 25.5.1 graphics driver – which is the first prompt shown upon startup – the crashes are to be expected on these handhelds. And that points directly towards the issue; the Asus ROG Ally and the Lenovo Legion Go that use AMD’s Ryzen Z1 Extreme processors are more often than not running on outdated graphics drivers.
This lack of driver support from Asus and Lenovo has been an ongoing issue since the launch of these handhelds, resulting in games that either can’t be played at all, or suffer from frequent crashes, as they require newer drivers to function well.
I’ve seen this occur with games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and The Last of Us Part 2 – the former tends to have driver crashes in the game’s ‘Zombies’ mode, and the results can’t be replicated on a desktop gaming PC that has access to the latest drivers. It’s leaving some handheld gamers without a solution, as sideloading (manually installing newer drivers) doesn’t always work – and can easily result in ‘Code 43’ errors, which I encountered numerous times.
This is one of the main reasons why my Asus ROG Ally is collecting dust
It’s bad enough that Microsoft’s Windows 11 and other applications like Armoury Crate have numerous bugs and slow responsiveness; throwing in the lack of driver support from handheld PC vendors literally stops users from playing certain games.
You could also argue that Doom: The Dark Ages is technically not even released yet (since it’s early access), but these issues don’t appear to stem from the PC port. This is a support issue, and one quick look at the latest graphics driver available on Asus’ ROG Ally support page will show you that the latest driver at the time of writing was in February earlier this year.
I’m lucky enough to have a powerhouse gaming PC to dive into games with ease, but for those who bought a Ryzen Z1-powered handheld to be their primary gaming device this just isn’t good enough. Sure, nothing is perfect, but devices that cost a lot should at the very least be supported in the long run.
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