New here, and I have a few questions for you all.

Hey everyone, I had an Ally Z1E (OG white) that I got from a friend who owed me money - and sold it.. Kicked myself around about it for a while, especially considering how much used ones are going for today.

Well, this morning I was able to pick up an Ally X in flawless condition with a couple accessories; a really nice carrying case, JSAUX grip case, and the OEM box/charger - for $550! (I hope I got a decent deal...)

Now, I'm in the same predicament as before though... not knowing which games to play. I'm seeing a bunch of posts here talking about older games, emulation, and serious compromise.

I have a 5090+9800X3D at home and a 4080S+7600X3D at work. I also realize that this handheld is neither of those, and I'll never get anywhere close to the performance from my desktops. I can get between 180-400+ FPS at 1440/4k ultra maxed out everything. So It's gonna be a bit of an adjustment for me. I'd really like to shoot for 50-60 FPS with good *enough* graphics.

I know that there have been some recent advances - Xbox FSE (still need to research), full build of Steam OS, and others.

Now, onto the questions:

• With the Ally X, can anyone tell me the point of diminishing returns on an eGPU?
  • Cards on hand and available for immediate use: AMD RX580, Intel Arc A750, Nvidia 1660S
  • Not opposed to getting a 5060 or 9060XT if it could reliably provide a decent uplift when on longer trips.
  • Buy a pre-built enclosure, or DIY? Since it has to run over TB4, I realize there's a pretty significant bottleneck compared to Oculink.
• Is there a way to (safely) under-volt this thing?
  • I've used curve editor on MSI AB for Nvidia and also the Radeon app for AMD before. Willing to edit and trial for stability - but just not sure if it's something that's done on such a low draw system. Or do we just get the wattage profiles?
• Is it possible to manually assign the RAM?
  • There may be a scenario where I'd want to manually adjust RAM allocation, just not sure if it's possible. I'm not looking to modify the device, just something in the AC or AMD settings lists.
• Is the "Steam Deck Verified" list actually any good?
  • I'm looking to play games with higher FPS, good visuals, and obviously supporting the Xbox controller input format. There might be a scenario where I'd like to plug it into a hotel TV or something and use a controller, so at least maintaining an upscaled 1080 would be nice. I'm open to anything with good value, as I'll have to expand my library. Currently playing Balatro...
  • The only AAA game that I'd even entertain would be Arc Raiders, since that's mostly what me and my buddies play, but after trying it earlier - I'm gonna have to do a lot of tinkering.
• Is it worth to to switch to Steam OS or something like Bazzite?

  • One of the games that I really want to play on this is Starfield. I own it on the Xbox app. :/

Thanks for your time! Looking forward to all your responses.

I'm super stoked to have a handheld I'll actually use!