Emulation on the MSI Claw (is Actually Pretty Good)

While PC gaming performance is still a work-in-progress on the MSI Claw, emulation is surprisingly more mature and consistent on this handheld. Let's test all the major systems to see how they fare on the latest handheld PC to hit the market.

Note that all testing was done with the latest Intel ARC v5379 drivers.

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Timestamps:
00:00 introduction
00:57 why I'm not doing a final review yet
04:48 emulation setup and BFI
07:44 retro game emulation
11:59 GameCube, PS2, and Xbox
14:04 3DS, Wii U, Xbox 360
16:49 PS3 and Switch
19:13 summary and conclusion

Theme song written by Jim Gray of Our Ghosts:

^^ use code "RGC10" for 10% off your order

This video is for entertainment and educational purposes only.

#MSI #MSIclaw #handheldPC #emulation #steamdeck #ROGally

[RetroGameCorps]

Sorry for the jump scares around the 4-minute mark, my video editor was acting funky last night and I missed those!

Also I mislabeled Dragon Blaze as Dodonpachi. This channel is really going downhill!

[chrisdellarocca]

@retrogamecorps the idea that the review isn't valuable because it would be mostly negative due to the product not being ready for release misses the point.

Situations like this are exactly the places where the review is the most valuable it can be.

You are providing buying advice. Removing critical perspective from the conversation doesnt help your audience and MSI shouldnt get a pass for whatever state of product they chose to put out.

There are many ways to update impressions or account for products that launch poorly but are turned around. This isnt one of them.

[kyledoesntgetit]

This is such a hard value proposition for emulation when the base Z1 ROG Ally can be had for less than half the price. Even the Z1 Extreme is often on sale at $599 with open-box units dipping into the mid-to-high-400s.

[arigato]

About PPSSPP freezing for a couple of seconds during gameplay when the games are stored in the SD card.
The emulator allows you to load the whole game into the RAM before starting, you should enable that to circumvent the trouble of having to move your PSP games into internal storage.

[LegGiant]

I've got to say I think you may be being overly kind to MSI. Don't forget, as far as I'm aware, no-one got an early review unit of the product. All the reviews came out after the handheld was on sale to the public. Never a good sign. Personally I could "Imagine" a world where MSI gets a call from Intel. "Hi MSI I hear you want to make a handheld. Everyone else is going AMD and we feel left out. Please make one with our parts. Pleeeaaase." No-one doubts that Intel chips can kick out the performance, it's just they often need to have the power to get there and power is at a premium with handhelds. What I'm saying is I'm not sure there will ever be super performance boosts, fixes and minor ones yes, but getting close to the Ally in general or the Deck for battery life I just can't see it.

[tebo]

For an $800 price tag, I'm still of the opinion this device was rushed to the market. Personally, I'm tired of device manufacturers and game studios rushing half-baked products to the market and expecting us consumers to be patient while they fix their mess. Moving forward, I'm no longer pre-ordering anything without watching countless reviews first. I have no doubt the Claw will be optimized but I have already lost interest. I was ready to buy the Legion Go as I'm not a fan of the propriety eGPU port on the Ally, but Orange Pi announced their upcoming device with Manjaro Linux OS, no diss to Windows but let's face it, Windows on handhelds is cumbersome. I will wait a while for reviews of the Orange Pi before making a final decision, until then I still have my Vita and Switch to keep me company while in transit. Great review by the way.

[JuanGarcia-lhgv]

The price is the most disappointing thing about this handheld. Selling an inferior product for a higher price is just stupid and destined to fail.

[III-phhb]

Damn you dropped this and I ain’t got no snacks around

[davidfaustino]

LOLOL its not putting too much power into the CPU. The CPU REQUIRES that more power to barely work.

[harissonbond]

But is the D-pad hadoukenable and shoryukenable is the $800 question

[uprnva]

Time to watch videos of handhelds I can’t afford! I always enjoy watching these things though. It is so cool watching handhelds approve overtime.

[msrpmusic]

Really random question, but what hair product do you use? Seems good and I can't find one strong enough to tame my mane

[retrotechdad]

Thank you so much for sharing my videos, Russ! 🤗🤗

[calvintcwu]

Originally I was looking at what kind of handheld I want. Recently, just saw MSI claw has promotion and also updated driver. So I had them and it worked really good🎉

[jamesdavies]

It's amazing how chipzilla (Intel) is still miles behind the competition in an APU.

[bigjabba]

Its mindboggling to me that products are released in an incomplete state

[dbzblitz]

Anything improvements since this video got released?

[perfectfalse]

Elephant in the room.. I see what you did there! 😂

[hausmaus]

Anyone who is familiar with computer hardware is not currently buying a laptop or a handheld with an Intel CPU/APU (it is impossible to say exactly what will happen in the future).

[berightback]

actually a great review! hopefully the driver update could make it a lot better