Kernel-level anti-cheat drains battery on handhelds

Kernel-level anti-cheat software on ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go devices increases power consumption by 12 to 18 percent during gameplay. Users report rapid battery drain even with frame rate capped at 60fps and APU wattage set to 12W. The software runs continuously in the kernel, consuming CPU cycles and memory bandwidth. This overhead exceeds that of standard single-player titles. Battery degradation is measurable under controlled settings. The effect is consistent across tested devices with similar hardware configurations.