AMD has announced a trio of next-gen Ryzen Z-series APUs intended for use in gaming handhelds at their CES 2025 keynote. As we reported in December, the family includes three different architectures stretching back to 2022, but the release still includes some interesting new information about where these chips might end up.
The flagship Z2 Extreme is an eight-core, 16-thread design with a TDP of up to 35W, built on the Strix Point architecture – which recently impressed us in the Beelink SER9 mini PC. The APU also includes 16 RDNA 3.5 CUs. Of the eight CPU cores, three are full-fat Zen 5 cores and five are smaller Zen 5C cores with less on-board cache but otherwise the same microarchitecture. This hetrogeneous design is intended to provide a better mix of single-core speed and die area / power usage versus a homogeneous alternative, so it’ll be fascinating to see how it performs in new high-end gaming handhelds – think a next-gen Asus ROG Ally X or Lenovo Legion Go, for example.
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The next spot down is the vanilla Z2, which is also eight cores and 16 threads but using the Hawk Point architecture – so these are Zen 4 cores. The APU also includes 12 RDNA 3 CUs. It’s rated up to 30W, and should be found in more affordable handhelds – eg the cheapest variant of the ROG Ally.