AMD is helping usher in the second generation of portable PC gaming devices in 2025 with the announcement of the AMD Ryzen Z2 series of processors, designed to deliver more performance and better efficiency for portable PC gaming devices like the Steam Deck , Asus ROG Ally and Lenovo. Legion let’s go.
With three different tiers, AMD Ryzen Z2 processors will include Ryzen Z2 Extreme, AMD Ryzen Z2, and AMD Ryzen Z2 Go. The Ryzen Z2 Extreme will feature eight cores and 16 threads, a 5.0 GHz boost clock, 24 MB cache, 16 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores, and 15W-35W power output.
The Ryzen Z2 will also feature eight cores and 16 threads, but with a slightly higher boost clock of 5.1 GHz, the same 24 MB cache, but 12 RDNA 3.5 GPU cores instead of 16, and a power envelope slightly smaller 15W-30W.
The new Ryzen Z2 Go (which had no equivalent with the Ryzen Z1 series) will have four cores and eight threads, a boost clock of 4.3 GHz and 10 MB cache, but the same 12 GPU cores and a power of 15 W-30 W than the Ryzen. Z2.
As the chips won’t be sold on their own, there is no definitive release date as it will depend on the release dates of the individual handhelds, but handhelds with the new chips should be available starting in the first quarter. of 2025.
| Header cell: column 0 | AMD Ryzen Z2 Go | AMD RyzenZ2 | AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cores | 4 | 8 | 8 |
| Rags | 8 | 16 | 16 |
| Base frequency (GHz) | 3.0 | 3.3 | 2.0 |
| Boost Frequency (Ghz) | 4.3 | 5.1 | 5.0 |
| Total cache (MB) | 10 | 24 | 24 |
| Graphics | RDNA 2 | RDNA 3 | RDNA 3.5 |
| TDP (W) | 15-30 | 15-30 | 15-35 |
Adding fuel to an already red-hot portable PC gaming market
Following the launch of the Steam Deck in 2022, the PC gaming handheld market has exploded over the past two years, with almost all major gaming PC manufacturers producing their own gaming handheld devices.
With few exceptions, all of these have run on AMD Ryzen Z1 series processors, so it’s only natural that about two years after the launch of Asus ROG Ally, the second gaming handheld after the Steam Deck, the SoCs AMD Ryzen Z series Get an upgrade with new architecture and design.
And while the Ryzen Z1 has essentially had the entire market to itself, Intel’s strong showing with the MSI Claw 8 AI+, the first wearable device to feature an Intel Lunar Lake SoC, has definitely injected a lot more competition into this space.
We haven’t been able to test the new chips yet, so we can’t say yet whether the new chips are worth upgrading to, but given the popularity of these handhelds, it’s good to see AMD not only committing to more Z-development. series, but even expanding it to a lower specified ‘budget’ level which will hopefully help bring the cost of future PC gaming laptops down to a more affordable place.
