AMD's next-gen Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU with Zen 5 & RDNA 3.5 cores will power new gaming handhelds, increasing their performance & battery life.
AMD's Next-Gen Ryzen Z2 Extreme APUs Will Rock Zen 5 & RDNA 3.5 Cores, Powering Future ASUS, Lenovo & Various Other Gaming Handhelds
The need for a more powerful APU remains as the handhelds are currently at entry-level desktop performance at their best. Thankfully, this would no longer be the same in the next year as AMD has special plans for the gaming handhelds.
At IFA 2024, several hardware manufacturers announced their new products, including Acer, which revealed its new Nitro 7 handheld. However, as we know, it will be powered by the AMD Ryzen 7 8840HS, which is based on the Zen 4 & RDNA 3 architecture.
As reported by Digitaltrends, AMD is going to level up the performance of these handhelds by releasing the Ryzen Z2 Extreme in the early part of 2025, as revealed in a joint Q&A session. Not only performance but battery life is currently AMD's one of the biggest priorities since Jack Huynh, Senior VP and General Manager of AMD Computing and Graphics department showed his interest in being able to play Black Myth: Wukong for three hours on the handheld.
The current state of most handhelds won't let users play such a graphically-intensive title for such a long time. With the release of AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme, it's expected that the newer handhelds will be both powerful and power-efficient as the Z2 Extreme will feature a hybrid Zen 5 & Zen 5c cores combination.
Early information suggests that the Z2 Extreme will feature 8 cores in a 3 Zen 5 and 5 Zen 5C configuration. There will also be a standard Z2 APU but that is most likely going to be a rebrand of the Ryzen 8040U "Hawk Point" APUs.
ASUS ROG Ally/X and Lenovo Legion Go utilize the Z1 Extreme chip, which will likely upgraded with the Z2 Extreme APU in 2025 if ASUS and Lenovo plan to launch newer handheld models. That said, Zotac, Antec, and other manufacturers who use some kind of AMD's Zen 4-based APUs may also introduce newer editions with Z2 Extreme. It's going to be exciting to see how the Z2 Extreme will go against Intel's Lunar Lake-based handhelds such as the MSI CLAW 8, which is planned for the 2025 release.
Nonetheless, the future of gaming handhelds looks bright. From several manufacturers entering the handheld market to AMD and Intel rushing to bring newer, more powerful, and more power-efficient chips, the handhelds we are going to see in 2025 will be able to play modern titles with higher frame rates. We don't expect them to compete with the desktop mid-range and high-end computers yet but they are certainly looking much more appealing than what they are right now.
Next-Gen SoCs For Gaming Handhelds:
| CPU Name | Intel Lunar Lake | AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme | AMD Ryzen Z2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Process Node | TSMC N3B | TSMC N4? | TSMC N4 |
| Max Cores/Threads | 8/8 | 8/16 | 8/16 |
| Max Clocks | 5.1 GHz | TBD | 5.1 GHz? |
| Max Cache | 12 MB | 16 MB | 16 MB |
| TDP Range | 8-30W | 9-30W? | 9-30W? |
| GPU Architecture | Xe2 | RDNA 3.5 | RDNA 3 |
| Max GPU Cores | 8 Xe-Cores | 12 CUs | 12 CUs |
| Peak TFLOPs | TBD | TBD | TBD |
| Launch | Q1 2025 (handhelds) | Q1 2025 | Q1 2025 |
News Source: Digitaltrends
