AMD’s foray into the handheld gaming PC space has been quite fruitious, with multiple handhelds taking center stage – such as the Steam Deck and ROG Ally. However, both the Aerith/Sephiroth and Z1 Extreme APUs powering the respective handhelds are nearly 2+ years old at this point.
Coupled with the recently unveiled MSI Claw 8 AI+ (powered by Intel’s Core Ultra 7 Gen 2 CPU), many have been curious as to whether AMD will finally release a refresh of their mobile lineup.
As per a recent report by Videocardz, AMD is set to announce not one but three versions of the Z2 family – which is quite the welcome surprise. More on these details below.
The Ryzen Z2 series will be available in 3 variants
As per the report, the upcoming Z2 series will have the following versions:
| Z2 Variant | Cores | Compute Units (CU) |
|---|---|---|
| Z2 Extreme | 3x Zen 5 and 5x Zen 5c | 16 RDNA 3.5 |
| Z2 | 8x Zen 4 | 12 RDNA 3 |
| Z2 Go | 4x Zen 3+ | 12 RDNA 2 |
As seen in the table above, the three versions have widely different architectures and core counts, which is quite intriguing. The Z2 Extreme represents the flagship version of the series, offering the most graphical and CPU horsepower.
The Z2 Go on the other hand is the weakest of the lot, possessing only 4 Zen 3+ cores and 12 CUs based on the RDNA 2 architecture. The Z2 Go is expected to remain exclusive to the upcoming Lenovo Legion Go S, which is in turn rumored to be powered by Valve’s own SteamOS.
The standard Z2 sits right in the middle, offering a fair balance between the two options, and easily the most appealing of the lot.
None of the 3 CPUs come bundled with a NPU of the sort though, and as a consequence, XDNA support.
However, the most surprising reveal of this particular post was the fact that the Z2 series was being prepared for multiple OEMs – including Valve, which further fuels the theory of a possible Steam Deck 2 reveal.
