Published in Gaming

AMD announces new Ryzen Z2 series SoCs for gaming handhelds

by on07 January 2025


And no, it is not coming to Steam Deck 2

On the heels of the CES 2025 show, AMD has announced the new Ryzen Z2 series SoCs for gaming handhelds, including the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, Ryzen Z2, and the Ryzen Z2 Go. All are based on 4nm Strix Point and should bring significant improvements over the current Ryzen Z1 series SoC, especially on the GPU front, despite sticking to the RDNA 3.5 architecture.

The Strix Point features two CCXs, one with four Zen 5 cores with 16MB of L3 cache, and one with eight Zen 5C cores with 8MB of L3 cache. The GPU part of the SoC is based on RDNA 3.5 architecture and packs 16 CUs. The top SKU, the Ryzen Z2 Exreme is an 8-core/16-thread SKU, which probably means that AMD left four Zen 5 and four Zen 5C cores enabled, as well as the fully enabled GPU with 16 CUs. The TDP is set from 15W to 35W.

The next in line is the Ryzen Z2, with the same CPU configuration but with a GPU that is cut down to 12 CUs. It also has a slightly higher CPU boost clock. AMD is also introducing the entry-level Ryzen Z2 Go SKU, a 4-core/8-thread SKU, which is based on the older Phoenix 2 design with Zen 4 and Zen 4c cores.

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AMD claims it will be available in Q1 2025 and while some might have suggested, it is highly unlikely this will end up in any Steam Deck device, especially the Steam Deck 2, which is still too early according to Valve. These new Ryzen Z2 SKUs will end up in different products and hopefully, some will be announced soon.

 

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