AMD is apparently expanding the Ryzen Z2 with new members, namely AI Z2 Extreme and Z2 A. Curiously, recent rumours claim that Team Red plans to reuse a well-established if relatively old design for the latter SKU, namely the same at the heart of Steam Deck.
This claim comes from X user AnhPhuH, who stated simply in a post “Z2 A = Van Gogh”. As a reminder, ‘Van Gogh’ is the codename for Steam Deck’s APU. It’s unclear whether AMD would make changes to the existing design, which pacs four Zen 2 cores alongside eight RDNA 2 compute units (CUs), putting it at the bottom of the brand’s handheld stack. Even the original Z1 non-Extreme is technically faster thanks to its six Zen 4 cores.
On the one hand, the Z2 A chip should offer nice performance under the low power targets required on slim gaming handhelds, but on the other, said performance will rely on OS optimisations which may not be present on Windows-based solutions. The good news is that SteamOS is slowly moving towards wider adoption, which should help machines powered by the Z2 A to offer a Steam Deck-like experience.
But that’s not all, AMD is also rumoured to be planning an AI-infused Z2 variant called the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme. As its name suggests, this one will be identical to the already launched Z2 Extreme, i.e. packing eight Zen 5/5c cores plus 16 RDNA 3.2 CUs, but this time in addition to an XNDA 2 NPU. Thus, you can expect extra features such as Copilot support or AI-powered performance tuning. The latter would be great for handhelds, assuming it works correctly.
This makes the Z2 series one of AMD’s most comprehensive lineups in terms of design variety. Through its five models, the Z2 series offers chips powered by Zen 2, Zen 3+, Zen 4, Zen 5, and Zen 5c CPU architectures, in addition to RDNA 2, RDNA 3, and RDNA 3.5 graphics solutions. That said, while this helps partners select the most adequate chips for their devices, it becomes somewhat confusing for users who won’t be able to guess the performance tier simply by looking at the APU name.
Currently, we have no release date estimates for either chips; only a rumour claiming that a version of MSI’s Claw handheld may feature a Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme at some point. Though old, the Z2 A is the most interesting one, as it should offer a cheap option to power affordable handhelds.
