A new AMD processor has cropped up on a shipping manifest, and many suspect it’s a Ryzen Z2 Extreme. The devil’s in the details, which suggest it’ll feature an identical core layout to the original Z1 Extreme that currently powers the Asus ROG Ally gaming handheld.
According to an Indian shipping manifest from last month, there was a delivery concerning the Z2X28W notebook microprocessors. These are seemingly Z2 Extreme APUs configured with a 28W power target.
Like their predecessor, these are eight-core chips, though we don’t know their complete configuration just yet. One rumour suggests that these will feature a three Zen 5 plus five Zen 5c core design, with 12 GPU compute units based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture. Interestingly, when it comes to the Z2 non-extreme, the core count is said to remain at eight, unlike the basic Z1, which packs only six.
The chip is also described as using the FP8 socket, which is the same one used by the Ryzen Z1, Pro, and AI series. Lastly the manifest notes a 64-bit memory bus, pointing at a Kraken or Strix Point design. As a reminder, the latter comes with up to 12 cores if needed. A Ryzen Z2 Extreme AI Max+ perhaps? But jokes aside, eight cores are sufficient for this type of application, leaving more power and silicon space for a beefier iGPU.
What would be great is a full-fledged AMD Radeon 890M iGPU with 16 compute units like the Strix Point Ryzen AI 9 HX. Add to that 32GB of LPDDR5x and you get a beast of a gaming handheld.
While no brand has announced Z2-powered handhelds, we know that Asus and Lenovo plan to release their ROG Ally 2 and Legion Go 2 machines. It’s just a question of when. To that, the answer is next year at the earliest, so buckle up for next-gen gaming handhelds.
