A brand new leak relating to the AMD Ryzen Z2 Excessive suggests the upcoming gaming handheld chip will characteristic eight cores, which might be the identical quantity discovered within the Z1 Excessive that powers a number of present gaming handhelds. That may imply no additional cores for brand spanking new handhelds, however would nonetheless imply double the variety of cores of the Steam Deck.
The present AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive powers the likes of the Asus ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go, incomes them spots on our greatest handheld gaming PC information thanks partly to the sheer energy of AMD‘s chip. The Z2 Excessive is anticipated to energy the following era of those gadgets, so some customers may need been anticipating an improve on its CPU core rely.
Nonetheless, a brand new leak suggests the chip, which is rumored to be based mostly on AMD’s upcoming highly effective gaming laptop computer Strix Level structure, will preserve its CPU core rely at eight cores. The leak comes through common X-based tech leaker from common X-based tech leaker @Olrak29_ who cites the delivery manifest web site NBD because the supply for the under delivery info. On this screenshot, we will see the point out of a “NOTEBOOK Z2X28W” system with a “MICROPROCESSOR (8 CORE).”
We don’t definitively know if this would be the highest-spec model of the Z2 chip, or even when the knowledge is appropriate in any respect, however the “X” within the itemizing suggests it’s the Excessive model somewhat than the anticipated lower-powered non-Excessive model of the chip (following on from the AMD Ryzen Z1, which is much less highly effective than the Excessive model).
Whereas this may occasionally look like disappointing information, although, there’s really little or no purpose to be in any respect involved about future gaming handhelds not having extra CPU energy than they already possess with the Z1 Excessive. Fairly merely, the variety of CPU cores isn’t a limitation for gaming efficiency on these gadgets, with it as a substitute being the GPU energy that primarily holds again efficiency, and CPU clock pace to a lesser extent.
We are able to see proof of this within the capabilities of the Steam Deck regardless of its AMD chip solely utilizing a quad-core CPU. Loads of video games do run with fairly low body charges on that system, however in almost all cases it’s the AMD RDNA 2 GPU with eight compute items that holding it again. Compared, the Z1 Excessive already has an RDNA 3 GPU with 12 compute items, which is why the likes of the ROG Ally can run at larger resolutions than the Steam Deck whereas sustaining first rate efficiency.
We’re additionally hoping the Z2 Excessive may have an uprated GPU. AMD’s not too long ago introduced Ryzen AI 300 Strix Level chips characteristic a Radeon 890M GPU with as much as 16 compute items, and a handheld chip with the identical degree of GPU energy can be nice.
For extra on what else we learn about AMD’s subsequent era of gaming handheld CPUs, try our AMD Ryzen Z2 Excessive information, which summarises each the official and leaked info obtainable to this point.
