New information on AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme, so an 8-core configuration is coming

The Ryzen Z1 Extreme has been on the market for some time and has already been installed in a number of handhelds. Although this was not too long ago, AMD is already working on a successor to serve the handheld market even better and further increase performance. So far, however, there has been little official information from AMD. Now the user Olrak29_ has allegedly revealed new details on Platform X (formerly Twitter).

According to Olrak29_, he has discovered a list that should provide more information about the Ryzen Z2 Extreme. According to this, the processor is said to be a hybrid model that uses a combination of 3 Zen5 and 5 Zen5c cores. The APU will be equipped with a 64-bit memory interface and 16 compute units based on the RDNA 3.5 architecture. This indicates that the APU is based on the Kraken or Strix Point architecture. In addition, a TDP of 28W is used and a total cache of 24 MB is specified.

Interestingly, the chip only appears to use 8 cores, which could indicate that it is not utilizing the full power of the Strix Point architecture, which uses a 12-core configuration. However, this makes sense as performance in handheld devices is often limited by the integrated GPU. Focusing on the iGPU, for example, to improve this could therefore improve the efficiency of the chip in gaming handhelds.

AMD confirmed in an earlier interview that the Ryzen Z2 Extreme will be launched in early 2025. However, this means that an exact release date or price range has not yet been mentioned.

It remains to be seen which companies will use this APU in their handhelds, as no official announcements have yet been made. However, it is likely that companies such as ASUS or Lenovo, which already use the Ryzen Z1 Extreme in their handhelds, will also use it in their successors. Valve could also consider this APU for the next Steam Deck and benefit from it. It remains to be seen how the whole thing will develop.

Source: Olrak20_ via X