AMD expands handheld gaming chip portfolio with two new additions

AMD has announced two new chips for handheld consoles. As foretold by an earlier leak, they're the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme and Ryzen Z2A. The former is essentially a Ryzen Z2 Extreme with an NPU stacked on top, while the latter serves as an entry-level offering with somewhat dated specs.

The Ryzen Z2 AI Extreme comes with eight AMD Zen 5 cores, a 16-core RDNA 3.5 GPU, a TDP range of 15-35 Watts, support for LPDDR5X-8000 RAM and a 50 TOPS NPU. The NPU likely exists to work in tandem with the Gaming Copilot feature found on Xbox-branded handhelds like the ROG Xbox Ally X.

Next up, the Ryzen Z2A comes with four AMD Zen 2 cores, an 8-core RDNA 2 GPU, LPDDR5-6400 RAM and a TDP range of 6-20 Watts. A previous leak speculated this was a part of AMD's Van Gogh family of APUs, one of which (Aerith) powers the Steam Deck. Performance-wise, it might not even trade blows with the base Ryzen Z1, but its low TDP might allow for longer battery life.

For now, the only handheld that uses the Ryzen Z2A is Asus' newly announced ROG Xbox Ally, but it is only a matter of time before it finds its way to other low-cost consoles. In conclusion, OEMs now have the pick of five AMD chips for their handhelds, effectively making Intel's Lunar Lake look even less attractive in comparison.