Leaker offers new insights into state of AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme APU

Earlier today, we reported on the possibility of AMD's next gaming handheld-focused APUs missing out on its most powerful iGPU. For context, the iGPU in question is the Radeon 890M, a 16 Compute Unit (CU) and RDNA 3.5 part that is available in the Ryzen AI 9 HX PRO 370, Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 and Ryzen AI 9 HX 375.

By contrast, AMD equips the Radeon 880M with 12 CUs, which contributes to a 25% performance deficit compared to the Radeon 880M in our benchmarks. With that being said, both iGPUs are often memory-bound. As a result, The Phawx has demonstrated that memory bandwidth restrictions mean that the Radeon 880M and Radeon 890M often perform about as well as each other in triple-A games.

Nonetheless, leaker Golden Pig Upgrade Pack now believes that AMD plans to equip the Ryzen Z2 Extreme with a 16 CU and RDNA 3.5 architecture iGPU. Additionally, this APU is expected to feature three Zen 5 and five Zen 5c CPU cores, which would be a combination that AMD has yet to deploy in its Strix Point family.

Incidentally, AMD already employs this strategy in the Ryzen Z1 with two Zen 4 and four Zen 4c cores, which is available inside the ROG Ally (curr. $399.99 on Amazon). However, the Ryzen Z2 Extreme would be the first 'Extreme' APU with this hybrid CPU architecture. Apparently, AMD still plans to launch the lesser Ryzen Z2 and Ryzen Z2G too; the Ryzen Z2 Extreme X is no longer thought to be coming to market, though. Please see our previous article for more details about the Ryzen Z2 and Ryzen Z2G.