At CES 2025, AMD has lastly unveiled the chipset behind the subsequent technology of handheld gaming PCs, the AMD Zen 2 Extreme.
The AMD Zen 2 Extreme, together with lower-specced cousins the Z2 and Z2 Go, are powered by Zen 5 CPU cores. While the Zen 2 Extreme is utilizing a RDNA 3.5-based GPU, the Z2 and Z2 Go are nonetheless utilizing RDNA 3 and RDNA 2, respectively. This creates a whole household of APUs (Advanced Processing Units) for handheld gaming PCs that ought to hopefully trigger the value of handhelds to go down a bit.
With the Z2 Extreme, AMD is hoping to dramatically enhance battery life, whereas additionally delivering console-like gaming efficiency to gadgets just like the Lenovo Legion Go. By and enormous, the most important limiting issue of those handhelds, particularly on the excessive finish, is how rapidly their batteries drain when enjoying demanding video games away from a wall outlet.
16 RDNA 3.5
Mobile PC gaming is extra than simply handheld gaming PCs, and AMD has additionally launched its new lineup of Zen 5-based processors for gaming laptops, what it is calling “Fire Range” HX3D. These processors, identical to the chips simply introduced by Intel, can be powering one of the best gaming laptops of the subsequent yr or so. Unlike Intel, nevertheless, AMD is bringing the profitable 3D V-cache design behind the Ryzen 7 9800X3D to gaming laptops.
This know-how permits AMD to stack far more cache on its processor by printing it above the precise CPU cores. This each improves gaming efficiency and lowers temperatures, which boosts gaming efficiency even additional. I’ll have to attend to get it into the lab to see precisely how these new processors carry out, but when they’re something like their desktop counterparts, it will be an thrilling time for gaming laptops.
All of those cell chipsets, from “Fire Range” HX3D to the AMD Z2 Extreme, will find yourself in gaming laptops and handhelds over the subsequent few months.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC elements queen. You can observe her @Jackiecobra
