AMD Ryzen Z2 Exteme for handhelds coming in 2025: Zen 5 + RDNA 3.5 for new gaming handhelds

AMD is reportedly cooking up a next-generation Ryzen Z2 Extreme SoC, something revealed during a recent join Q&A session at IFA 2024 between AMD and Microsoft.

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At the event, Digital Trends was in attendance when AMD explained that AMD is aiming for an "early 2025" release for its new Z2 Extreme chip. This is incredibly exciting news as AMD has powered most of the best gaming handhelds on the market with its Ryzen Z1 and Z1 Extreme processors, inside of the likes of the ASUS ROG Ally.

We should expect some major upgrades from the successors to most gaming handhelds in 2025, powered by AMD's upcoming Ryzen Z1 Extreme. AMD's Jack Huynh talked about wanting to play Black Myth: Wukong for 3 hours on a handheld, not just the 45 minutes we get from current-gen handhelds.

So, we should expect not just more performance out of new gaming handhelds, but some wicked improvements in battery life which is what we want to hear about next-gen gaming handhelds.

• Ryzen Z2 Extreme: 12 cores, 24 threads (4 x Zen 5 + 8 x Zen 5c) + 16 CU RDNA 3.5 GPU (?)
• Ryzen Z1 Extreme: 8 cores, 16 threads (Zen 4) + 12 CU RDNA 3 GPU
• Ryzen Z1: 2 cores + 4 threads (2 x Zen 4 + 4 x Zen 4c) + 4 CU RDNA 3 GPU

AMD has just launched its new Zen 5 architecture into two families of CPUs so far: Ryzen AI 300 series "Strix Point" APUs for mobile, and the Ryzen 9000 series "Granite Ridge" CPUs for the desktop. We should expect AMD's new Ryzen Z2 Extreme to feature up to 8 cores and 16 threads of Zen 5 CPU power, and the heavily-beefed-up RDNA 3.5-based GPU, just like Strix Point does.

Intel is getting into the mobile fight with its new Core Ultra 200V series "Lunar Lake" processors, which are making it into gaming handhelds, so AMD will need to fight back with some Zen 5 + RDNA 3.5-powered Ryzen Z2 Extreme goodness in early 2025, and we can't wait.