New AMD Ryzen CPU leak hints at energy of future Steam Deck 2 rivals

A brand new leak concerning the AMD Ryzen Z2 Excessive suggests the upcoming gaming handheld chip will function eight cores, which might be the identical quantity discovered within the Z1 Excessive that powers a number of present gaming handhelds. That may imply no further cores for brand new handhelds, however would nonetheless imply double the variety of cores of the Steam Deck.

The present AMD Ryzen Z1 Excessive powers the likes of the Asus ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go, incomes them spots on our greatest handheld gaming PC information thanks partially to the sheer energy of AMD‘s chip. The Z2 Excessive is anticipated to energy the following technology of those gadgets, so some customers may need been anticipating an improve on its CPU core rely.

Nevertheless, a brand new leak suggests the chip, which is rumored to be primarily based on AMD’s upcoming highly effective gaming laptop computer Strix Level structure, will hold its CPU core rely at eight cores. The leak comes by way of common X-based tech leaker from common X-based tech leaker @Olrak29_ who cites the delivery manifest web site NBD because the supply for the under delivery data. On this screenshot, we will see the point out of a “NOTEBOOK Z2X28W” gadget with a “MICROPROCESSOR (8 CORE).”

We don’t definitively know if this would be the highest-spec model of the Z2 chip, or even when the data is right in any respect, however the “X” within the itemizing suggests it’s the Excessive model fairly than the anticipated lower-powered non-Excessive model of the chip (following on from the AMD Ryzen Z1, which is much less highly effective than the Excessive model).

Whereas this will likely seem to be disappointing information, although, there’s really little or no cause to be in any respect involved about future gaming handhelds not having extra CPU energy than they already possess with the Z1 Excessive. Fairly merely, the variety of CPU cores isn’t a limitation for gaming efficiency on these gadgets, with it as an alternative being the GPU energy that primarily holds again efficiency, and CPU clock pace to a lesser extent.

We will see proof of this within the capabilities of the Steam Deck regardless of its AMD chip solely utilizing a quad-core CPU. Loads of video games do run with fairly low body charges on that gadget, however in practically all cases it’s the  AMD RDNA 2 GPU with eight compute items that holding it again. Compared, the Z1 Excessive already has an RDNA 3 GPU with 12 compute items, which is why the likes of the ROG Ally can run at greater resolutions than the Steam Deck whereas sustaining respectable efficiency.

We’re additionally hoping the Z2 Excessive could have an uprated GPU. AMD’s lately introduced Ryzen AI 300 Strix Level chips function a Radeon 890M GPU with as much as 16 compute items, and a handheld chip with the identical degree of GPU energy could be nice.

For extra on what else we find out about AMD’s subsequent technology of gaming handheld CPUs, try our AMD Ryzen Z2 Excessive information, which summarises each the official and leaked data accessible to date.