AMD is reportedly cooking up a brand new gaming handheld CPU that has over twice the ability of the present Steam Deck chip. In keeping with the most recent leak, the brand new AMD Ryzen Z2 Excessive options eight cores based mostly on the most recent Zen 5 CPU structure, and it additionally has an unexpectedly highly effective Radeon GPU in it. This wouldn’t simply be nice for the Steam Deck 2, but additionally different handhelds, similar to the following Asus ROG Ally.
The existence of the AMD Ryzen Z2 Excessive has been identified for some time now, however AMD hasn’t launched any particulars concerning the specs but. If this newest rumor is true, although, then this chip may be very doubtless for use in one of the best handheld gaming PC units of the longer term, even perhaps the Steam Deck 2.
This newest rumor comes from common tech leaker Golden Pig Improve on the Bilibili boards in China, and apparently provides us the core configuration for the brand new CPU, in addition to the spec of the built-in GPU. As at all times with rumors, nevertheless, keep in mind that none of this has been formally confirmed by AMD, so take it with a grain of salt for the second.
The leaker initially said that AMD’s new top-end handheld gaming CPU was known as the Z2 Excessive X, and that it had been canceled. Nevertheless, a fast follow-up publish steered that the “X” on the finish of this explicit CPU’s identify was faulty and that the top-end chip can be known as the Z2 Excessive, with out the X, coming with “3+5” CPU cores and a “16CU RDNA3.5” GPU.
Let’s begin with the GPU, as that is the half that may actually affect gaming efficiency. If this rumor is true, it indicators that this new chip could have 16 RDNA 3.5 compute items (CUs), giving it 1,024 stream processors. That’s not solely twice the quantity within the Steam Deck’s Van Gogh GPU, nevertheless it’s additionally based mostly on AMD’s newest RDNA 3.5 GPU structure, which gives superior efficiency to the RDNA 2 structure within the Steam Deck GPU.
In the meantime, the CPU seems prefer it’s going to have a complete of eight cores. That’s already a headstart on the 4 cores contained in the Steam Deck CPU. The three+5 wording very doubtless indicators that this chip could have an analogous construction to AMD’s Strix Level cellular chips, which include a mixture of full-fat Zen 5 cores, in addition to compact Zen 5c (compact) cores. If this rumor is true, then the AMD Ryzen Z2 Excessive has three Zen 5 cores and 5 Zen 5c cores.
This construction is kind of completely different from Intel’s P-Cores and E-Cores, the place the latter are based mostly on a distinct structure from the previous and have a considerably cut-down spec. With Zen 5c, AMD’s essential goal is decreasing the bodily measurement of the cores, slightly than decreasing their efficiency and energy draw. AMD says its Zen 5c cores are 25% smaller than Zen 5 cores, however they nonetheless have the identical function set and core structure because the full-fat cores, simply with a denser die and fewer cache.
If this rumor is true, not solely is that this new chip considerably extra highly effective than the one within the Steam Deck, nevertheless it’s additionally a superb step up from the Ryzen Z1 Excessive used within the Asus ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go, which has eight last-gen Zen 4 cores and 12 RDNA 3 compute items in its GPU, giving it 768 stream processors.
Within the meantime, there’s nonetheless loads of enjoyable available with at this time’s handheld units, and you may try our information to one of the best Steam Deck video games to see our prime picks, all of which have been tried and examined on the Steam Deck to verify they run easily.