What just happened? AMD has expanded its Ryzen Z2 family of processors for gaming handhelds by announcing two new APUs: the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme and Ryzen Z2 A. These chips power the newly launched Xbox-branded gaming handhelds – the ROG Xbox Ally and ROG Xbox Ally X.
Designed for flagship devices, the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme is the more premium of the two. According to AMD's official spec sheet, it is virtually identical to the Strix Point-based Ryzen Z2 Extreme, which powers handhelds like the MSI Claw A8, but with the addition of an NPU offering 50 TOPS of AI compute power.
Other specs include an 8-core, 16-thread CPU, comprising five Zen 5 cores and three Zen 5C cores. The chip also features 16 RDNA 3.5 graphics compute units, 24MB of cache, and support for LPDDR5X-8000 memory.
AMD has not published the clock speeds, but the existing Z2 Extreme features a 2GHz base clock for all cores, a boost clock up to 3.3GHz for the Zen 5C cores, and up to 5GHz boost clock for the Zen 5 cores. The new chip retains the same 15W to 35W TDP range as the non-AI Z2 Extreme.
Explaining the rationale behind adding an NPU to a processor designed for gaming handhelds, AMD told PC Gamer that it would bring "low-power, on-device AI capabilities" to handheld gaming for the first time – enabling upscaling, adaptive gameplay, and smarter NPCs.
Beyond enabling new features, the NPU is also expected to improve performance and battery life by offloading AI processing, allowing the CPU and GPU to focus on core game tasks. AMD added that the neural processor will support AI-enabled gaming with "real-time personalization and smarter, more interactive gameplay."
In addition to the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, AMD also announced the Ryzen Z2 A, designed for entry-level gaming handhelds. It features a 4-core, 8-thread CPU based on the older Zen 2 architecture, eight RDNA 2 graphics cores, 6MB of cache, and support for LPDDR5-6400 memory. It has a configurable TDP ranging from 6W to 20W.
The new chips power the latest "Xbox" gaming handhelds announced this week by Microsoft and Asus. While the top-end ROG Xbox Ally X uses the Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, the more affordable ROG Xbox Ally is equipped with the Ryzen Z2 A. Both devices are expected to launch in time for the holiday shopping season.