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The first gaming benchmarks for AMD's Ryzen Z2 Extreme show memory bandwidth is hobbling the full potential the new handheld chip

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At low power and low resolution, though, the Z2 is a nice improvement over the Z1.

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At the start of 2025, during the annual CES event, AMD launched the successors to its popular Ryzen Z1 and Z1 Extreme APUs. These all-in-one CPU+GPU chips have been powering the very best handheld gaming PCs since they first appeared, so we've been keen to see just how much better the new Z2 models are. Thanks to one tech YouTube channel, we now know the answer: it's good, it's a bit disappointing, and it's entirely as expected.

Before we jump into the benchmark results, here's how the two APUs, as configured in those handheld devices, compare:

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APU

Ryzen Z1 Extreme

Ryzen Z2 Extreme

CPU cores

8 (Zen 4)

3 (Zen 5) + 5 (Zen 5c)

CPU threads

16

16

CPU base/boost clocks

3.3 / 5.1 GHz

2.0 / 5.0 + 3.3 GHz

GPU compute units

12 RDNA 3

16 RDNA 3.5

GPU boost clock

2.9 GHz

2.9 GHz

RAM

24 GB LPDDR5x-7500

24 GB LPDDR5x-8000

For gaming, the most important difference is the GPU part of the chip, as the Z2 Extreme sports 33% more compute units than the Z1 Extreme. RDNA 3.5 isn't a huge upgrade over RDNA 3, but together with the greater number of shaders, you'd expect there to be a noticeable bump in frame rates.

However, in the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark, the Z2 Extreme only averages 5 frames per second more than the Z1 Extreme (47 vs 42 fps)—a gain of just 12%. That's using the game's Steam Deck quality preset, FSR Balanced upscaling, a display resolution of 1080p, and with both handhelds capped to a 25 W power limit.

A generalised product image for the AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme processor, against a red background. OneXPlayer OneXFly F1 Pro handheld gaming PC

(Image credit: Future)

It's not just a problem that's exclusive to the Z2 Extreme, as we found testing the OneXFly F1 Pro handheld (above). The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 inside that device also sports 16 compute units, and the difference in performance between its 30 W and 15 W modes is so small that you'd never really want to use the high power limit.

This is also why AMD had to equip its Strix Halo APUs with a 256-bit wide memory bus. It uses the same type of RAM, with the same clocks, as the Z2 Extreme, but with twice as many data lanes, it boasts double the memory bandwidth. However, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 also has 40 compute units to keep fed with data, so you can probably imagine how that's going to pan out.

If you've been considering buying a new Z2 Extreme handheld gaming PC, you might want to watch ETA Prime's video first to see just what the better APU is really like. There's probably more work that AMD can do with drivers to better juggle power, clocks, and data transfers, but the memory bandwidth is always going to have the final say on just what can be achieved.

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