AMD launches their 1 series of Zen 4 processors had handheld gaming systems
AMD ushers in a new era of portable gaming with their new Ryzen Z1 processors – RDNA 3 and Zen 4 are a powerful combination
AMD has today revealed their Ryzen Z1 series of low power processors, CPUs that combine the powers of AMD’s Zen 4 CPU architecture and RDNA 3 graphics architecture to create a powerful gaming combination for portable gaming devices.
With up to eight Zen 4 CPU cores and up to 12 AMD RDNA 3 GPU compute units, AMD’s Z1 series processors are more technologically advanced and performant than the older Zen 2/RDNA 2 SOCs that power Valve’s Steam Deck gaming handheld. These architectural advancements have allowed AMD to shake up the gaming handheld market once again, offering more powerful and efficient portable gaming hardware to the masses.
ASUS will be the first partner to offer a product with AMD’s Ryzen Z1 processors. This product is ASUS’ ROG Ally, a product that will be detailed further by ASUS on May 11th, where the company will reveal the ROG Ally’s pricing and availability.Â
AMD’s Ryzen Z1 processors will be Windows 11 compatible and will support USB4 connectivity to enable connectivity to external displays and high speed storage solutions. AMD’s Ryzen Z1 SOCs will also support both LPDDR5 and LPDDR5X memory, the fastest mobile memory standards. With LPDDR5X, AMD’s Ryzen 1 SOCs can feature faster memory and more advanced CPU/GPU architectures and higher GPU CU/CPU Core counts than Valve’s Steam Deck, giving AMD’s Z1 Extreme SOC higher specifications in all areas.Â
| Â | Cores/Threads | Graphics | Cache |
| AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme | 8/16 | 12 AMD RDNA 3 Compute Units | 24MB |
| AMD Ryzen Z1 | 6/12 | 2 AMD RDNA 3 Compute Units | 22MB |
AMD’s Z1 SOCs will be available in two forms, as the 8-core Z1 Extreme and the 6-Core Z1. The Extreme model will feature 12 AMD RDNA 3 CUs, and the standard model will feature only four RDNA 3 CUs, which is a significant downgrade. That said, don’t expect the 1 Extreme to be three times faster in games, as the standard Z1 is likely to run at much higher clock speeds when both chips are operated at the same power limit.
When marketing their new Z1 processors, AMD has been heavily pushing their partnership with Microsoft and Xbox, calling their Z1 processors great ways to utilise Xbox Game Pass to play a huge number of Windows PC games on the go. With Windows compatibility, AMD’s Z1 processors can support all Windows PC games through Windows 10/11, unlike Steam Deck, which relies on SteamOS.
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