AMD has announced the Ryzen Z1 series of high-performance processors for handheld PC gaming consoles. The latest Ryzen Z1 chips use Zen 4 cores and RDNA 3 graphics. This is a familiar combination that AMD uses for its current mobile Ryzen 7040HS series (Phoenix) processors. Also, while the chipmaker has yet to officially announce their lower-power Phoenix chips (such as the Ryzen 7040U series), given the similarity in feature sets between the Ryzen Z1 family and Phoenix silicon, the Ryzen Z1 series seems like a custom spec. is. A Phoenix SKU that prioritizes energy efficiency in handheld gaming devices, with Asus and upcoming ROG Alloy as its primary customers.
The Ryzen Z1 series is being introduced in two SKUs. The top-of-the-line Ryzen Z1 Extreme comes with 8 Zen 4 CPU cores (the largest in Phoenix), while the standard Ryzen Z1 cuts that down to 6 CPU cores. On the graphics side, meanwhile, the Ryzen Z1 Extreme boasts 12 RDNA 3 architecture compute units, which is the highest number found on Phoenix silicon. On the other hand, the vanilla Z1 version ships with only 4 CUs enabled, which is his third of the flagship part.
Both chips benefit from 16MB of L3 cache, but the Ryzen Z1 Extreme gets 2MB more L2 cache due to the extra CPU core. Either way, Ryzen 1 and Ryzen Z1 Extreme feature strong computing performance thanks to their high CPU core counts and the use of AMD’s latest Zen 4 cores. A hexa-core processor is sufficient for handheld gaming, and both his Ryzen Z1 processors are definitely better than AMD’s old custom quad-core Zen 2 SoC (Aerith) that powers Valve’s Steam deck.
| AMD Ryzen Z1 Specifications | ||||||||
| anand tech | core thread |
base frequency |
turbo frequency |
L2 cache |
L3 cache |
GPUs | TDP | |
| Ryzen Z1 Extreme | 8/16 | ? | ? | 8MB | 16MB | 12 RDNA 3 CUs | <=30W | |
| Raizen Z1 | 6/12 | ? | ? | 6MB | 16MB | 4 RDNA 3 CUs | <=30W | |
Hardware unit count aside, AMD has not revealed the clock speeds of the two 4nm processors. Interestingly, the embargo report published by The Verge quotes graphics performance of ‘up to’ 8.6 TFLOPS and 2.6 TFLOPS respectively, based on AMD’s engineering projections. However, those numbers were removed from the deck that AMD subsequently sent to other news outlets. If these numbers turn out to be fairly close to what the final shipping silicon can achieve, that means the GPU will have peak clock speeds of around 2.8 GHz and 2.6 GHz respectively. Works with the Ryzen 7040HS chip.
Ryzen Z1 series chips will support a maximum TDP of 30 Watts. This is the same maximum power target as AMD’s mobile Ryzen U-series chips. Conversely, AMD has not disclosed a minimum TDP. As with most mobile devices, this is up to the customer (in this case his Asus). For comparison, Aerith has a TDP between 4W and 15W. That said, the Z1 series certainly offers a fairly large power range in which customers can operate. At the highest TDP such a configuration will quickly blow the battery of a handheld device, but for a docking device it is very feasible. As for handheld mode, it’s much more likely that the Z1 chip will be clocked very low to save power before.
It’s an AMD product designed for PC-like devices, so you’ll have access to all AMD graphics technologies, including Radeon Chill. Radeon Chill extends battery life by adjusting the frame rate based on your movement in the game. This also means that FSR is considered game by game, while RSR is considered as a less optimal universal solution.
AMD has provided some benchmarks for the Ryzen Z1 series utilizing the Asus ROG Ally. As always, throw a little salt on the vendor-supplied benchmarks. The device we used here also had 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory and a Micron 500 MB SSD. It’s important to highlight that AMD put Asus ROG Alloy into turbo mode for benchmarking. This meant that the Ryzen Z1 series processors were running at power levels up to 30 watts.
AMD’s results show that the Ryzen Z1 Extreme will deliver average frame rates above 60 FPS in most titles. However, the chipmaker tested at the lowest setting of 1080p (upscaled to 720p on RSR). The Ryzen Z1’s performance wasn’t bad, but the difference between the two chips was obvious. The difference is from 6% to 73%. Zen 4-based processors scored a significant performance hit at native 1080p resolution on lowest settings. As expected, Ryzen Z1 struggled in multiple titles, failing to hit the 60 FPS mark.
Asus has the first dibs for the Ryzen Z1 series. However, we should see competitors with 4nm Ryzen Z1 chips in the future. Asus’ ROG Ally will be the first handheld gaming console to feature AMD’s Ryzen Z1 Extreme processor, and we’re planning to reveal more information about the handheld (including pricing) on May 11th.
