The primary gaming benchmarks for AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Excessive present reminiscence bandwidth is hobbling the total potential the brand new handheld chip

In the beginning of 2025, through the annual CES occasion, AMD launched the successors to its common Ryzen Z1 and Z1 Excessive APUs. These all-in-one CPU+GPU chips have been powering the easiest handheld gaming PCs since they first appeared, so we have been eager to see simply how significantly better the brand new Z2 fashions are. Thanks to 1 tech YouTube channel, we now know the reply: it is good, it’s kind of disappointing, and it is completely as anticipated.

When chatting about handheld gaming PCs with family and friends, I am typically requested by the extra tech-savvy amongst them about why AMD does not add a much bigger GPU to its APU chips. Because the saying goes, footage communicate a thousand phrases, so movies should communicate all of them. Tech YouTube channel ETA Prime has pitched a Ryzen Z2 Excessive-powered MSI Claw A8 in opposition to an Asus ROG Ally X, which makes use of the earlier era Ryzen Z1 Excessive.

Earlier than we soar into the benchmark outcomes, here is how the 2 APUs, as configured in these handheld units, examine:

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For gaming, an important distinction is the GPU a part of the chip, because the Z2 Excessive sports activities 33% extra compute items than the Z1 Excessive. RDNA 3.5 is not an enormous improve over RDNA 3, however along with the better variety of shaders, you’d count on there to be a noticeable bump in body charges.

Nonetheless, within the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark, the Z2 Excessive solely averages 5 frames per second greater than the Z1 Excessive (47 vs 42 fps)—a achieve of simply 12%. That is utilizing the sport’s Steam Deck high quality preset, FSR Balanced upscaling, a show decision of 1080p, and with each handhelds capped to a 25 W energy restrict.

Dropping the facility all the way down to 17 W, however holding the decision at 1080p, sees efficiency outcomes of 39 and 32 fps, respectively, with the Z2 Excessive now operating 22% higher than the Z1 Excessive.

ETA Prime’s closing CP2077 take a look at has them operating the benchmark at 1600 x 900 (a 31% discount within the variety of pixels to course of) and whereas that simply will increase the Z1 Excessive’s outcomes to 35 fps, the brand new Z2 Excessive powers all the way in which as much as 46 fps—virtually the identical as when utilizing 25 W at 1080p.

It is the identical story with Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Forza Horizon 5, Black Delusion: Wukong, and Horizon Zero Daybreak Remastered. The Z2 and Z1 Excessive run virtually precisely the identical when the facility restrict and backbone are fairly excessive; the second each of those are lowered, although, the higher APU will get to indicate its strengths.

What this all reveals is that throwing extra shader cores at an APU’s graphics part is not the proper answer for having faster-running video games, even when given loads of energy to maintain excessive enhance clocks. The issue is that the CPU and GPU are sharing the identical pool of reminiscence, and there is solely a lot bandwidth to go round.

Particularly, the MSI Claw A8 has simply 7% extra bandwidth than the ROG Ally X, and it is clearly not sufficient to maintain up with the 16 RDNA 3.5 compute items when operating at full capability. Dropping the decision and energy leads to the shader cores placing the reminiscence system underneath much less of a load, and conversely, that enables them to carry out higher.

It is not only a drawback that is unique to the Z2 Excessive, as we discovered testing the OneXFly F1 Professional handheld (above). The Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 inside that system additionally sports activities 16 compute items, and the distinction in efficiency between its 30 W and 15 W modes is so small that you simply’d by no means actually wish to use the excessive energy restrict.

That is additionally why AMD needed to equip its Strix Halo APUs with a 256-bit vast reminiscence bus. It makes use of the identical sort of RAM, with the identical clocks, because the Z2 Excessive, however with twice as many knowledge lanes, it boasts double the reminiscence bandwidth. Nonetheless, the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 additionally has 40 compute items to maintain fed with knowledge, so you possibly can most likely think about how that is going to pan out.

In case you’ve been contemplating shopping for a brand new Z2 Excessive handheld gaming PC, you may wish to watch ETA Prime’s video first to see simply what the higher APU is absolutely like. There’s most likely extra work that AMD can do with drivers to raised juggle energy, clocks, and knowledge transfers, however the reminiscence bandwidth is at all times going to have the ultimate say on simply what may be achieved.

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