Everything you need to know about the AMD’s latest APU — Ryzen Z1 meant for handheld gaming consoles like the Asus ROG Ally.
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AMD is a prominent name in designing gaming console chips, in fact, the PS5 and the Xbox Series X are also powered by AMD APUs. The company has unveiled a new APU for handheld gaming consoles — Ryzen Z1, and the Asus ROG Ally is the first device to ship with it.
Like most gaming-class chips that AMD makes, the Ryzen Z1 is an APU, a single chip that contains both a CPU and GPU to deliver better power efficiency. The Ryzen Z1 comes in two SKUs: the AMD Ryzen Z1 with a 6-core CPU and 4 RDNA 3 graphics compute units, and the Ryzen Z1 Extreme, which gets a total of 8 CPU cores and 12 RDNA 3-based graphics compute units. Similarly, the Ryzen Z1 has 22 MB of cache, while the Z1 Extreme has 24 MB of cache, suggesting that the Ryzen Z1 Extreme will offer better single-thread and multi-thread performance.
These processors are compatible with LPDDR5 and LPDDR5X memory. The Ryzen Z1 has a variable TDP of 15-30W, and it also supports features like AMD Radeon Anti-Lag, AMD Radeon Super Resolution, and AMD FreeSync Technology. A device with the Ryzen Z1 could last longer (battery life), while one with the Z1 Extreme chip will be focused more on performance.
AMD has also confirmed that the Asus ROG Ally will be the first handheld gaming console to ship with the Ryzen Z1 chip. This also suggests that the ROG Ally could come in two variants: a base model with the Ryzen Z1 chip, and a high-end variant that is likely to feature the more powerful Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip.
The chip is built on x86 architecture and is said to be fully compatible with Windows 11 OS. When we compare this with the custom AMD APU that the Steam Deck uses (4 CPU cores, 8 compute units), the Ryzen Z1 and the Ryzen Z1 Extreme definitely have an edge. However, there are also other parameters such as clock speed, cooling system, and memory, which will also impact the overall performance of the device.
Source:indianexpress.com