AMD Ryzen Z2 Line Leaked: Z2 Extreme Rumored to Have 12 RDNA 3.5 CUs, Z2 and Z2G Using Older Architectures Also in the Works

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Details of AMD’s next-gen Ryzen Z2 series of notebook APUs have apparently been leaked. Shared by reliable hardware leaker and Golden Pig Upgrade Pack enthusiast at Bilibili, the Ryzen Z2 line will be segmented into three different products: Ryzen Z2 Extreme, Ryzen Z2 and Ryzen Z2G. Also, if the leak is correct, AMD will significantly beef up the iGPU in these APUs, each with 12 compute units (CUs), even though the GPU and CPU architectures vary.

The leaker also claims that AMD was allegedly planning a Ryzen Z2 Extreme X equipped with 16 CUs, but that design has been shelved. There’s a reasonable chance that power limitations will prevent anything more than a 12CU configuration from showing much in the way of performance gains. As it stands, AMD is hard at work developing its Ryzen Z2 family, with new chips arriving next year.

According to the leak, the flagship Ryzen Z2 Extreme will be based on Strix Point silicon, with a 12 CU graphics solution (Radeon 880M) with RDNA 3.5 architecture. This configuration would resemble the Ryzen AI 7 PRO 360 with eight CPU cores: three Zen 5 and five Zen 5c. It would also come with 16MB of L3 cache along with 8MB of L2 cache, 1MB per core.

The base Ryzen Z2 could be a significant step up from the last generation, with three times more CUs than its Ryzen Z1 predecessor. Using Hawk Point silicon, the Ryzen Z2 will offer 12 CUs based on the RDNA 3 architecture. This puts it roughly on par with the current Ryzen Z1 Extreme. As such, we expect the Ryzen Z2 to have eight cores like the Zen 4-based Ryzen 9 8945HS, although a hybrid configuration is also possible.

Finally, AMD will allegedly create even more budget options for handhelds by updating the Ryzen 6000 “Rembrandt” series in the form of the Ryzen Z2G; it’s not clear what the “G” stands for, since all these chips have integrated graphics. With a 12 CU design based on RDNA 2, the iGPU would match the current Z1 Extreme, but with an older GPU architecture. This could be AMD rewriting or tweaking the existing Ryzen 7 6800U / Ryzen 7 7735U designs, and the Z2G would come with eight Zen 3+ cores.

Considering the potential focus on portable gaming devices, the Ryzen Z2 series looks much more balanced than the Z1 generation. That’s assuming the leak is correct and that all the different models do indeed include 12 CUs, which should result in graphics performance that lands within 15-20 percent of each other. But nothing official has been said, so it will be interesting to see how AMD prices and configures these products next year.