Two Unannounced AMD Ryzen Z2 APU Models Leaked, Flagship Could be "AI Z2 Extreme"

[T0@st]

Three months ago, AMD unveiled its Ryzen Z2 APU series at CES 2025—purpose made for deployment in next-gen handheld gaming PCs. The officially announced flagship—Ryzen Z2 Extreme "Strix Point," utilizing Zen 5 and RDNA 3.5 technologies—was previously alluded to by leakers in late 2024; albeit with some curious claims regarding an "odd 3+5 core configuration." Last week, Hoang Anh Phu (@AnhPhuH) presented an alleged expanded lineup of Ryzen Z2 processors—headlined by a mysterious "Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme" SKU.

PC hardware watchdogs believe that this speculative variant will eventually arrive with an enabled XDNA 2 NPU (a first for the series); likely readied to take on Intel's Core Ultra 200V "Lunar Lake" processor family. MSI's Core Ultra 7 258V-powered Claw 8 AI+ and Claw 7 AI+ handhelds launched not too long ago, boasting all sorts of Microsoft Copilot+ capabilities. Mid-way through March, an Xbox executive introduced "Copilot for Gaming." Team Red and manufacturing partners are likely jumping onto this "AI gaming" bandwagon with the aforementioned "AI Ryzen Z2 Extreme" chip, as well as Phu's fanciful "Ryzen Z2 A" model. The latter could be a spin-off of AMD's vanilla Ryzen Z2 "Hawk Point" design, with a "switched on" XDNA NPU.



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[bitsandboots]

The naming scheme bugs me. 5 models, varying in cpu and gpu core count, but all are named "z2"
I guess its just a numbering scheme like 7xxx vs 9xxx series but with letters instead, but If you had me guess how a z2 a, z2, or z2 go compare to each other, I'd have no idea. Might as well add "super", "ti", and "xtx" in there.

 

[Chaitanya]

The naming scheme bugs me. 5 models, varying in cpu and gpu core count, but all are named "z2"
I guess its just a numbering scheme like 7xxx vs 9xxx series but with letters instead, but If you had me guess how a z2 a, z2, or z2 go compare to each other, I'd have no idea. Might as well add "super", "ti", and "xtx" in there.

AMD product names and architectures have been a messy minefield. Nothing makes sense.

 

[_roman_]

I bought a refurbished notebook recently.

Wikipedia + reading 4 numbers to determine maybe the architecture and expected cpu performance.

I think those handheld processors will be the same madness like those mobile notebook amd processors. (it gets complicated much more with the ryzen 4xxx pro notebook processors)

 

[Cheeseball]

Most likely the AI one is the same but with the NPU enabled for those who actually use CoPilot.

 

[Lionheart]

Why couldn't AMD just fully copy Apple's naming scheme, it's simple asf & the normie's would understand it more easily, also a quadcore should not exist in todays PC's. gross.

 

[ixi]

Why "go" version can't be released for DIY... perfect home pc.

 

[Cheeseball]

Why "go" version can't be released for DIY... perfect home pc.

Would be perfect for a sub US $300 barebones MiniPC. 4C Zen 3+ and 12 CUs RDNA2 can fit that nicely.

 

[ixi]

Would be perfect for a sub US $300 barebones MiniPC. 4C Zen 3+ and 12 CUs RDNA2 can fit that nicely.

Yeah. I want/need to get ryzen ~15wat cpu with iGPU fot mini pc, but nooooo... AMD do not want to do this...

 

[Cheeseball]

Yeah. I want/need to get ryzen ~15wat cpu with iGPU fot mini pc, but nooooo... AMD do not want to do this...

Technically most of the available MiniPCs with Phoenix (ex: 7840HS) and Hawk Point (ex: 8840HS) APUs can be lowered to 15W TDP. Just hit it with RyzenAdj or any of its derivatives and you can force them down.

8700G on AM5 can do it too. Just limit your SPL and sPPT in your motherboard's BIOS/UEFI. But take note the desktop (X870/670 and B850/650) chipsets are not as efficient as mobile (because there is no dedicated chipset for socket FP8), so they will contribute to the total system power.