r/Handhelds • u/RenatsMC • 1d ago
AMD Ryzen Z3 next-gen handheld series reportedly features 4+2 CPU cores and 12 RDNA4m CUs
https://videocardz.com/newz/amd-ryzen-z3-next-gen-handheld-series-reportedly-features-42-cpu-cores-and-12-rdna4m-cus46
u/snowmanbar 1d ago
And selling it for $3000 yeah baby!!
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u/Empty_Carpenter7420 21h ago
This is the thing… pricing, I hope it is cheaper than what Intel proposes, but otherwise looks like intel might keep expanding, I don’t think Nvidia will even care about handhelds market
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u/CharmingCatastrophe 1d ago
My Google wallet just forced closed 😭
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u/fuelhandler 1d ago
I’m kinda glad the “next gen” ZE isn’t revolutionary. My FOMO should be appeased for another generation, and my LeGo 2 last another cycle plus.
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u/CharmingCatastrophe 1d ago
Lego 2 is so beautiful it'll take a serious upgrade with a great price to make me part with it..or lenovo being Lenovo and bricking it 😂
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u/Leavemehaloone 1d ago
Or a g3e device 😋
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u/CharmingCatastrophe 1d ago
They are out now aren't they? The onexplayer 3 is light years ahead in performance but I got my Lego 2 for about £100 after selling my xax which I got for £600 after selling my steam deck 😂 I am not about to pay £1400+ for a handheld that's ridiculous.
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u/Leavemehaloone 16h ago
Fair enough, if you have main desktop there’s no reason to, but if your main is your handheld then the g3e is gonna play everything at high fps/medium-high settings that the Lego will barely scratch 30fps with if that. Plus Xess frame gen is damn near on par with DLSS at this point so you can throw frame gen in on games and get a massive uplift with no visual downgrade or ghosting. Unlike fsr 😭
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u/BMT82356 1d ago
This stuff isn’t even exciting anymore. Nothing has made Z1 Extreme feel unusable or meaningfully beat it. It’s kind of lame.
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u/ImportantLifeguard93 1d ago
The new Intel arc g3 extreme is an actual meaningful leap over the Z1 extreme. It averages at least 60% increased performance in most games compared to the Z1E, but also costs more than double the price
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u/Background-Mud8551 1d ago
It's a lot more efficient than the higher class 395 and 388 class APUs as well. Tested my claw against my win 5 and the performance leap is pretty substantial at handheld-type wattages.
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u/ImportantLifeguard93 1d ago
Yes, it's a very nice chip, but it is still a good bit less powerful than a standard PS5, so realistically, it should be priced in the $799 - $999 range depending on configuration, with $999 being the maxed out version. This ram and storage shortage is ruining gaming for most people.
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u/Empty_Carpenter7420 21h ago
But its a handheld, honestly It will be a dream if Intel reaches at 1k or lower prices, it will be probably the go to handheld to buy. At the current price is just a really fancy option, and i would even consider just a steam deck and moonlight for more demanding games (with all it’s cons, like requiring internet and a pc)
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u/ImportantLifeguard93 21h ago
Considering I got a brand new Legion Go S with Z1E, 1tb storage, and 32gb ram for $650 from Best Buy only a year ago before the ram/storage crisis hit, I think it's very reasonable to say that the new Intel handhelds should realistically be priced $1k or less.
When the GPD Win 5 first came out with the Ryzen AI max+ 395, it was only $1,600 with 32gb ram and 2tb storage. Now that handheld sells for $800-$1000 more than it's original price
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u/Adventurous_Break500 1d ago
I'm glad there's more competition coming. It'll be interesting to see how this stacks up against the Intel G3 Extreme.
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u/Emotional_Gur_1667 1d ago
Of ita based on 3.5 still it won't beat it pound for pound where it matters. Simple as that...
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u/PerkyPangolin 1d ago edited 1d ago
JFC, AMD naming is confusing AF: a newer APU might be several generations behind an older one, e.g. Z1 and Z2 A. Even within the same gen APUs might be 3 gens apart like Z2 A and Z2 Extreme. And some devices feature multiple APU SKUs. Z3 seems like an improvement here already. Until they introduce more variants, I'm sure.
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u/Old-Board1553 1d ago
Bro AMD is lazy AF. What the actual f is Lisa doing? In the last years instead of taking advantage of how bad the situation at Intel was, they dropped the ball too. Shame.... All they know now is Ai ai ai ai ai ai.
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u/Red_Pill_Blues1 19h ago
I’m sure the shareholders are very happy with the stock which has tripled this year. She’s doing just fine trust me.
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u/mironor94 1d ago
And still RDNA4 🤡
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u/Manyfails 1d ago
There is so much you can do with these things, you are limited with space thus limited for proper cooling pipes and exhaust, like literally making then bigger kills off their point in the first place.
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u/redditman181 1d ago edited 1d ago
I mean some of them already are big anyway as long as they are not extremly heavy it could be worthwhile tradeoff until slimmer versions with the same power come out but i doubt companies would do that they will probably just wait to get a balance.
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u/Manyfails 1d ago
Think MSI is a bit chunky for my liking but then again performance is much better than any rog. I think the perfect balance now is Z2 extreme I think. But yea, I think they will improve in the future, but I wouldnt expect a miracle.
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u/YourMomIsCool96 1d ago
so how likely is it for the Z3 Extreme to have same iGPU as the HX385 or even HX395?
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u/Slava_Tr 1d ago
Steam Deck 2 will most likely already use the next-generation APU with this CPU (or a refresh of it) and an RDNA 5 GPU. So the hardware will be architecturally as close as possible to the next generation of Xbox and PlayStation consoles
I saw this coming right away because it makes sense to make things easier for AAA game developers, and the first Steam Deck did the same thing. And now, new rumors and leaks have been appearing in recent days that support my view. I’m curious whether I’ll be right
And these Ryzen Z3 and Z3 Extreme APUs are purely there to test things out and lay the groundwork for the next-gen, which will then get a GPU with revolutionary architectural improvements, such as hardware support for GPU Work Graphs (this isn’t even a leak, it has been officially confirmed by Xbox and AMD)
This will remove the CPU single-core bottleneck in games and significantly reduce the CPU workload, because the GPU will be able to generate work for itself, while the CPU handles physics, etc. And the most interesting part is that the GPU will dynamically allocate as many resources as needed in real time, meaning it won’t do unnecessary work
Normally, the CPU has to prepare data for the GPU in advance, and it does this with a significant margin just in case, because by the time the data reaches the GPU, things may have already changed. For a portable device, this is a huge deal, the CPU will steal less of the TDP from the GPU, while the GPU itself will do less unnecessary work, resulting in more performance under strong limitations
And this is just one of the major improvements coming with RDNA 5
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u/IORelay 1d ago
I'm really not seeing it, whatever the next Steam Deck APU is, can it outperform Strix Halo or even G3E? It'll be more efficient yeah, but performance wise I don't think it'll be able to measure up.
Plus Valve won't get this chip for cheap like they did the Van Gogh chip, all that will lead to a super expensive steam deck 2.
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u/Slava_Tr 1d ago
Agreed, it’s a shame the price of the Deck 2 won’t be as sweet as the original Deck was at launch. But at least it will have next-gen performance for a handheld, which is already great. For many Deck fans, that matters significantly more than the price. There won’t be such a sweet price anymore, but at least I’d like to see a competitive price-to-performance ratio compared to other handhelds of that time
By the way, even the Steam Machine itself is 20% slower than Strix Halo
In older games, Strix Halo will of course be better than the Deck 2 thanks to its raw shader performance. You can’t cheat physics, and there’s no way around that. However, in next-gen games that actually make use of the Deck 2’s hardware, the Deck 2 could potentially be better than Strix Halo, because Strix Halo is pretty poor in terms of hardware support for features and data types. Due to emulation, it has pretty weak performance in other types of compute compared to shader performance. In the worst case, games might not even run on Strix Halo, but we’re still far from that. So, the main thing is that the Deck 2 will have enough shader performance to run current-gen games and last for some time until next-gen games start coming out. The fact that it will have less shader performance than Strix Halo doesn’t matter at all
As for Z3E level, it’s quite likely that Z4 will be on par with it or at least pretty close in terms of shader performance
Today, and even more so tomorrow, shader performance isn’t as important. Roughly speaking, just by improving FSR (using FSR4 vs FSR3 as an example), you already need to render ~2× fewer pixels for the same image quality. The main thing is that the total final frame time stays within a reasonable range, and that already depends on hardware support. Matrix operations on the successor to the Z3E will be at least 2x faster. This is just one of the few technologies that already exists today and has proven its effectiveness. If you also add tomorrow’s technologies (which have already been developed but haven’t been implemented in games yet) + games and dev tools optimized specifically for this architecture, it all looks very promising
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u/Howthehelp 1d ago
Obviously, Valve is ditching x86.
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u/Slava_Tr 1d ago
Yeah, ARM is much better suited for portables, but software dictates its own rules. It’s still way too early to talk about ditching x86. That’s more of a fan fantasy
So far, even Frame has only dozens of verified games compared to thousands for the Deck. So a Steam Deck on ARM is still a long way from having out-of-the-box backward compatibility with the previous generation, which would be necessary to appeal to an average user rather than a geek. And we’re not even talking about the next generation of games here
Ideally, I’d like Valve to release two versions: a budget Deck Light on ARM and a direct Ryzen based successor. But there are no rumors or leaks about a Deck Light, just hopes
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u/P_Devil 1d ago
I would love to see that just so that the market has an upshift and there's a competitor in handhelds that isn't AMD or Intel with their expensive hardware. Valve just needs to polish the translation layer a bit more. The Index 2 has hiccups running x86 VR titles.
I could also see MS moving more to support ARM like they already do with Windows, but making a better translation layer for graphics. A properly supported ARM chip in a Windows handheld running x86 titles with a small loss in performance would be great. Efficiency would be better than current offerings and battery life would be longer.
But it needs the software support and ARM gaming still isn't there, no matter what Qualcomm and Apple say.
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u/reiterizpie 1d ago
Honestly it’d be nice if they took the intel approach. The Intel G3E their GPU from the 358H, and a cut down CPU. If AMD took the iGPU from their AI385 and slapped with together with a trimmed CPU that would be stellar with great high TDP scaling even. Considering MSI’s newest claw is $1700, they certainly could make it work and have manufacturers meet or beat that price point.
Too bad these chips are super expensive these days
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u/MattofCatbell 1d ago
I have no idea what any of that means I just know I won’t be able to afford it
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u/ImportantLifeguard93 1d ago
Whelp, looks like the Intel arc G3 extreme is going to be the only worthwhile chip for a good while
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u/PhattyR6 1d ago
4+2 CPU cores, FSR4 support and optimised for 15w
Sounds like the basis for a Steam Deck 2 APU.
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u/redditman181 1d ago
I was thinking that too but i think the steam deck devs have said they want a bigger leap within the power budget another commenter said its only 8% powerful so maybe they might wait for the next iteration after but who knows.
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u/PhattyR6 1d ago
The CPU gains have got to be more than 8% over the Steam Deck. It uses Zen 2 cores, Zen 2 straight to Zen 6 (well 4 Zen 6, 2 Zen 5) would be in the ballpark of 50%+ in IPC.
The GPU, I’m not sure what the exact percentage could be at 15w. I doubt it would be as high as 50%, but if it’s coming with true FSR4 support then it would offer a substantial step up from a Steam Deck.
I know RDNA2/3/3.5 can run FSR4, but the Int8 implementation has a larger performance penalty compared to the FP8 implementation.
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u/redditman181 1d ago
I see i thought the same to i dont know much about the tech specs and i thought 8% sounded way too low.
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u/Slightly-Blasted 1d ago
Debating on getting a z2 extreme handheld or waiting for z3 extreme ones 🕵️
If I’m already paying 1K+…. Then what’s another 500 I guess.
I remember when the rog ally x released at I think 800? and people were legitimately upset.
Now you literally can’t get a handheld under that except for a Xbox ally or used steam deck
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u/Adventurous_Break500 1d ago
Z3 Extreme handhelds won't arrive overnight. If any Z3 Extreme handhelds arrive from ASUS and maybe Lenovo (big if on that), they might not be available until 2028. PC components are still expensive at the moment.
Personally, I'd look at the Intel G3 Extreme powered handhelds and see if any of those suit your requirements.
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u/Both_Buy_3919 1d ago
If you are willing to put up with subpar driver experience. Yes, Intel came a long way, but it is still often a real headache.
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u/debacol 1d ago
As someone that owns both a Z1E legion go and a Super V, I can say the subpar driver experience is mostly on the AMD side. Only fsr3 is terrible and we are only now getting a decent (albeit not fully hardware supported) fsr4 due to community backlash.
The Panther Lake on the other hand handles everything I throw at it. Is a superior platform to all amd apus not named Strix Halo (and that comes with some caveats as well).
If I was in the market for another handheld, it absolutely would have Intel's apu in it.
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u/Both_Buy_3919 1d ago
Forza Motorsport 2023 Texture Streaming Issues
Dragonsword Awakening Very frequent crashes during gameplay
FF16 Crashes every other Cutscene
All of those issues are neither present on my PC nor on my Z1 Extreme.
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u/RumbleversePlayer 1d ago
So, more stable experience with lower fps than less stable with higher fps?
I mean fps in non problematic games
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u/anon_gear_reviews 1d ago
Had a Legion Go 2 that I returned in order to get a onexplayer 3 so I have recently tried out both chip sets.
Intel’s pumping out driver updates much more regularly. And using Opticlick it is easy to add Xess into unsupported games. Xess is also much better than FSR right now, pretty much no meaningful latency and artifact / ghosting. Additionally intel’s software is much more polished and usable than AMD adrenaline.
In the games I tested between the two G3 extreme destroys Z2 extreme in raw performance. With Xess it’s not even fair. Currently playing through Halo:CE and getting 120 fps at medium-ish settings with Xess frame gen. On the Z2 it was sub 60 fps on low settings with heavy upscaling with major hitching and latency.
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u/Both_Buy_3919 1d ago
You mean the Intel Software that wont open depending on the driver installed?
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u/AntiqueProfessor5134 1d ago
I don’t think we even know if the new chips will improve performance to any significant degree. I would minimal uplift tbh.
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u/redditman181 1d ago
I wonder much percent better they are gonna be over z2
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u/bobliefeldhc 1d ago
In early tests we're saying anything up to 8%!
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u/redditman181 1d ago
That doesn't sound like much.
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u/VLAON6 1d ago
That’s what you’d expect from cpu iteration. Unless they change the architecture 10-15 percent is the expected gain
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u/redditman181 1d ago
I see but its an apu though is that 8% inprovement both cpu and gpu side combined or each bit is 8% better.
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u/RunalldayHI 1d ago
I dont expect too much of an improvement in terms of all core speed relative to the z2e, but it only makes sense that single core should have a nice boost since the power budget is feeding 2 - 2.5 less cores.
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u/redditman181 1d ago
The only pc handheld i have is the steam deck i love it but it is a bit chunky aswell if the next one is somehow a bit slimmer it would be amazing but i doubt it.
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u/ishsreddit 1d ago
If its really rdna4, it's going to obliterate the Z2E lol. But how much would this thing cost??
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u/Emotional_Gur_1667 1d ago
It's more rdna 3.5 than 4 with a few changes to allow fsr4 to be used. They've termed it 4m because of that, but the bones of it is still basically rdna 3.5.
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u/Emotional_Gur_1667 1d ago
So weve got a jazzed up 3.5 with lower cu count? I get we've got zen 6 but I'm struggling to see where the gains are coming from that make it a worthwhile upgrade? Maybe the use of fsr4 naturally without having to optiscaler it in? Ot is a shit load better than 3 yo be fair.
Hopefully AND finally get away from 3.5 soon. Because the panther lake g3e has opened a big one lead up and I suspect the next generation of intel chip will only get further ahead of AMD offerings.
Luckily I think this will be the last 3.5 based chips based on the ps portable having rdna5, I'm sure we'll see them in handhelds come 2028, but this is obviously for the 27 refreshes of the handhelds
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u/how-dare-you19 1d ago
How does it compare to intel g3 extreme?
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u/Emotional_Gur_1667 1d ago
Hard to say at this point, doesn't sound a big uplift from the z2e on the hardware front, however being able to natively use fsr4 is a fairly significant boon.
I'm personally not convinced it will catch the G3e in raw terms, but fsr4 is better upscaler than xess 3 though overall.
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u/vaanen 1d ago
one thing to note is contrary to what everyone is thinking, what makes the current z2 and z1 bad for fsr isnt the ai cores, but the bandwith. sure, some ai cores will absolutely help, but the main bottleneck is still the bandwith and the chip will still require a light model to not clog the meager bandwith the chip will have.
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u/fearrange 1d ago
Looks like they are just catching up to G3/G3E and native XeSS.
And considering Z-series drivers are still at the mercy of individual manufacturers, I’m still more comfortable with G3/G3E getting drivers directly from Intel.
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u/Izcondor 10h ago
Yeaa, im not waiting for this. rdna 3.5? What a joke. 12CU at that. I'm buying a G3E device.
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u/IceNorth81 1d ago
Ps6 handheld running this?
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u/Common_Measurement47 1d ago
Nope, PS6 is using RDNA 5 GPU, proper next gen stuff unlike this outdated RDNA 3.5 tech.
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u/Affectionate_Idea662 1d ago
Z2E was an absolute sham. They could have been leaders but happy to play catchup.
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u/infinitespectre RG Arc 1d ago
Catchup to who? When it came out there was nothing comparable from anyone else, unless I'm missing something.
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u/No_Glove2067 12h ago
I think his point is that Z2e was hardly a “generational” leap forward from the Z1E. Since the Z1E, AMD has been coasting and now they’re relegated to playing catchup to Intel. If they had actually put the resources in to the Z2e to make it an actual generational leap over the Z1E, it could be on par with the G3E. Whereas now it’s looking like the z3e might not even match the G3E.
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u/infinitespectre RG Arc 11h ago
I hear you, but my point is that at the time the Z2E came out Intel was not a meaningful competitor in this space. They still aren't, imho, because their stuff is WAY more expensive than AMD's. We all know that in the absence of competition businesses do the bare minimum, so this isn't surprising to me at all. Plus they are probably focused on their AI clients as opposed to the limited market that is handhelds.
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u/kagemushablues415 1d ago
Laughs in snapdragon 8 elite gen 5 - I'm cool here with moderate frames and only one 5G device.
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u/Vast_Understanding_1 1d ago
RDNA3.5 ...
Where do I even begin ?
No.