A few weeks ago we told you that AMD is working on the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, a very important APU because it will next generation console engine from brands such as ASUS, Lenovo and GPD, among others. The Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU has done really well for AMD, so it makes sense that Sunnyvale decided to work on its successor.

Thanks to the leak of the shipping manifest, which is the specific documentation when doing this type of shipping movement, we were able to identify that AMD’s Ryzen Z2 Extreme is already a reality and we know its specifications the most important.

This APU will have a CPU with 8 cores and 16 threads. These cores will be divided into configurations 3 Zen 5 cores and 5 Zen 5c cores. The former will work at a much higher frequency and therefore offer more power, but will also have a higher consumption.

In total it will have CPU 16 MB of L3 cachebecause this chip will use a monolithic core. This means that it will share space on the same silicon chip with the GPU, and therefore will not have enough space to fit more L3 cache memory. For a chiplet design, it is normal to have 32 MB of L3 cache, but connecting two chiplets creates significant latency in communication between the CPU and GPU.

Ryzen Z2 Extreme will have GPU based on RDNA 3.5

The same architecture is used by AMD’s Ryzen AI 300 APU and it has shown that it is capable of offering a good level of performance. Personally, I believed that the most logical thing was for AMD to take advantage of this new APU to introduce an integrated GPU based on the RDNA 4 architecture, but it seems that In the end it won’t be.

The integrated GPU that Ryzen Z2 Extreme will mount will have a configuration with 12 computing units, which corresponds 768 shaders48 texture units, 32 raster units and 12 cores to accelerate ray tracing. Depending on the working speed, its raw performance could reach a maximum of 8.2 TFLOPs at FP32.

These specs are the same as the Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU, the only difference between them is that it uses the RDNA 3 architecture If you are wondering what the difference between RDNA 3 and RDNA 3.5 is, don’t worry, I am. I won’t leave you in doubt. The key is that the latter offers a better performance per wattand achieve greater autonomy.

Efficiency and autonomy according to the flag

If anyone was expecting a big performance boost with the Ryzen Z2 Extreme, they will be disappointed. This new APU does not seek a revolution in the sense of brute force, It aims to improve performance per watt and autonomy values, which were exactly two of the big pending bills that the Ryzen Z1 Extreme had.

It is most likely that Ryzen Z2 Extreme offers slightly better performance compared to Ryzen Z1 Extreme and that it excels in consumption and efficiency. With it, it will be possible to increase the hours of play on a single battery charge, and it is said that you will be able to work in modes from 9 to 28 watts.

Everything indicates that the Ryzen Z2 Extreme it will not have an integrated NPU. The premiere will take place between the first and second quarter of 2025.