Gaming handhelds are a newer form factor segment that's still being fleshed out and while current-gen devices are excellent for enjoying the latest games with decent results, there's always room for improvement. That's where AMD's Ryzen Z2 processors come into play for CES 2025. The new Z2 family has the Ryzen Z Extreme, Ryzen Z2, and Ryzen Z2 Go. The latter has just four cores, offering a more affordable CPU that should get slightly more battery life out of a device. AMD is taking advantage of the reliable growth seen with hardware from Asus, Lenovo, and Valve.

The AMD Ryzen Z2 Extreme is the star of the show with an impressive 16 GPU cores. It's also an 8-core CPU with 16 threads that can boost up to 5.0 GHz. The CPU has 24 MB of cache to work with and can be configured to run between 15-35 W. The AMD Ryzen Z2 sits just below the Extreme chip with the same cores and cache but has a slightly slower max boost and fewer GPU cores.

Then there's the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go with its 4 cores, 4.3 GHz boost, 10 MB cache, and 12 GPU cores. It has the same configurable TDP as the Z2, clocking in at between 15-30 W, but I'd expect to see this inside more affordable gaming handhelds with potentially better battery life. We're excited to put devices running these new chips to the test when they launch. AMD is set to make the processors available sometime in Q1 2025.