Whenever it's IFA season at XDA, we're inundated with all the hot new tech that companies are working on right now. We've seen some huge names take the stage, including AMD. At a Q&A session attended by XDA alongside other members of international media, AMD dropped some interesting nuggets of information about its Z2 Extreme chip.
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Your power supply will be twiddling its thumbs.
AMD pulls back the curtain on the Z2 Extreme chip
In the talk, AMD took to the stage to reveal what they're planning with the Z2 Extreme chip. The company would like to get the hardware out of the door sometime in early 2025, so excited fans won't have to wait long to get their hands on this newest generation of portable gaming.
It seems that AMD wants to focus on improved performance and battery life with the Z2 Extreme. Jack Huynh of AMD stated that he wanted his handheld's battery to last three hours while playing Black Myth: Wukong, compared to the 45 minutes he actually got with current hardware. That's not to say the Z2 Extreme will absolutely, definitely squeeze three hours of battery life when rendering the newest titles, but it does show that AMD wants to focus on getting as much gameplay out of a single charge as possible.
Here are some choice quotes that XDA representatives managed to score during the talk:
"Also [Digital Trends] mentioned the Steam Deck. A couple people tried asking what it might have but AMD stuck to a "our partnership with Valve is very strong""
[...]
"Oh, something else maybe we can add is that AMD wants try and push for more widespread adoption of the Z series to reduce confusion, since so many handhelds are still using Ryzen 7040 and 8000. Though it's not clear how, they said they won't force anyone to do it"
If you're not sure what all the excitement is about, the chip will be the successor to the AMD Z1 Extreme. Those chips found their homes in some of the best Steam Deck alternatives on the market, so AMD's announcement of a brand new one is bound to please portable handheld fans. We still don't have every detail on the chip, but we'll be sure to report on it whenever more details arise.