AMD Unveils the Future of Portable Gaming PCs at CES 2025!

At CES 2025, AMD has finally presented the chipset for the forthcoming generation of handheld gaming PCs, the AMD Zen 2 Extreme.

The AMD Zen 2 Extreme, along with its less powerful relatives, the Z2 and Z2 Go, are driven by Zen 5 CPU cores. The Zen 2 Extreme utilizes an RDNA 3.5-based GPU, while the Z2 and Z2 Go still employ RDNA 3 and RDNA 2, respectively. This forms a complete family of APUs (Advanced Processing Units) geared for handheld gaming PCs, which should ideally contribute to lowering the prices of handheld devices.

With the Z2 Extreme, AMD aims to significantly enhance battery life while also providing console-level gaming performance to devices like the Lenovo Legion Go. In general, the primary limitation of these handhelds, particularly at the high end, is the rapid depletion of their batteries when running demanding games away from a power source.

Graphics cores

16 RDNA 3.5

Mobile PC gaming extends beyond just handheld gaming PCs, as AMD has also introduced its new series of Zen 5-based processors for gaming laptops, termed “Fire Range” HX3D. This lineup, similar to the chips just unveiled by Intel, will power the top gaming laptops over the coming year. However, unlike Intel, AMD is implementing the successful 3D V-cache architecture, derived from the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, into gaming laptops.

This innovation allows AMD to stack significantly more cache atop its processor by layering it above the actual CPU cores. This enhancement not only boosts gaming performance but also reduces temperatures, leading to even greater gaming performance. I will need to test it in the lab to evaluate the actual performance of these new processors, but if they resemble their desktop versions, it will be an exhilarating time for gaming laptops.

All these mobile chipsets, from “Fire Range” HX3D to the AMD Z2 Extreme, will feature in gaming laptops and handheld devices in the ensuing months.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the queen of PC components. You can follow her @Jackiecobra