Handheld gaming PCs have made a full comeback, serving as one of the most popular ways for game enthusiasts to enjoy their hobby anywhere at any time. We have a wide range of great options like the Steam Deck from Valve (which is sort of the handheld trendsetter for this generation), the Asus ROG Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go, and the MSI Claw 8 AI+ – in short, it’s only going to get better with time.
The integral part of these handhelds and their gaming performance capabilities is their processors (or more specifically, SoCs, meaning System-on-a-Chip), with the CPU and GPU on the same die. Thanks to AMD and Intel primarily, we’ve had the joys of using chips like the Ryzen Z1 Extreme and the Core Ultra 7 258V in handheld PCs, providing enough processing power for great performance across numerous games.
Features like frame generation and upscaling methods further help sustain good results, especially in more demanding titles: notably, AMD’s FSR 3 is used on the likes of the Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally. However, its latest version, FSR 4, is a major improvement upon its predecessor, with better image quality and performance without the handicap of significant ghosting.
The big downside here is that FSR 4 is currently exclusive to RDNA 4 desktop GPUs, and AMD is reportedly planning to build a Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip, purported to use RDNA 3.5 according to a reputable leaker on X. And unless Team Red manages to port FSR 4 over to RDNA 3.5, then I see absolutely no point in an ‘AI’ version of the Z2 Extreme processor.
Unless it’s bringing similar processing capabilities as the Ryzen AI Max+ chips, there’s no point
Speaking exclusively on handheld gaming PCs, the priority is to ensure consumers are getting the best performance possible without hindering battery life or causing overheating: the Ryzen AI Max+ 395 chip is rivalling some desktop GPUs in demanding triple-A games like Cyberpunk 2077, but it remains to be seen whether the APU can be deployed effectively in a smaller compact system like a handheld gaming PC.
The rumored Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme chip (unless it happens to use RDNA 4 architecture) doesn’t sound beneficial to me – at least, compared to the already-announced Ryzen Z2 Extreme. It’s early days, and we don’t even know if the rumors are legitimate, but the only possible enhancements from it in terms of gaming could be better frame generation thanks to the onboard Neural Processing Unit (NPU), which handles dedicated AI workloads such as upscaling and frame-gen in games.
I’m willing to bet that it won’t come close to the AI Max+ 395 in terms of processing power: the AI Max+ 395’s iGPU has 40 GPU cores, capable of providing high frame rates without the need of a discrete GPU – so much so, that it is already being rolled out onto the desktop gaming PC scene.
So far, the only ‘AI’ SoC for handhelds that sounds worthwhile is Intel’s ‘Lunar Lake’ Core Ultra 7 258V used in the MSI Claw 8 AI+. Its price may not be the most appealing at $899 / £899 / AU$1,799.00, but it arguably knocks all other handhelds on the market out of the park.
I hope I can be proven wrong, and AMD either brings FSR 4 to handhelds using this rumored chip, or at the very least ensure that it packs enough power to dethrone or challenge Intel’s reigning Lunar Lake chip – because from what the current rumors suggest, it may be a waste of time for gamers.
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