The latest rumoured AMD Ryzen Z2 processor could be used in cheap SteamOS handhelds

There are currently more AMD Ryzen Z2 processors than there are different handhelds using them, and the list seems to grow ever longer. Now, at least, we have some idea what one of the latest rumoured Z2 APUs might be all about: It might be for SteamOS handhelds.

There are currently just three officially announced Ryzen Z2 processors, but we’ve been hearing talk of two more. We first heard about a supposed Ryzen Z2 A processor earlier in the month, alongside a supposed Ryzen AI Z2 Extreme, which is said to be the same as the Z2 Extreme but with an added NPU. Now, Hoang Anh Phu, the same leaker who originally tipped us all off to these two APUs, is claiming (via VideoCardz) that the Z2 A will be a ‘Van Gogh’-based processor.

‘Van Gogh’ is the codename given to the Zen 2/RDNA 2 APU at the heart of the Steam Deck. The eagle-eyed among you will notice that those are a lot of ‘2’s (Zen 2 and RDNA 2) for an upcoming processor—we’re currently on Zen 5 and RDNA 4, so what gives?

The answer to that might have something to do with SteamOS. The AMD Van Gogh APU was custom-made for the Steam Deck, which really means it was custom-made for SteamOS. So, if the Ryzen Z2 A is based on Van Gogh, it’s reasonable to assume it’ll be tailored to run SteamOS very well.

Combine this with the fact that SteamOS has been readying ‘support for non-Steam Deck handhelds’ for quite some time, and that we’re anticipating non-Steam Deck SteamOS handhelds in the near future, and the picture paints itself. It looks like the AMD Ryzen Z2 A might be an upcoming APU specifically tailored to non-Steam Deck SteamOS handhelds.

So, while Valve has said “there is and will be no Z2 Steam Deck”, if this latest rumour is true there might very well be reason to believe there will at least be Z2 handhelds running SteamOS and using the same (or similar) hardware to the Steam Deck.

The three currently announced Ryzen Z2 processors are the Z2 Extreme (Strix Point and RDNA 3.5), Z2 (Hawk Point and RDNA 3), and Z2 Go (Rembrandt-R and RDNA 2). The latter in particular, the Z2 Go, shows that AMD isn’t afraid of using previous-gen architectures in the Z2 line-up.

However, this doesn’t fully account for the fact that Van Gogh is still such an old processor that it will hardly offer next-gen performance for upcoming handhelds. Unless, of course, there are some changes made.

The Van Gogh APU in the Steam Deck has four CPU cores, with eight threads, and eight RDNA 2 compute units (CUs) for graphics. If that CU count was bumped up to the 12 that we see in many handhelds today, we might get a cracking SteamOS processor. The CPU cores wouldn’t even need to be bumped up, really—not for an entry-level handheld.

It would still presumably be a cheap/entry-level APU, too. And given the first SteamOS handheld we’re expecting to see is a Lenovo Legion Go S, that would make sense, because the Windows version of this that I tested is also relatively cheap/entry-level thanks to its Z2 Go ‘Rembrandt-R’ generation APU.

All of this is speculation, of course, but if Ryzen Z2 A does launch and it’s based on Van Gogh, then I reckon we can expect some cheap and efficient SteamOS handhelds on the market before too long.