The Power of AMD, Fire Range, and RDNA Extreme: Gaming PCs with High-Energy Graphics Processing Units and Dedicated Graphics GPUs

Last and possibly least are AMD’s Z2 Extreme chips for handheld gaming PC competitors to the Steam Deck, which, strangely, raise the low-end TDP up to 15W from just 9W with previous-gen parts and each contain a different generation of GPU: RDNA 3.5 on the Z2 Extreme, RDNA 3 on the Z2, and RDNA 2 on the Z2 Go.

The former is now known as the rsn a max Plus and has the most powerful graphics ever put in a chip with up to 40 RDNA 3.5 compute units, 16 Zen 5 CPU cores, and a new memory interface with the ability to hold up to 2 million files per second. The Intel Core 9/28V is the highest-end chip in Intel’s line, and it beats Apple’s M4 Pro MacBook Pro by over 2x the graphics performance of the Artificial Intelligence Max Plus 395.

As you can see in the chart above, not all AI Max parts are equal — but they all consume up to a monstrous 120W of power, making them most suitable for machines that’ll be plugged in and / or docked. HP will offer a Z2 Mini G1a desktop and a ZBook Ultra G1a laptop, while Asus will offer the ROG Flow Z13 gaming tablet with the new parts.

Fire Range, meanwhile, is AMD’s codename for its new HX- and X3D-series laptop parts, which don’t come with their own groundbreaking integrated GPUs but are designed to be paired with discrete ones. They do, however, contain the new version of its flagship gaming laptop chip with the 3D V-Cache that’s been so popular for boosting frame rate in AMD’s desktop chips. There are a couple of lower-end parts in the 9955HX3D that have the same amazing 144 MB of cache, though the 7955HX3D only has it.

AMD is also announcing two new X3D desktop chips today, declaring that it now has a CPU that’s “the world’s best processor for gamers and creators.” You can read more about the new Ryzen 9 9950X3D and 9900X3D here.

AMD hasn’t yet offered any concrete idea of performance from its Fire Range or Z2 chips, or of battery life from any of these chips in its prerecorded briefing for journalists, though it did promise the Z2 will offer “more performance and capabilities than prior generations” and with “hours and hours of battery life.”

When we asked, therecord on Steam Deck was not correct, even though the denial seems clear. The company said its slide was designed to highlight their current handheld design wins and did not warn any partners about the device. That isn’t a denial. Asus won’t announce a Z2 ROG Ally here at CES, rep Anthony Spence confirms to me, but couldn’t comment on Asus’ future plans.

But stepping away from the Extreme, the vanilla Z2 has the same number of cores as today’s existing Z1 Extreme with the same RDNA 3 and possibly the same CPU cores, and AMD hasn’t mentioned any improvements over that chip yet. The Z2 Go is on a chip similar to the one used in the Steam deck, but it has fewer cores than the Z1, but it still has more graphics cores than the Deck.

The minimum amount of power that each of these new chips can give you is higher than the previous generation, which may mean less battery life when you play less intensive games. The Z1 Extreme has a sweet spot of 15-17W, but the Steam Deck chip can dip to as low as 4W, so not everyone changes power modes.