AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU vs AMD Ryzen Z2 Go GPU Comparison

FAQ

Q: What are the core specifications of the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU?

A: The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU uses the Phoenix chip on a 4 nm TSMC process. It has 768 shading units, 48 texture mapping units, 32 ROPs, and 12 ray tracing cores. Its memory configuration is 16 GB of LPDDR5 on a 64-bit bus, providing 51.20 GB/s of bandwidth.

Q: How does the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go GPU differ in its memory subsystem?

A: The AMD Ryzen Z2 Go GPU uses 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory on a 128-bit bus, doubling the bus width of the Z1 Extreme. This results in a bandwidth of 102.4 GB/s, which is exactly twice the 51.20 GB/s offered by the Z1 Extreme.

Q: What are the clock speeds for both GPUs?

A: Both the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU and the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go GPU have identical base clocks of 800 MHz and boost clocks of 2700 MHz. The memory clock for both is also the same at 800 MHz, with 6.4 Gbps effective speed.

Q: What is the difference in FP32 performance between the two?

A: The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU delivers 8.294 TFLOPS of FP32 performance, while the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go GPU delivers 4.147 TFLOPS. This means the Z1 Extreme has exactly double the FP32 compute throughput of the Z2 Go.

Q: When were these GPUs released?

A: The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU was released on 2023-06-12. The AMD Ryzen Z2 Go GPU has a release date of 2024-12-31. Both are currently listed as Active in production status.

Q: What is the power consumption of each GPU?

A: The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU has a TDP of 30 W. The AMD Ryzen Z2 Go GPU has a slightly lower TDP of 28 W. Neither requires power connectors, as both use "None" as their power connector specification.

Where Each One Wins

The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU holds a decisive advantage in raw compute throughput. Its FP32 performance of 8.294 TFLOPS is exactly double the 4.147 TFLOPS of the Z2 Go. Similarly, FP16 performance follows the same pattern: the Z1 Extreme achieves 16.59 TFLOPS (2:1) while the Z2 Go delivers 8.294 TFLOPS (2:1). For workloads that depend heavily on shading arithmetic, pixel processing, or texture work, the Z1 Extreme is clearly the stronger part.

The Z1 Extreme also benefits from a more advanced manufacturing process. It uses TSMC's 4 nm node, while the Z2 Go uses a 6 nm node. This process advantage contributes to a higher transistor density: the Z1 Extreme packs 142.6M transistors per mm², versus 63.0M per mm² for the Z2 Go. The Z1 Extreme also contains more total transistors at 25,390 million, compared to 13,100 million for the Z2 Go.

The AMD Ryzen Z2 Go GPU, however, wins decisively in memory bandwidth. Its 128-bit memory bus provides 102.4 GB/s of bandwidth, which is exactly double the 51.20 GB/s of the Z1 Extreme's 64-bit bus. For memory-intensive workloads, such as those that stream large textures or rely on frequent data movement, the Z2 Go's wider memory interface offers a clear advantage. The Z2 Go also has a marginally lower TDP at 28 W versus 30 W, though this difference is small.

In terms of physical size, the Z1 Extreme has a larger die at 178 mm², while the Z2 Go has a die size of 208 mm². Despite having fewer transistors, the Z2 Go's die is physically larger due to its less dense 6 nm process. The Z1 Extreme's smaller die and higher density indicate a more efficient use of silicon area.

Both GPUs share identical shading resources: 768 shading units, 48 TMUs, 32 ROPs, and 12 ray tracing cores. They also have the same pixel rate of 86.40 GPixel/s and texture rate of 129.6 GTexel/s. This means that for tasks that are not limited by memory bandwidth or FP32 compute, the two parts may perform similarly.

Architecture Differences

The AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU is built on the RDNA 3.0 architecture, while the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go GPU uses RDNA 2.0. This architectural generation gap is significant. RDNA 3.0 introduces architectural improvements over RDNA 2.0, including changes to the compute unit design and execution pipeline. The Z1 Extreme's FP32 output of 8.294 TFLOPS versus the Z2 Go's 4.147 TFLOPS reflects this architectural advantage, as both parts have the same number of shading units (768) and identical clock speeds (800 MHz base, 2700 MHz boost).

The manufacturing processes differ as well. The Z1 Extreme uses TSMC's 4 nm node, while the Z2 Go uses TSMC's 6 nm node. This process difference affects transistor density and total transistor count. The Z1 Extreme has 25,390 million transistors on a 178 mm² die, giving it a density of 142.6M transistors per mm². The Z2 Go has 13,100 million transistors on a 208 mm² die, giving it a density of 63.0M per mm². The Z1 Extreme's smaller die with more transistors indicates a significantly more advanced process technology.

The chip codenames also differ: the Z1 Extreme uses the "Phoenix" chip, while the Z2 Go uses "Rembrandt+". These are distinct silicon designs with different heritage. The Phoenix chip is associated with newer AMD APU designs, while Rembrandt+ is a revision of an older architecture.

Both GPUs support the same API set: DirectX 12 Ultimate (12_2), OpenGL 4.6, and Vulkan 1.4. They also both use a single USB Type-C display output and have no power connectors. The memory type is LPDDR5 for both, and both use a memory clock of 800 MHz with 6.4 Gbps effective speed.

The memory bus width is a major architectural difference. The Z1 Extreme uses a 64-bit bus, while the Z2 Go uses a 128-bit bus. This doubling of bus width directly explains the doubling of memory bandwidth, from 51.20 GB/s to 102.4 GB/s. Despite the Z2 Go's older RDNA 2.0 architecture, its wider memory interface allows it to outperform the Z1 Extreme in memory throughput.

Specification Differences

The two GPUs differ in several key specification fields. The process node is 4 nm for the Z1 Extreme and 6 nm for the Z2 Go. The transistor count is 25,390 million for the Z1 Extreme and 13,100 million for the Z2 Go. The die size is 178 mm² for the Z1 Extreme and 208 mm² for the Z2 Go. Transistor density is 142.6M per mm² for the Z1 Extreme and 63.0M per mm² for the Z2 Go.

Memory bandwidth is a major differentiator: the Z1 Extreme offers 51.20 GB/s, while the Z2 Go offers 102.4 GB/s. The bus width is 64-bit for the Z1 Extreme and 128-bit for the Z2 Go. Both have 16 GB of LPDDR5 memory.

FP32 performance is 8.294 TFLOPS for the Z1 Extreme and 4.147 TFLOPS for the Z2 Go. FP16 performance is 16.59 TFLOPS (2:1) for the Z1 Extreme and 8.294 TFLOPS (2:1) for the Z2 Go. The TDP differs slightly: 30 W for the Z1 Extreme and 28 W for the Z2 Go.

The Z1 Extreme has physical dimensions of 280 mm in length, 111 mm in height, and 21 mm in width. The Z2 Go has no recorded dimensions in the database. The Z1 Extreme also has a launch MSRP of 699 USD, while the Z2 Go has no recorded launch MSRP.

The release dates differ: the Z1 Extreme was released on 2023-06-12, while the Z2 Go was released on 2024-12-31. Both are Active in production status. Both use the same architecture generation classification: "Console GPU (AMD)". Both are manufactured by AMD and use TSMC as the foundry.

The clock specifications are identical: 800 MHz base, 2700 MHz boost, and 800 MHz memory clock with 6.4 Gbps effective. The shading units (768), TMUs (48), ROPs (32), and ray tracing cores (12) are the same on both parts. The pixel rate of 86.40 GPixel/s and texture rate of 129.6 GTexel/s are also identical.

Head-to-Head Benchmarks

The recorded data shows no direct benchmark scores for either GPU in the database. The average benchmark score is 0 for both, and the head-to-head benchmark array is empty. The percentileVsAllGpus field is 50 for both parts, indicating they sit at the median of all GPUs in the database. However, the specification data allows for a detailed comparison of their theoretical capabilities.

The largest win for the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme GPU is in FP32 compute. It delivers 8.294 TFLOPS, which is exactly double the 4.147 TFLOPS of the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go GPU. This means the Z1 Extreme can process twice as many floating-point operations per second, a critical metric for shader-heavy workloads and compute applications. The FP16 results mirror this: the Z1 Extreme achieves 16.59 TFLOPS (2:1) versus 8.294 TFLOPS (2:1) for the Z2 Go, again a 2:1 advantage.

The Z1 Extreme also wins on transistor count and density. It contains 25,390 million transistors, nearly double the 13,100 million in the Z2 Go. Its density of 142.6M transistors per mm² is more than twice the 63.0M per mm² of the Z2 Go. This indicates a more complex and capable silicon design.

The largest win for the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go GPU is in memory bandwidth. It delivers 102.4 GB/s, which is exactly double the 51.20 GB/s of the Z1 Extreme. This is achieved through a 128-bit memory bus, twice the width of the Z1 Extreme's 64-bit bus. For workloads that are memory-bound, such as large texture streaming or data-intensive compute, this bandwidth advantage can be decisive.

The Z2 Go also has a slightly lower TDP at 28 W versus 30 W for the Z1 Extreme. While this is a small difference, it represents an 6.7% reduction in power consumption for the Z2 Go, which could translate to better efficiency in power-constrained environments.

Both parts have identical pixel rates of 86.40 GPixel/s and texture rates of 129.6 GTexel/s. They also share the same shading unit count (768), TMU count (48), ROP count (32), and ray tracing core count (12). The base and boost clocks are identical at 800 MHz and 2700 MHz, respectively. This means that in scenarios where neither FP32 compute nor memory bandwidth is the limiting factor, the two GPUs may perform at similar levels.

The Z1 Extreme's advantage in FP32 compute is offset by the Z2 Go's advantage in memory bandwidth. The Z1 Extreme doubles the compute throughput of the Z2 Go, while the Z2 Go doubles the memory bandwidth of the Z1 Extreme. This creates a clear use-case split: the Z1 Extreme is better suited for compute-bound tasks, while the Z2 Go is better for memory-bound tasks. The Z1 Extreme also benefits from a newer architecture (RDNA 3.0 versus RDNA 2.0) and a more advanced process node (4 nm versus 6 nm), which may provide additional efficiency and feature advantages not captured in the raw specification data.