AMD recently introduced Ryzen Z1 APUs for portable game consoles. Technically, these are almost complete copies of the Ryzen 7040U. According to recent data, there are still differences between these solutions.
As it turned out, the main difference lies in setting the voltage graphs that APUs work with. Firstly, the Ryzen Z1 models can be configured with a power limit of 9 W versus 15 W for the Ryzen 7040U, and secondly, the voltage curves themselves are different: created specifically for use in portable gaming devices.
The Ryzen Z1 series is specifically designed for portable gaming. To that end, AMD engineers have designed completely new powerbands and optimized voltage curves specifically for this use case—a job of optimization and validation that shouldn’t be made easy. Also, the Ryzen AI engine is not available on Ryzen Z1 processors.
