Ryzen Z2 Go Trails Ryzen Z1 Extreme by 10% — Legion Go S Competes with ROG Ally X

Recently, AMD unveiled the Ryzen Z2 Go APU, which has sparked a lot of curiosity about how it stacks up against the Ryzen Z1 series in terms of performance. Our questions were promptly answered thanks to Fps VN, who shared some FPS test results comparing the Lenovo Legion Go S with the Asus ROG Ally X across three different games, each tested under various power settings.

The Legion Go S, launched by Lenovo, features the Ryzen Z2 Go APU, which has half the cores of the Z1 Extreme, running on a Zen 3+ architecture instead of Zen 4. Its base and boost clocks are slightly lower—3.0 GHz compared to 3.3 GHz, and 4.3 GHz versus 5.1 GHz, respectively. Despite these specs, Lenovo decided to roll it out in their newest handheld gaming devices. Naturally, this piqued our interest, especially in seeing how it fares against the previously top-performing AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip.

Before diving into the performance figures, let’s take a closer look at what both devices bring to the table. The Lenovo Legion Go S, which made its debut at CES 2025, is equipped with an AMD Ryzen Z2 Go processor, paired with 16GB of LPDDR5X-6400 memory. Storage-wise, it houses a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD and features an eight-inch, 120 Hz, 1920×1200 IPS display. Meanwhile, the Asus ROG Ally X, released in mid-2024, employs the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip alongside 24GB of LPDDR5 memory. It offers a more spacious 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD for storage and presents gameplay on a seven-inch, 120 Hz, 1920×1080 IPS screen.

When we look at the FPS results, the Asus ROG Ally X, powered by the Z1 Extreme, consistently edges out the Lenovo Legion Go S running the Z2 Go. This performance lead is expected given the Z1 Extreme’s superior features, such as having double the cores, higher clock speeds, more L3 cache, and a more advanced 780M integrated GPU compared to the 680M in the Z2 Go.

However, while the ROG Ally X does lead in performance across all three titles, the margin isn’t as wide as you might think. The difference averages around a mere 4 FPS higher on the ROG Ally X compared to the Legion Go S. On the whole, the benchmarks suggest the Ryzen Z2 Go lags about 10% behind the Ryzen Z1 Extreme.

One might expect a bigger disparity in performance, especially with the Ally X’s 8GB more memory and marginally smaller screen resolution to handle. Yet, it seems AMD and Lenovo have done a commendable job tuning the Z2 Go for solid performance within the constraints typical of portable gaming consoles.

As for pricing, the Asus ROG Ally X comes in at $799, while the Lenovo Legion Go is slightly cheaper at $729. While the numbers show that the Z1 Extreme-powered Ally X undoubtedly offers better performance, the larger screen and lower price of the Legion Go could be appealing to many gamers. Plus, the small FPS difference is unlikely to be noticed by most players on these handheld devices.