Legion Go S vs. ROG Ally X: Ryzen Z2 Go Falls 10% Short of Ryzen Z1 Extreme’s Performance

Recently, AMD has unveiled its latest innovation, the Ryzen Z2 Go APU, sparking a wave of curiosity among tech enthusiasts who are keen to know how it stacks up against the older Ryzen Z1 series. For those eager for answers, Fps VN has come to the rescue by revealing FPS test results that pit Lenovo’s Legion Go S against Asus’s ROG Ally X using three different games and power settings.

The Lenovo Legion Go S has made its debut with the Ryzen Z2 Go APU, a chip that notably features half the cores of the high-powered Z1 Extreme and is built on a Zen 3+ architecture instead of the Zen 4. It operates at slightly reduced base (3.0 GHz compared to 3.3 GHz) and boost (4.3 GHz compared to 5.1 GHz) clock speeds. Despite these specs, Lenovo has chosen this processor for their new gaming handheld, prompting intrigue over how it measures up against its predecessor’s flagship, the AMD Ryzen Z1 Extreme.

Before delving into the bench tests themselves, let’s compare the specs of each device. Unveiled at CES 2025, the Lenovo Legion Go S is driven by the AMD Ryzen Z2 Go processor, backed by 16GB of LPDDR5X-6400 memory, and equipped with a 512GB PCIe 4.0 SSD. It sports an eight-inch display, boasting a 120 Hz refresh rate and a resolution of 1920×1200. On the flip side, the Asus ROG Ally X, which launched in mid-2024, harnesses the power of the Ryzen Z1 Extreme chip alongside a robust 24GB of LPDDR5 memory. It carries a 1TB PCIe 4.0 SSD and features a seven-inch screen, also with a 120 Hz refresh rate but at a resolution of 1920×1080.

When examining the performance data, it’s evident that the ROG Ally X, powered by the Z1 Extreme, outperformed the Legion Go S with its Z2 Go APU across the board. This isn’t surprising given the Z1 Extreme’s advantages in cores, clock speeds, and cache, coupled with a more updated 780M integrated GPU versus the 680M on the Z2 Go.

Interestingly, the performance disparity wasn’t as vast as one might expect, averaging around a 4 FPS lead for the ROG Ally X in the games tested. Overall, the Z2 Go delivered performance roughly 10% lower than the Z1 Extreme, according to these benchmarks.

Considering the difference in components—like the Ally X’s extra 8GB of memory and smaller screen with fewer pixels—it’s notable that AMD and Lenovo managed to fine-tune the Z2 Go to perform solidly given the constraints of handheld gaming systems.

Price-wise, the Asus ROG Ally X is listed at $799, while the Lenovo Legion Go S is slightly more affordable at $729. In terms of raw numbers, the Ally X provides superior performance, but for many gamers, the larger screen and cheaper price of the Legion Go S might make it an attractive alternative, especially since a 4FPS difference may not be particularly noticeable during casual gameplay.

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