Popular handheld gaming device maker GPD reportedly plans to create a new handheld built around AMD's new Ryzen 7 5800U Zen 3 mobile processor, according to YouTuber Wild Lee. This will be GPD's first use of an AMD CPU, and it will be by far the most powerful handheld they've made up to this point, competing directly with the Aya Neo.
GPD will be putting the 5800U in its Win Max chassis, so it'll look very similar to GPDs current Win Max devices that feature both a keyboard and joysticks, so you can choose whether to play a game with a controller layout or with a mouse and keyboard.
Specs-wise, this should give the Zen 3 GPD device an edge over the Aya Neo, which features a previous-gen Ryzen 5 4500U with lower core and thread counts. The 5800U should be especially handy for emulators and AAA titles that rely heavily on CPU resources to maintain performance. While both devices pack integrated Vega graphics chips, the 5800U has 8 CUs clocked at up to 2GHz, while the 4500U only has 6 CUs clocked at up to 1.5GHz, so performance should also greatly favor the GDP handheld.
There might be a third competitor in the space as well, from GPD's own lineup. GPD just announced the Win 3, featuring an Intel Tiger Lake CPU and a form factor similar to the Nintendo Switch Lite, with a built-in keyboard. The use of a Tiger Lake CPU gives the Win 3 Intel's latest Xe Graphics, which might be more powerful than AMD's current Vega graphics — depending on the games used.
It will be interesting to see where the Ryzen 7 5800U equipped GPD device lands in the handheld market. Will gamers prefer a beefier CPU, or a potentially more powerful GPU, and how will the various options actually stack up? We'll have to wait to find out.
