Rumors are swirling that AMD has stopped providing driver updates for its Ryzen Z1 Extreme APU, popular in handheld gaming devices, roughly 2.5 years after its 2023 debut. Sparked by a reported response from Lenovo Korea to a customer inquiry, but without an official AMD confirmation, the picture remains unclear.
Fueling Speculation
According to what is supposedly Lenovo Korea’s response to a customer, the Legion Go equipped with the Ryzen Z1 Extreme will cease receiving new driver updates. Community reports echo this, with users noting devices like the ASUS ROG Ally non-X stuck on outdated drivers from August 2025.
This also ties into an intricate OEM process, where companies such as Lenovo and ASUS test AMD-supplied drivers for their hardware. The Ryzen Z1 Extreme’s flexible TDP that goes from 9W for efficiency to 30W for peak performance demands tailored validation to prevent instability. Speculation points to one of two scenarios, either AMD deprioritizing the aging chip or OEMs slowing testing efforts.
Users have experimented with drivers from Ryzen Z2 Extreme devices, such as the Legion Go S, but Lenovo cautions against it, citing incompatibility that could damage systems. Z2 Extreme owners reportedly enjoy uninterrupted updates.
As no direct statement from AMD has surfaced, the community remains in a state of uncertainty, whether the company has just temporarily slowed down on the updates, or support has really ended for the Ryzen Z1 Extreme.
We’ve already reached out to AMD’s PR Agency in the Philippines for clarification, so we’ll update this one if we do get a response.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Q: Is there official confirmation from AMD?
A: No official statement from AMD has been mentioned in reports.
Q: What role do OEMs play in driver releases?
A: They test AMD drivers for specific TDP configurations to ensure compatibility.
Q: Why avoid drivers from newer models?
A: Lenovo states they are not interchangeable and risk system issues.
Q: Do newer APUs face the same issues?
A: No, Ryzen Z2 Extreme reportedly continues receiving regular updates.
Emman has been writing technical and feature articles since 2010. Prior to this, he became one of the instructors at Asia Pacific College in 2008, and eventually landed a job as Business Analyst and Technical Writer at Integrated Open Source Solutions for almost 3 years.
