APU
The single chip combining CPU cores and a GPU that powers virtually every handheld gaming PC, most commonly AMD's Ryzen Z-series or Strix Point/Halo.
An APU (Accelerated Processing Unit) combines CPU cores and a GPU on one piece of silicon, sharing the same power budget and memory. Because a handheld has no room for a separate discrete graphics card, its entire gaming performance depends on how strong the APU integrated graphics are within a tight thermal and battery envelope.
Almost every mainstream 2026 handheld uses an AMD APU, most commonly from the Ryzen Z-series (Z1, Z1 Extreme, Z2, Z2 Extreme) or the higher-end Strix Point/Strix Halo family, both built on RDNA graphics architecture. A handful of devices use Intel mobile chips instead, generally trailing AMD in efficiency for this form factor.
Why it matters when buying
The APU model is the single biggest driver of a handheld's gaming performance, so compare APU generation and iGPU compute units before anything else. A newer or higher-tier APU at the same TDP will consistently outperform an older one, even if the rest of the spec sheet looks similar.