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The Zhongshan Subor Z+ was announced in 2018 as a China-focused gaming PC and console hybrid. Its unusual centerpiece was a custom AMD SoC combining four Zen CPU cores with Radeon Vega graphics and 8 GB of high-bandwidth GDDR5 shared by the system. It was shown and extensively specified, but the evidence for a sustained retail launch is weak; today it is best understood as a technically ambitious, commercially obscure project.
What the Subor Z+ was—and what it was not
Subor, also known by the Chinese name Xiaobawang, was historically associated with low-cost Nintendo-compatible systems in China. The Z+ represented a much more ambitious attempt to reposition the brand: a compact machine that could function as a conventional Windows gaming PC or present a console-style interface in the living room.
That made it a hybrid, not a closed console in the PlayStation or Xbox mold. Its PC mode was intended to expose Windows 10, while the console experience would run through a custom Windows-based shell and curated game library. It did not have evidence of the kind of mature, global first-party ecosystem associated with major dedicated consoles.
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Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →Outbyte Driver Updater FREEScan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →The project attracted attention because a Chinese company was reported to be working with AMD on semi-custom silicon rather than simply putting a retail Ryzen processor in a small PC. AMD describes semi-custom products as customer-specific designs built using AMD CPU and GPU technology (AMD’s 2018 annual filing).
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The custom AMD processor
Contemporary reporting described the Z+’s SoC as a four-core Zen CPU paired with Radeon Vega graphics. The published specifications were striking for a compact 2018 system:
| Component | Reported specification |
|---|---|
| CPU architecture | AMD Zen |
| CPU | 4 cores at 3.0 GHz; SMT, for 8 threads, reported |
| GPU architecture | Radeon Vega |
| GPU | 24 compute units at 1.3 GHz reported |
| Theoretical graphics throughput | About 4 TFLOPS |
| Memory | 8 GB GDDR5, external to the SoC |
| Memory interface | 256-bit; 256 GB/s reported bandwidth |
The 24 compute units were the reported active configuration, not necessarily the total number physically present on the die. The chip may have included extra units for manufacturing redundancy. Likewise, the roughly 4-TFLOPS figure is a theoretical calculation from the reported GPU configuration and clock—not a game benchmark or a promise of a particular frame rate.
One important early ambiguity was whether the GDDR5 was integrated into the processor package. AMD clarified that it was external to the SoC; contemporary photographs appeared to show eight memory packages around the processor. The arrangement was therefore not an APU with on-package high-bandwidth memory. It was a custom board-level memory system, closer in concept to a console’s shared-memory design than a conventional desktop AM4 APU.
Why shared GDDR5 mattered
Ordinary desktop integrated graphics of the period used system DDR4 memory, whose bandwidth was far below the reported 256 GB/s of the Z+’s GDDR5 arrangement. More bandwidth can help a GPU avoid being constrained by memory throughput, and a shared pool can reduce some CPU-to-GPU copying.
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The trade-off is capacity. CPU, operating system, and graphics workloads all had to draw from the same reported 8 GB pool. The exact allocation policy—fixed reservation or dynamic sharing—was not established, so it is not possible to say precisely how much memory games or Windows would have had available. Nor could an owner upgrade that memory by installing faster DIMMs.
AMD’s contemporary desktop Ryzen APUs also combined Zen and Vega, but they were retail products with a different memory and platform design. The Z+ was not a standard Ryzen APU in a console-shaped case. For context on the desktop products announced around the same time, see AMD’s 2018 Zen and Vega product preview.
Reported system specifications
Most of the following details came from the announced specification and contemporary reporting, rather than a broad independent retail-unit validation. Ethernet was indicated in a later update based on additional photographs; the exact M.2 drive interface was not resolved.
| Area | Announced or reported details | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| Chassis | 4.9-liter enclosure; integrated power supply | Published product specification |
| Storage | 128 GB M.2 SSD; optional 1 TB hard drive | SATA versus NVMe for the M.2 drive was unclear |
| Video output | HDMI 2.0; 4K60 output claimed; HDCP 1.4 | Output capability does not establish native 4K gaming |
| USB | Four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports reported | Port details appeared in announced specifications |
| Networking | 802.11ac Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.1; Ethernet indicated | Ethernet was supported by later photographic evidence |
| Audio and VR | S/PDIF; VR support advertised | Compatibility and performance were not independently established |
| Power and acoustics | 30 W low-power/background-download mode and about 33 dB at full performance claimed | Marketing figures, not independently measured results |
The advertised 4K60 figure should be read as a display-output claim, not proof that demanding games could render at native 4K and 60 frames per second. Video playback, upscaled output, and native-resolution game rendering are different workloads. The same caution applies to VR: the claim indicates intended support, not a verified headset ecosystem or confirmed performance target.
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PC mode and console mode
The announced software concept offered a Windows 10 PC mode and a console mode with a custom Z+ interface. The latter was reported to use Windows 10 IoT Enterprise as its base. That is best understood as a Windows-based environment intended to control navigation and simplify the living-room experience—not a wholly proprietary operating system equivalent to console system software.
Subor’s pitch reportedly included a curated library of Chinese-developed and international games, with an emphasis on esports and recognizable competitive titles. The idea was to combine the breadth of PC software with a console-like front end. But the available record does not establish that every advertised content, interface, or service feature reached a sustained shipping product.
What the performance claims can—and cannot—tell us
AnandTech placed the GPU broadly around RX 570-class positioning as an architectural estimate. That is useful as rough context, not as proof that the Z+ matched a retail graphics card in games. Performance would depend on the final clocks and power limits, cooling, driver quality, memory allocation, game-engine behavior, and resolution and settings. A full independent benchmark record is not established by the reported specifications.
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Several key details remained unresolved in contemporary coverage, including exact TDP, memory partitioning, cache configuration, and the SSD interface. Estimates of system power consumption were speculation, not measured figures. A small chassis and impressive bandwidth alone cannot settle how the machine performed under sustained gaming loads.
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Price and project economics
The reported 2018 price was 4,998 RMB, including Chinese VAT. AnandTech’s contemporary comparison put the pre-tax figure at about 4,270 RMB and roughly US$625 at the time; a simple currency conversion that produced about US$730 did not account for the tax distinction. Neither figure is a current US price. Import costs, shipping, warranty and reseller markups would also have affected the cost outside China.
The project was reported to involve about 400 million RMB—roughly US$58–60 million at the time. AnandTech offered a back-of-the-envelope break-even estimate of around 250,000 units based on assumed costs and margins. That was an analytical estimate, not a disclosed sales target or a verified financial result.
Did the Subor Z+ actually launch?
The clearest answer is: it was announced and demonstrated, but a sustained conventional retail launch is not established. The Z+ appeared at ChinaJoy in 2018, and working demonstration hardware was photographed. Contemporary reports listed PC availability for August and console-mode availability later that year. Those plans are not evidence that the product achieved broad or lasting sales.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsLater enthusiast accounts describe the hardware as rare or never officially released. A small-form-factor enthusiast project also discusses Subor Z+ hardware or a reconstruction running standard Windows 10, suggesting that some hardware circulated, but this is not authoritative company confirmation of production or sales. There is no current official sales or support channel established here. That does not prove no units were sold or that no surviving examples exist; it means the final production volume, sales and formal cancellation status remain unclear.
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- Cool Comfort: Enjoy a stable surface with our lap desk's dual bolster cushion, designed for comfort and airflow, keeping your lap cool during extended use.
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Later forum discussion has also alleged that custom-APU driver updates were unavailable. That is anecdotal rather than an official AMD or Subor statement, but it illustrates the support risk of a bespoke platform: a chip that cannot be replaced with a standard retail part depends on continued platform-specific firmware and driver support.
Why the Z+ remains interesting
The Z+ was an unusual application of AMD’s semi-custom approach: Zen CPU cores and Vega graphics configured for a compact gaming system with a shared GDDR5 pool. It showed how far a PC-derived platform could be tailored toward a console-like experience, while retaining a Windows PC mode. Its ambitions were more substantial than its documented commercial footprint.
It was not a direct predecessor to later PlayStation or Xbox generations, nor a retail Ryzen product. Its lasting interest is narrower and more technical: a rare case study in custom silicon, unified memory, and the difficulty of turning compelling specifications into a supported, commercially established gaming platform.
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Sources: AnandTech’s 2018 specification and platform report; AMD 2018 annual filing; AMD’s 2018 Zen/Vega product preview; later enthusiast discussion.
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