Wednesday, December 20th 2023
AMD to Support AM5 Platform with New Products Till 2025 and Beyond
AMD continues to release new Ryzen 5000 series processor models for the Socket AM4 platform to this day, with new processors expected to launch next month. That's over 6 years of longevity for the platform, considering that AMD has extended official Ryzen 5000 series support all the way back to its first line of AM4 motherboards based on the 300-series chipset. The company plans a similar longevity for Socket AM5. In an interview with Overclockers UK, AMD's client channel business head David McAfee said "I think that we certainly recognized that the longevity of the AM4 platforms was one of the biggest reasons that led to the success of Ryzen and as we think and as we think about the future, 2025 and beyond, that decision to move to a next-generation of socket is one that's going to be really thought through really really carefully. We know the impact that moving to a new socket brings and we want to stay on AM5 for as long as we possibly can. We are firmly committed to 2025 and beyond and we will see how long that promise lasts beyond 2025."
AMD Socket AM5 is designed to deliver up to 230 W of package power, and has a contemporary I/O that includes a dual-channel DDR5 memory interface (4x 40-bit sub-channels); and 28 PCIe Gen 5 lanes (x16 PEG, two x4 NVMe, and x4 chipset bus), besides the usual SoC connectivity. With the upcoming Ryzen 8000G "Phoenix" APUs, we could expect to see that the socket even wires out modern display I/O such as DisplayPort 2.1 with USB type-C, and the bandwidth for 12-bit HDR up to 68 billion colors. AMD debuted Socket AM5 with the "Zen 4" microarchitecture, with "Zen 5" expected to launch in 2024. It's conceivable that the company's 2025 client architecture, "Zen 6," could also see its desktop presence on AM5, given that DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen 5 will remain relevant till at least that time.
Sources:
Overclockers UK (YouTube), Wccftech
AMD Socket AM5 is designed to deliver up to 230 W of package power, and has a contemporary I/O that includes a dual-channel DDR5 memory interface (4x 40-bit sub-channels); and 28 PCIe Gen 5 lanes (x16 PEG, two x4 NVMe, and x4 chipset bus), besides the usual SoC connectivity. With the upcoming Ryzen 8000G "Phoenix" APUs, we could expect to see that the socket even wires out modern display I/O such as DisplayPort 2.1 with USB type-C, and the bandwidth for 12-bit HDR up to 68 billion colors. AMD debuted Socket AM5 with the "Zen 4" microarchitecture, with "Zen 5" expected to launch in 2024. It's conceivable that the company's 2025 client architecture, "Zen 6," could also see its desktop presence on AM5, given that DDR5 memory and PCIe Gen 5 will remain relevant till at least that time.
118 Comments on AMD to Support AM5 Platform with New Products Till 2025 and Beyond
Edit: Wow, you're right. There are some low end Asus AM5 boards that lack it.
AM4 brought AMD from the brink of bankruptcy to being the x86 technology leader which is a great thing but it also showed consumers what is possible and upped the ante with regard to consumer expectations. AMD's platforms are named after the DDR number that they use and if AMD manages to keep a single platform for DDR5 like they did with AM4 and DDR4, there's no question that they'll have another big winner on their hands. AM5 is poised to do even more damage to Intel than AM4 did because this time, consumers actually know who AMD is and it shouldn't be nearly as slow on the uptake as AM4 was.
I'm sure that a lot of consumers and pre-built/system integrator companies were initially shy to jump onto the AM4 bandwagon because it was so new and the most recent AMD offering up to that point was the FX-series which, by that point, was horribly outclassed by Intel's Core architecture. With AM5, there's no question that AMD knows what they're doing and, if AMD administers AM5 the same way that they administered AM4, it will exceed the success of AM4 and AM5 will then be the greatest x86 platform ever released.
As consumers, we should keep our fingers crossed because if AM5 turns out to be the worthy successor to AM4 that it could (and should) be, Intel is going to have to stop screwing people (with regard to the forced motherboard upgrades) if it wants to survive. This will be great for consumers because it will mean fewer motherboards that we'd have to purchase (from both sides) with another very positive side-effect, a huge decrease in the amount of e-waste that we produce because motherboards are very large pieces of PCB. That's something that everyone can agree is important.
AMD sticking to a single socket for several years and giving people upgrade options is a great consumer friendly move, unlike Intel.
ZEN6 being a totally brand new micro architecture design including Infinity Link, similar high speed, low latency interconnect found on Radeon GPUs.
ZEN5 to be similar to ZEN4 but with an architecture overhaul, especially in its front end and cache setup.
Also... If both three DRAM makers switch all of their production lines to AI HBM, there will be no DDR to buy anyway, of any generation.
1. Buy the motherboard and processor and keep them for years. Possibly upgrade to the next generation in the case of the processor.
If you bought the 8700K in 2017 and upgraded to the 9900K in 2020 (the price dropped dramatically), you still have a decent processor in 2024. Obviously, if the motherboard holds up.
2. Change processors like socks. I don't really see how you save money in this case by keeping the same motherboard.
If I was AMD, I'd make a revision of AM5 with quad channel DDR5 support. 16 cores and APU's need it.
Still, I've been on AM4 for the past seven years so I figured that I may as well see just how far I can push it as a relevant gaming system. I also figured that the money would be better spent on my RX 7900 XTX because I think that an R7-5800X3D with a 7900 XTX gets better gaming performance than an R7-7800X3D with an RX 7800 XT. :D
I don't think anyone was waiting all these years with an AM4 system, the release of the 5600GT or even the 5700X3D.
All these releases are pointless to me.
Reducing the price of the existing lineup, 5800X3D, 5600X-5950X would be more than enough.
AM5 support till 2025 and beyond may also mean that 9000 and 9000X3D CPUs may be the last one on this socket.
If they release the 9000 on Q3-Q4 2024 and the 9000X3D next year Q2-Q3 for example....then they can just release entry level cpus and apus until 2026 and call it a day.
Anyway, ZEN 5 is coming to AM5 but ZEN 6 is not guaranteed at all.
If I had a 1700 or a 2600, I would like to upgrade to 5800X3D or 5950X, depending on the use case. If I couldn't find at the correct price, then I would go one tier lower, meaning 5800X, 5900X and so on.
I don't see a point I would ever buying a 5700GT, a 5600X3D, 5600GT etc.