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
Anything else? Chipset link will probably be upgraded to PCIe 5 x4 and the two remaining PCIe 5 x4 links may get lane-splitting abilities. All of that can be done on AM5.
We could also speculate about an "AM5+" socket. It would be a surprise but not a big one.
However, to be fair, Intel's current scheme of having two possible RAM types is exceedingly rare. The last time that I saw it wasn't even on a platform, it was on a single motherboard, the ASRock 4CoreDual-VSTA. It was an early LGA775 motherboard that had perhaps the most innovative northbridge that I've ever seen, the VIA PT880 Ultra. I purchased this board to make switching from my Pentium-4 platform easier. That board supported both DDR and DDR2 along with both AGP and PCI-Express. Again, it was because the RAM controller was part of the northbridge, not the CPU itself. Such a setup would've been impossible on an AMD platform.
What AMD did that I thought was a serious mistake (and annoyed the hell out of me as well) was the creation of the Ryzen 9 7900X3D, easily the most pointless Zen5 CPU ever released (the Ryzen 9 7950X3D is in second place for that "honour"). Instead of making a CPU that nobody would buy, they should have instead cut the R9-7900X3D dice in half, put the 3D V-Cache on both CCX's and sold them as the R5-7600X3D. Their pricing structure would've easily supported it as their X3D CPUs were priced the same as the X CPUs in the tier above. So, the R9-7900X3D cost the same as the R9-7950X, the R7-7800X3D cost the same as the R9-7900X, and the R5-7600X3D would've cost the same as the R7-7700X. I believe that the AM5 adoption rate would've tripled if they had done that. Instead, they created CPUs that were so cynical that I found their existence downright offensive.
The R9-7950X3D was almost as useless because it's weaker in games than the far less-expensive R7-7800X3D and it's weaker in production than the also less-expensive R9-7950X so it was pretty pointless. The R9-7900X3D was the same situation only worse because it was even weaker in games than the R9-7950X3D and weaker in productivity than the R9-7900X which makes it completely pointless.
An R5-7600X3D would've been a guaranteed home-run, but instead AMD decided to bunt. :kookoo: As an R7-5800X3D owner, I couldn't agree more. I expect around five years before I'll be forced to upgrade (I could be wrong about the five years but it'll be at least three). I hope that you're right. Falling prices are good for all of us. However, there's something else to consider... If you want 10Gbps ethernet, you could just buy an add-on card like this one for less than $20USD:
10G Double Port Ethernet Card - $18USD
People these days never seem to remember that not everything has to be on-board. We have PCI-Express slots for a reason yet most people leave them empty. I just have CAT5 cables running everywhere (not out in the open, but you know what I mean). I like my internet hard-wired because my apartment is long and rectangular. The design doesn't lend itself to high-speed WiFi very well. I used to use ethernet over powerline adapters and those things are awesome, but they all eventually burn out and they're not cheap. I use WiFi for my phone and tablet but I don't do any serious file transfers with those so it doesn't matter. On the other hand, downloading a game from Steam would probably take 1.5-2x as long as it does now with my PC being hard-wired.
I also think it's ridiculous that we're using 5G cellphones when a 50MB app on a phone is considered large. I'm still using a 4G phone and I don't have any desire to upgrade to something that will do the exact same things that my phone does now.
If the 9800X3D is that faster than the 7800X3D, I don’t think we see a 10000 series on AM5. AMD will kill AM5 and introduce AM6 and 10KX3D regardless the memory support tradition they have been following.
From AMD's perspective, it would've been far more consumer-friendly and profitable for them to have made an R5-7600X3D instead of the R9-5900X3D (or make both if they wanted to). Sure, the R9-5900X3D works for you and that's great. The problem is that most people don't want it but I would be willing to bet that a good number of R5-7600 and R5-7600X owners would've been willing to stretch to the price of the R7-7700X if a 6-core X3D CPU was on offer. It would've been an incredible gaming value, for many, too incredible to pass up.
Instead... they didn't. This is how AMD shoots itself in the foot through its own stupidity.
I think that they are doing just fine in the CPU space especially as this is the first generation of Hanfheld APUs with RDNA Graphics. I was watching ETA Prime this moring and he built a 8700G based system using an AS Rock A620 (120 hz support on HDMI) and was getting over 140 FPS at 1080P low playing CP2077 with Frame Gen. The next chip should be even faster.
If you had invested in the AM5 platform, they have you because you'd have to buy a motherboard to get off of it and if the platform is long-lived (which it probably will be), all of your CPU upgrades are going to be to AMD models. It's great for them because people would probably get top-end models for their upgrades and it's great for users because they get to keep using a motherboard that they already own which makes for much cheaper (and much easier) upgrades. What AMD should have done is release an R5-7600X3D to get gamers on-board and then omit a budget X3D CPU in the later models.
The thing about AM5 is that once you have a user on-board, you're guaranteed more CPU sales in the future. That's what they should've focused on.
This applies to both PC and consoles.
If we think about the consoles, the clear upgrade for them was not the GPU, not the NVME, but the CPU, they finally dropped jaguar, and you can really tell when playing on consoles now, the experience is so much better. However on those platforms the CPU is like the forgotten child, the under appreciated if you like.
On PC, I feel its similar but perhaps less pronounced as people upgrading are not necessarily having such a big jump like from jaguar to Zen 2. Many of the recent titles reviewed it was revealed problems went away when you stuck a latest gen intel in there or a X3D AMD in there. Trying to play one of these titles on a CPU from say 2020 was really painful. GPUs are far easier to deal with, turn down resolution, turn down shadows, turn down lighting, you will eventually have a playable game. Whilst if the CPU is bottlenecking you "might" if turning down the frame rate get out of the mess, if that isnt a go you have to upgrade or grit your teeth.
When I upgraded my platform so many games which previously had issues are now much more playable. FF15 is an example, on even CPUs just a few years old (the game is older), the game will just freeze for a second or two as you playing it, is videos still being made about it. But on a latest gen CPU, the game is finally rid of those freezes. Same with FF13-2, LR, tales of zestiria, and many other titles, trend here is JRPGs which are usually horribly optimised for PC.
On the subject of AM5, from where I sit AMD has/had a degree of arrogance, they have finally come good in the CPU space, and are in a good place with the products they are producing, this is now reflected in their pricing, in particular the platform cost. I expect AMD simply felt they would sell huge numbers of AM5, even with high pricing and a DDR5 requirement. I think the pricing is a barrier, but also there will be people waiting for a AM5 new set of CPUs and maybe new boards with the hope the DDR5 compatibility issues get resolved. For some reason AM5 boards cost more than Intel boards, I think this is either due to the AMD chipset having a higher licensing cost or board vendors knowing the boards last longer for CPU support are compensating themselves. Although I have noticed things are going that way on intel's side also with Z790 being more expensive than Z690.
If AM5 supported DDR4 and had a lower cost, I think there would have been much more jumping on it, but board vendors likely would have wanted compensation for that.
As far as DDR4 support I agree but at the same time it is not like AM4 is not viable.
Guaranteed software updates for AM4 CPUs until at least 2025 I would totally get that CPU if I didn't already have a 5800X3D on my AM4 platform. Its performance and efficiency are out of this world. I would go so far as to say that the 7800X3D the greatest gaming CPU that I've ever seen. These charts just say it all:
Gaming performance:
Power Use:
Compared to Intel's fastest gaming CPU, it's 6% faster on average and it uses less than 25% of the power. This is why I laugh when I see someone talking about how GeForce uses less power than Radeon but there they are with an Intel 13/14700K(S)/900K(S) CPU. It just destroys their credibility to me. :laugh: