After much speculation, AMD took center stage at Computex 2022 to reveal its Zen 4 architecture as well as the upcoming next-gen Ryzen 7000 desktop CPUs. More importantly, AMD is ditching the AM4 platform. After using the same socket for the past five years, the company confirmed that the incoming Ryzen 7000 processors will all require a brand-new AM5 socket motherboard. According to AMD, AM5 motherboards will support DDR5 and PCIe 5.0 out of the box. At the same time, the Ryzen 7000 PC chips, which are the first ones based on the 5nm process to hit the market, will enjoy at least 15% faster performance in single-threaded performance than their Zen 3 counterparts. Unfortunately, the new processors might have higher power consumption as AMD is designing the AM5 to support up to 170W of power, which is more than AM4’s 142W maximum power draw rating. Don’t worry, AMD is making sure that the platform change is worth it. In addition to better performance, every AM5 motherboard tier that was part of AMD’s announcement will have at least one PCIe 5.0 NVMe storage slot, including the B650 chipset. Unfortunately, PCIe Gen 5 graphics support is limited to X670 motherboards and optional depending on the manufacturers as well. Don’t expect to get it with B650 motherboards and other more affordable ones. But, all in all, AM5 is a nice upgrade and AMD guarantees that every motherboard will have 24 lanes of PCIe 5.0 bandwidth with support for up to 14 USB 3.x ports, 20Gbps, USB-C, up to 4 x display outputs on the motherboard using either HDMI 2.1 and/or DisplayPort 2. It’s difficult to say that enthusiasts, gamers, and beginners will buy what AMD is selling with AM5. The AM4 is an incredibly rare platform that has established itself as the default choice for most builders over the past five years. It will be difficult to lure AM4 users to migrate to AM5, especially since AMD is still keen on supporting the AM4 platform for the foreseeable future. Only time will tell if AM5 will be a worthy successor to AM4.
