The future Ryzen 7000 based on Zen 4 architecture will mean a change of socket and with it of chipset and motherboard, so we will definitely say goodbye to the already veteran AM4, which has accompanied the Zen architecture since its inception. Why will AM5 be a chipset with a long life? We explain it to you.
At its core, a chipset is nothing more than a collection of I / O interfaces that have been placed on a separate chip in order not to make the perimeter of the system's CPU bigger. These have ruled our PC boards since time immemorial and AMD after many years is already planning the next generation AM5 chipset.
A chipset when governing the motherboard is key for communication with expansion ports such as USB, PCI Express or RAM. Every time one of these elements receives a generational upgrade is when it is necessary to change all the connectivity and create a new board, with it a new socket and a new motherboard.
How long will AM5 last versus AM4?
AM5 will be the socket included in motherboards for the next generation of Ryzen desktop processors that we will see in the second half of this year and where it will be key for the implementation of technologies such as PCI Express Gen 5 and DDR5 memory, the second being processor with a Zen architecture after the Ryzen 6000 to support this memory.
Since the AM4 socket has lasted from the Ryzen 1000 to the 5000 and it is possible that this will be repeated with AM5. Of course, this is not only said by us but also by Lisa Su herself, AMD's boss who, in an interview with a question from a journalist about the life that the next generation socket will have, has answered the following:
Well, we are very happy with how AM4 has evolved. We said we were going to keep that socket for a long time - we've done it. We continue to believe that it is good for the community and frankly, it has been good for us as well. As we bring new things, it is time to make a socket transition to new I / O technologies, but at a strategic level it should be very similar.
I cannot tell you how many years it will be, however, I tell you that you should wait for AM5 to be a platform with a long life like AM4 has had . We hope that AM4 will remain in the market for a long time and that both (sockets) will coincide (in the market) for a long time.
The last sentences of Lisa Su's answer make us believe that AMD already have the Ryzen 6000 for AM4 ready, we wonder if, like the laptop versions, they will have support for DDR5 memory. So we will see them in stores at the same time as the Ryzen 7000 that will require the AM5 socket. Will there be therefore and in this case supposedly AM4 motherboards with DDR5?
When would his replacement arrive?
Obviously, it will do so until DDR6 and PCI Express 6.0 appear on the market, especially since they will use PAM-4 encoding instead of the classic NRZ and, therefore, this will mean profound changes in communication that will make necessary changes in the socket as well as the speeds of the I / O Die.
In any case, despite the fact that PCIe Gen 6 is defined today, the DDR6 memory specification has not yet been completed by the JEDEC and it will be several years before we see a hypothetical AM6, so the AM5 chipset it will have a long life.!