AM5 is just too pricey
DDR5 pricing is turning PC builds into a bad joke, so AMD is dusting off AM4 and pretending it is a fresh idea ot keep the boxes moving.
After chatter about board partners ramping AM4 motherboard supply this year, the bigger problem is chips, and AMD is now talking up more AM4-compatible processors.
In an interview with Tom’s Hardware, AMD, Ryzen chief David McAfee confirmed the company is trying to push more silicon into the ageing platform.
AMD, Ryzen chief David McAfee said: “AMD is certainly looking at everything that it can do to bring more supply and kind of reintroduce products back into the [AM4] ecosystem to satisfy the demands of gamers that maybe want that significant upgrade in their AM4 platform without having to rebuild their entire system,”
AM4 is now nine years old, has hosted a stack of Ryzen generations, and still refuses to die because people like reusing the bits they already own.
With DDR5 platforms such as AM5 and LGA 1851 making builds pricier, DDR4 rigs look like the sensible option, even if “sensible” is doing a lot of heavy lifting.
Sales data floating around retailers has been kind to older Ryzen parts, with Ryzen 5000-series chips and even Zen 2-era Ryzen 5 3600 popping up on best-seller lists in North America and Europe.
That makes AMD’s problem obvious. If demand is swinging back to AM4, the company has to ship enough CPUs to stop the channel turning into a scalper’s playground.
The real shortage pain is at the top end, where the best gaming chips for AM4 used to be the 5000X3D parts.
AMD discontinued the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and 5700X3D last year, and Ryzen 5 5600X3D has been hard to find, leaving gamers staring at upgrades that aren’t really upgrades.
There is also the little tease sitting in the background, with AMD hinting a Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 “Dual 3D V-Cache” CPU might still happen and telling everyone to “Stay Tuned”.
Even if AMD floods the zone with older parts, do not expect the market to play nice, because DDR4 is climbing too, just not as brutally as DDR5 right now.
