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AMD’s AM5 is the new socket type for the yet-to-release AMD Ryzen 7000 series of processors on the Zen 4 architecture. Like the processor, we have yet to see anything from motherboard manufacturers regarding the AM5 socket.
We’re going to provide everything we know about the socket so far such as the AM5 release date and new technologies and speculate on a few other exciting details too. This page will be updated with all the latest AM5 socket news so come back and check daily if you want the very latest details.
Latest News: AM5 and Zen 4 to release in “Fall 2022” confirms AMD CEO, DR. Lisa Su at Computex 2022.
Dr. Lisa Su, the CEO of AMD, has announced that the release date for both AM5 motherboards and Zen 4 CPUs will be scheduled for Fall 2022, meaning we could see Ryzen 7000 CPUs hit the shelves as early as September. Check out our Zen 4 release date page for more details.
Have any questions about Zen 4 and Ryzen 7000 series CPUs? check out our AMD Zen 4 everything we know page.
Or does the Ryzen 6000 series tickle your fancy? Try everything we know about the AMD Ryzen 6000 series article.
Some of the topics we will be discussing in this article are:
- What is AM5?
- What is LGA 1718?
- AM5 release date
- AM5 socket
- AM5 Chipsets
- DDR5 RAMP technology
- AM5 news
- AM5 leaks
What is AM5?
The AM5 socket is set to replace the current long-standing AM4 socket to house the up-and-coming Zen 4 Ryzen CPUs and it has very big shoes to fill after the massive success of its predecessor.
Intel switches its socket type every couple of years whereas AMD kept AM4 in the running for six years but now, it’s time for a change.
Not much is known about AM5 yet but the most notable difference with AM4 is the move from PGA to the land grid array CPU socket (LGA) with 1718 pins, 18 pins more than the latest Intel CPU socket.
What is LGA 1718?
LGA stands for land grid array and has been Intel’s socket of choice since 2006 but now with AMD making the switch, we thought it would be beneficial to run you through what LGA actually is.
LGA is a packaging technology with a rectangular grid of contacts called ‘lands’. This differs from the PGA or pin grid array packaging technology that AMD currently uses.
The pin grid array is similar to the land grid array layout, but in place of “lands”, you have pins protruding from the bottom of the chip itself. Compared to PGA, LGA reduces the likelihood of damage to the chip either before or during the installation process. This is just one of many benefits to LGA.
AM5 release date
AM5 motherboards are set to release alongside Zen 4 CPU in “Fall 2022” says AMD CEO Dr. Lisa Su, at Computex 2022. A fall 2022 release date means we could see all three current AM5 chipsets, X670E, X670, and B650, hit the shelves as early as September 2022.
There’s no specific release date information yet, but we’re sure we will get some information via leaks or official AMD announcements in the coming months.
The 600 series AM5 motherboards
The AMD 600 series AM5 motherboards have been announced at Computex 2022 and will release sometime in the Fall of this year. The New motherboards are set to feature a whole host of new technology including DDR5 support, 24 ultrafast PCIe lanes capable of gen 5 speeds, and 14 super speed USB ports, boasting 20GB/s speeds – just to name a few.
There are three chipsets for AM5 have been announced, these are the X670E, X670, and B650. Of course, much like the current-gen, these motherboards will ship with different features and be targeted toward different users within the market.
The current hierarchy stands at:
- X670E (extreme) is the best of the best, featuring all the connectivity powered by the latest and fastest technology – DDR5, PCIe 5 – and the most extreme overclocking potential.
- X670 will feature some PCIe gen 5 connectivity, but not all PCIe or M.2 slots. X670 will also most likely have less connectivity, but will still feature strong overclocking potential
- B650 is the budget option, being a more bare-bones motherboard with less connectivity. The perfect balance of price point and capability – featuring all the connectivity that AM5 has to offer, but none or much less of the overclocking capabilities.
If you want to know more about the 600 series AM5 motherboards, check out our 600 series AM5 news piece.
AM5 X670E chipset
The X670E chipset is the best AM5 has to offer, with the letter ‘E’ meaning ‘Extended’. The X670E chipset features all the benefits AMD announced at its keynote, these are PCIe Gen 5 for graphics and storage, SVI-3 power infrastructure for better overclocking and more power stages, and up to four HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.0 ports. The X670E features PCIe connectivity for all of its PCIe slots, meaning primary and secondary PCIe slots, and all M.2 storage slots.
The Extreme version of the X670 is also said to have completely unrestricted overclocking, meaning all the VRMs you could ever need with excellent power staging and delivery.
The X670E is the best of the best, and will most likely cost a pretty penny, These will most likely be your Crosshair Heros and Aorus Extremes.
AM5 X670 chipset
The X670 chipset is the little brother to the X670E, with all of the connectivity, just not as many features. The X670 still features enthusiast-level overclocking support, although it may not feature quite as much delivery support.
The main difference is the PCIe Gen 5 support, with the X670 only having PCIe GPU support in its primary X16 PCIe slot, the rest will be PCIe Gen 4.
Storage remains the same, however, with PCIe Gen 5 powering M.2 storage on both the X670E and X670 motherboards.
The X670 chipset motherboard will likely cost a little less than the X670E, how much exactly we’re not quite sure.
X670 & X67E dual chipset design
The AM5 X670 and X670E will feature a dual chipset design, meaning there are not one but two chipsets on one motherboard. The dual chipset design is relatively unheard of, in fact, AMD didn’t discuss it at all in its keynote presentation at Computex 2022. It was MSI that spilled the beans on the high-end X670 chipset design.
Why use two chipsets though? well, good question. One huge complaint among X570 consumers was the loud active chipset cooling solution that motherboards were coupled with. This time around AMD decided to double the chipsets and spread the processing load among them, meaning each chipset individually won’t have to work as hard, lessening the heat generated.
Not much is known about the nature of the dual chipset design, however, we know that they’re most likely going to be dual B650 chipstes.
If you would like to read more on the subject, we have an “MSI shows off dual X670 chipset design” news piece for you to read.
AM5 B650 chipset
The B650 chipset is the budget-oriented AM5 motherboard. The B650 will not feature any overclocking support and will most likely have much fewer VRMs, as a result.
The B650 chipset will not feature PCIe Gen 5 capabilities for any of its PCIe slots, 8x or 16X. However, the B650 will still feature PCIe Gen 5 storage technology for compatible M.2 SSDs.
If you want to know more, check out our X670E vs X670 vs B650 chipset page.
This next section contains old news.
Here are all the unofficial leaks and tweets pertaining to AM5 and its release date. We feel it’s important to leave it here for a while so you can admire all the sources and all the hard work that went into figuring out AMD’s plans before it announced them.
You can skip ahead to “AMD AM5 socket and mounting mechanism” if you do not wish to read all the unofficial leaks.
A prolific Twitter leaker (who has posted AMD’s internal road maps in the past) named Greymon55 suggests that the Zen 4 CPU’s release will not be in Q4 at all, despite earlier indications. As we know we will see AM5 socket motherboards released alongside AMD’s Raphael CPUs.
In a response to Hassan Mujtaba from Wccftech, Greymon55 confirmed that the launch is set to go ahead before September 2022. Could we see an August release date for Zen 4/AM5?
getwinder Zen 4 leak
As we know Zen 4 and AM5 have to release simultaneously as one is useless without the other.
There has been another Zen 4 leak by getwinder over at Chiphell suggesting that Zen 4 CPUs could see the light of day in April 2022. With that, we should also see AM5 motherboards hit the shelves if the leak is to be true.
AM5 release date: Mass production
Twitter leaker Greymon55 took to Twitter to suggest that the AMD Ryzzen 7000 series CPU could enter mass production as early as April – May. This lines the CPU up for an August – September release date if AMD production history is to repeat itself. This of course means that the AM5 motherboards will be released alongside the brand new Raphael CPUs.
If you’d like to read more on these leaks and what they mean, check out the Zen 4 article we wrote, where we explain them in more detail.
AM5 pre-production and Q3 2022 launch (rumor)
Wccftech reports that announcements regarding AM5 and Zen 4 CPUs are expected to be delivered at Computex 2022, one of the world’s largest tech conventions that usually takes place at the end of May.
based on information gained from the Chinese website Enthusiastic Citizen The X670 series of AM5 motherboard will likely launch alongside the Zen 4 CPU sometime in mid-Q3 2022, this looks like a similar launch cycle to the Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 series CPU – That is if the rumor proves true, it looks like it might be, however, as an August release might be on the cards. This is in line with rumors of Zen 4 entering mass production early this quarter. (see above)
AM5 HWINFO support
AM5 and Zen 4 compatibility was added to HWINFO on 15/02/2022 in update v7.20, and with it came some information around a possible release date for AM5.
With HWINFO releasing an update adding support for Ryzen 7000 series and AM5 motherboards, we can make some assumptions around its release date. Historically, HWINFO adds compatibility for technology three to six months prior to launch or release. meaning we could very well see a mid-year release date for AM5.
AM5 will ship with support for DDR5 only
There have been many hints by AMD in the past that AM5 and the Ryzen 7000 series will be based around the DDR5 memory standard and, recently, AMD’s representatives in AMD’s ‘meet the experts’ webinar confirmed that Raphael will be AMD’s first DDR5-based platform.
AM5 code name leaked on OpenBenchmarking.org
Among other information surrounding Zen 4, we got a sneaky look at the AM5 motherboard code name from a benchmarking submission on OpenBenchmarking.org. The post has since been removed, but somebody managed to grab a screenshot.
We examine all this information more closely in our “Zen 4 CPU leaked with 5.2GHZ Boost & RDNA 2 iGPU” news piece, but for now, we’re only interested in the motherboard information.
The codename is printed as the AMD Splinter-RPL (WS22427N BIOS). This doesn’t really give us much to go on for now, but we’ll be on the lookout for announcements at Computex 2022 later this month. Stay tuned for more information.
End of the old news section
AMD AM5 socket and mounting mechanism
The first motherboard chipset to feature the AM5 socket should be part of the AMD 600 series of motherboards.
There’s a surprising amount of information floating around about AMD’s new Socket AM5. One of the most notable and exciting pieces of information comes from Igor’sLAB which shared a leaked render of the AM5 (LGA 1718) socket and all of its components, most likely obtained from the gigabyte hack last year.
Igor’sLAB noticed differences in the AM5 socket compared to LGA1700 in the sense that the backplate is now attached to the Socket Actuation Mechanism (SAM) with four screws ensuring the backplate is always aligned with the socket.
We know how frustrating it can be trying to mount a new cooler to your AM4 based CPU, just to have the backplate fall off and disappear seemingly into the abyss at the bottom of your PC case. However, with this new AM5 SAM attachment, the backplate will never budge an inch, making cooler installations easier than ever.
Not only this but we observe a tweet from ExecutableFix suggesting that the socket will retain the 40x40mm dimensions, this we think is a pretty safe bet, given the fact that AMD has confirmed that thanks to an innovative IHS design on the Ryzen 7000 series CPUs AM5 will retain AM4 cooler compatibility.
AM5 Coolers
Speaking of coolers, AMD confirmed during the company’s keynote at CES 2022 that the AM5 socket will be fully compatible with AM4 based coolers. This is all thanks to a similar backplate screw configuration and a nifty yet unorthodox IHS design on the 7000 series CPUs themselves.
This is some of the biggest news to date. This avoids the whole Intel LGA 1151/1200 coolers needing a special backplate adapter to fit the LGA1700 socket, a problem we all wish didn’t exist. This is good news for AMD fans.
AM5 backplate
There’s a lot of excitement around the compatibility of AM4 coolers on the AM5 platform, but we think it’s important to discuss the backplate for a second because all isn’t what it seems.
The two pre-installed “clip” factory mounting kits that ship with AM4 motherboards will make a return on AM5. This kit can competently and securely fit cooling solutions weighing up to 500 grams before the weight becomes a problem, same as AM4.
Nothing here changes and you will be able to continue to use AM4 coolers in this configuration.
The problem with backward compatibility becomes apparent when you have to remove the default mounting solution to mount anything that either is not compatible with the standard mounting kit or, that weighs over 500 grams.
the new Socket AM5 requires a special backplate whose necessary cut-outs vastly differ from those of the older solutions. in addition to this, the Socket Actuation Mechanism (SAM) is screwed directly into the backplate.
These two points rule out the possibility of using AM4 coolers with their own backplates. In a scenario where an adapted backplate is needed for the AM4 cooler, the manufacturer would have to provide an adapted one, similar to the case with Intel’s LGA1151/LGA1200 to LGA1700 cooler compatibility.
AM5 socket benefits
Besides lessening the likelihood of damage to the CPU during the installation process there are a few benefits to making the switch over to LGA with AM5 for both business and consumer.
One of the consumer benefits to LGA is the improved signal integrity with better contact and this isn’t just marketing bloat. Another big benefit to LGA is the fact that LGA ‘lands’ take up less physical space with the corresponding motherboard pins tending to be smaller than those of the PGA configuration. This leaves much more room for more contacts within the same surface area.
This is beneficial because as you know, the CPU is the brain of the PC that has to be perfectly intertwined with the rest of the system and its workings to operate in complete synergy. The more pins and points of contact you have on the CPU the more open to new features the CPU will be.
It’s well known that not every single CPU pin and contact pad has a use, some are ground and some are not used at all and your PC wouldn’t miss a beat if the pin wasn’t present. They’re just there ready to be given use in future iterations of the technology. But these unassigned pins are finite and with LGA adding more pins because of the lower space demand of the LGA socket, there’s extended upgradability and capacity for additional features.
There’s a manufacturer benefit to this switch too.
Manufacturer benefits to AM5
The simple and biggest driving force behind the switch is LGA CPU types are cheaper and require less effort to manufacture. Thinking about it logically it would be far easier to line up 1,718 gold-plated copper lands than it would be to line up 1,718 tiny pins that are smaller than grains of rice.
One other reason is RMAs – with AMD making the switch it means motherboard manufacturers are now responsible for constructing the delicate sockets that contain the even more delicate, precious pins that are so vital to the CPU’s function.
That means AMD is no longer responsible for fragile pins during the manufacturing or shipping process, reducing accidental damage during construction and damage in shipping invalidating CPUs during this component scarcity crisis.
AM5 chipsets
This piece is purely speculative but AMD confirmed that the first motherboard to feature the new AM5 socket will be a 600 series motherboard. This confirms AMD is keeping up with the traditions of advancing the generations by one numerical value (500 series to 600 series)
The release of the 500 series motherboards was staggered over three months.
- B550 was released in June 2020.
- X570 was released in July 2019
- A520 released in August 2020
The reason we mention this is we could see a similar story with the 600 series of motherboards. Again this is all speculation but could we see the x670 be the first AM5 motherboard on the market?
Another interesting speculation to make is built around the A420 chipset.
AMD released an A320 chipset back in February 2017 and they also released an A520 chipset in August 2020, but there’s no A420 chipset to be seen.
This suggests that AMD maybe skipping a generation. We may not see an A620 chipset in AMD’s motherboard lineup. The decision to skip the A420 chipset created confusion, but if AMD happen to order motherboard manufacturers to skip the A620 chipset this time around, it would make a little more sense with all the material shortages occurring right now.
AMD AM5 platform block diagram
The PCH names are not fully confirmed however but we assume follow the historical trend. Features of AM5 motherboards are expected to expand as the AM5 platform matures, as we saw with AM4. the AM4 platform saw mass amounts of updates throughout its life cycle such as PCIe Gen 4, Smart access memory, advanced PBO configurations, and much more. The same can be expected for AM5 although it’s already off to a flying start with DDR5 and PCIe Gen 5 support.
AM5 RAMP technology
It looks like the upgrade to LGA isn’t the only significant technological advancement around AM5. DDR5 memory is said to get a significant boost on the AM5 platform thanks to the all-new AMD RAMP technology.
RAMP stands for (Ryzen Accelerated Memory Profile) and is the response to Intel’s XMP 3.0 profile and is set to be the successor to A-XMP for DDR4.
The existence of RAMP was first suggested in patch notes around HWINFO beta release of version 7.17 where one of the notes stated, “added preliminary support of AMD RAMP’, although this note has since been redacted.
It has recently been indicated that RAMP tech may be something different entirely. It may be a dual profile replacement for the current D.O.C.P tech, the new name is reported by many as AMD EXPO. We do have an article on the matter if you’d like to delve further.
In addition to DDR5 support, the new AM5 socket motherboards will feature support for the PCIe Gen5 GPUs/storage options but as of yet no devices that support PCIe Gen5 exist, while DDR5 is currently pretty scarce thanks to a major shortage of PMICs (power management integrated circuits). As a result of this, we have seen prices skyrocket.
Hopefully by the end of 2022, post AM5 launch, we will see stock become more available and prices lowered, but we wouldn’t bank on it, unfortunately.
AM5 news and leaks
News
We will add news surrounding AM5 here as it comes, check back later for more news.
Leaks
- Block diagram of AMD 600-series chipset for AM5 socket CPUs | VideoCardz – 20th August 2021
- Tweet from ExecutableFix suggesting AM5 and Zen 4 features | Twitter – 22nd May 2021
- AMD Raphael sooner than expected? | VideoCardz – 11th February 2022
- AMD AM5 delays suggested. | Twitter – 6th March 2022
- AMD 7000 Series to enter mass production in April – May | Greymon55 – 29th March
- AMD 7000 and AM5 could be releasing as soon as August | Wccftech – 16th April
- AM5 and Zen 4 will only support DDR5 at launch | CapFrameX – 26 April
- Zen 4 CPU OpenBenchmarking leak | Tom’s Hardware – 14 May
(All leaks are marked as speculation and if confirmed will move into the news section)
We will add leaks surrounding AM5 here as they come, check back later for more leaks.
