How Long Will AMD Support AM5 Motherboards?

When building a new gaming PC or upgrading a current rig, scoping out the right processor is an important step. Locking in your choice between Intel or AMD processors isn't enough — you need to consider factors such as performance, cost, and most importantly, compatibility. You may have seen a combination of numbers and letters when shopping for CPUs or motherboards, such as AM4 or AM5.

These indicate the CPU socket, which defines compatibility and dictates which CPUs fit. AMD is currently building consumer-grade CPUs for the AM5 socket, and if you wish to use one of these CPUs, you will specifically be shopping for motherboards that support AM5 CPUs. It's worth noting that CPU architecture is a different tale, and the way brands name everything can make it a bit confusing. While AM4 and AM5 are socket types, AMD's processors run on different architectures — Zen 3, Zen 4, Zen 5, and so on. A single socket type can support multiple CPU architectures, which is usually the case with AMD.

Although AM5 CPUs and motherboards are the newest you can get if you're shopping for AMD builds, it helps to know how long AMD plans to support the socket. AMD's recent roadmap suggests that AM5 will stick around at least through 2027.

AMD announced the new AM5 platform in 2022 alongside the release of the Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000 Series processors. AM5 and its accompanying new chipsets brought about noticeable feature upgrades, including the ability to handle higher wattages, PCIe 5.0, faster Wi-Fi 6E connectivity, and support for DDR5 memory. All of these allow manufacturers of components like CPUs, graphics cards, and RAM sticks to push performance and efficiency even higher compared to previous platforms.

We're already on the Zen 5 architecture, and AMD's announcement at Computex 2024 reassured PC enthusiasts everywhere that the company plans to support the AM5 platform at least through 2027 and beyond. AMD CEO Lisa Su took the stage and mentioned the unmatched socket longevity that the previous AM4 platform offered, which is closing in nearly a decade's worth of support, covering over 145 CPUs and APUs. AM4 even got a new CPU as recently as June 2025, when AMD announced a new budget-oriented AM4 chip, the Ryzen 5 5500X3D.

If you're building fresh, though, going with AM5 makes more sense. The upcoming Zen 6 CPUs will also use the AM5 platform, and, if AMD's track record is anything to go by, we might even see another generation of Ryzen CPUs on the same socket. That said, those with stricter budgets can still yield great value out of an AM4 build — some of the best AMD CPUs for gaming include the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, which is based on the AM4-compatible Zen 3 architecture.