Socket AM5


Socket AM5 is a zero insertion force flip-chip land grid array CPU socket designed by AMD that is used for AMD Ryzen microprocessors starting with the Zen 4 microarchitecture. AM5 was launched in September 2022 and is the successor to AM4.
The Ryzen 7000 series processors were the first AM5 processors. The 7000 series added support for PCI Express 5.0 and DDR5.

Background

In March 2017, with the launch of its new Zen processors, AMD used the AM4 socket that they had previously used with their Bristol Ridge powered Athlon X4 and some A-Series, a pin grid array socket that they promised to support until 2020.

Announcement

At CES 2022, AMD CEO Lisa Su unveiled the AM5 socket and the integrated heat spreader design for the upcoming Ryzen 7000 processors due in late 2022.
On May 23, 2022, AMD provided details about the AM5 socket, its corresponding motherboards, and Ryzen 7000 Series CPUs at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan. At Computex, motherboard vendors ASRock, Gigabyte and others debuted their new X670 motherboards featuring the AM5 socket.
AMD stated that it plans to support the AM5 socket for a number of years as it did with the AM4 socket. During the Ryzen 7000 series reveal on August 29, 2022, AMD confirmed that it would support the AM5 socket until at least 2025. At Computex 2024, AMD announced that this support period would then be extended through 2027.

Features

  • Supports DDR5 in dual-channel configuration. DDR4 is not supported, unlike Intel's LGA 1700 socket.
  • Support for PCIe 5.0 lanes from the CPU on X870E, X870, B850, X670E and B650E chipsets
  • Achieves 170 W TDP and a Package Power Tracking limit up to 230 W

    Heatsink

The AM5 socket specifies four holes for fastening the heatsink to the motherboard to be placed at the corners of a rectangle with a lateral length of 54×90 mm, as well as UNC #6-32 screw threads for the backplate, identical to those of the preceding AM4 socket. Furthermore, the Z-height of the CPU package is kept the same as that of AM4, for backward compatibility of heatsinks.
Unlike AM4, the backplate on AM5 is not removable, as it also serves the purpose of securing the CPU retention mechanism for the LGA socket.
Not all existing CPU coolers from AM4 are compatible. In particular, coolers that use their own backplate mounting hardware, instead of the default motherboard-provided backplate, will not work. Some cooler manufacturers are offering upgrade kits to allow incompatible older coolers to be used on AM5.

Chipsets

The AM5 chipsets line-up had been criticised for being confusing due to chipsets with very similar prefixes having very different meanings between 600 and 800 series.

600 series

The AM5 600 series chipsets were released alongside the release of Ryzen 7000 series desktop CPUs.
  • A620 / A620A – The most entry level 600 series chipset
  • B650 – Compared to A620: Added features making processor overclocking possible, chipset PCIe 4.0 support, and higher speeds USB 3.2 available
  • B650E – Compared to B650: Added support for PCIe 5.0 lanes coming from CPU.
X670/X670E uses 2 "Promontory 21" silicon by ASMedia. One of which connected to the CPU, and the second one daisy chained to the first one.
  • X670 – With the doubled chipset, the number of SATA ports, USB lanes, and chipset PCI lanes doubled – compared to B650/B650E. However, PCIe 5.0 lanes connectivity from the CPU only has support to the M.2/GPP slot not to the primary x16 slot.
  • X670E – Added Primary PCIe x16 slot Gen 5 support compared to X670.

    800 series

The AM5 800 series chipsets were released roughly around or after the Ryzen 9000 series desktop CPUs' launch.
  • B840 – Very similar in features with A620.
  • B850 – Compared to B650: The PCIe 5.0 support for the primary M.2 slot becomes mandatory.
  • X870 – Mostly identical to B650E in terms of functionality from the chipset, with a mandated addition of a third-party USB4 controller.
X870E also daisy chained 2 "Promontory 21" silicon as X670/X670E.
  • X870E – Functionality wise, it's mostly identical to X670E, with a mandated addition of a third-party USB4 controller.

    Feature table