We've already seen two generations of CPUs on AMD's AM5 platform — Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 9000 — but countless gamers are still rocking an AM4 rig, and for good reason. Building a new AM5 gaming PC might not be as expensive as it used to be, but when your AM4 system is still going strong, why bother? Even if you have an older Ryzen CPU from 5 or 8 years ago, you can still upgrade within AM4 to a Ryzen 5000 series CPU.

Moving to AM5 will mean a new motherboard and RAM in addition to the new CPU, and depending on your previous CPU, the results might not be impressive enough for you. Plus, AMD's Zen 5 or Ryzen 9000 series was mostly a refresh of the Ryzen 7000 series, so waiting for what the company brings next is a good strategy while you enjoy your AM4 rig for another year or two.

4 Your AM4 gaming PC can still bring it

Gaming on AM4 is no slouch

In my experience, AM4 has been great for gaming, provided you have a recent processor from, say, the Ryzen 5000 series. My Ryzen 7 5700X hasn't held my RTX 3080 back to any significant degree, and my 1440p gaming experience has been near flawless in the past 3 years. The games where my PC falls short, such as Alan Wake 2 and Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, suffer due to my GPU, and not the CPU.

DDR4 RAM isn't much slower compared to DDR5 RAM. Your 3,200MT/s or 3,600MT/s kit is more than capable of lasting a few more years. If you're rocking, say, a Ryzen 5 5600, then upgrading to the Ryzen 5 7600 with a budget GPU won't move your FPS by much, as the GPU won't be able to take advantage of the newer and faster CPU. And, if you're already using the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, then an upgrade to the Ryzen 5 7600 or Ryzen 7 9700X will only be a single-digit percentage improvement.

Finally, an AM5 motherboard does give you a more future-proof upgrade path, and access to technologies like PCIe 5.0 for graphics and storage, but the real-world difference in performance isn't a lot. Besides, you can always move to AM5 later to enjoy the platform longevity that AMD is known for, and extract some more value out of your excellent AM4 PC till then.

3 Plenty of upgradability options within AM4

You don't need to leave AM4 for an upgrade

It's understandable if you want a significant upgrade over your Zen, Zen+, or Zen 2 processor, since these CPUs are showing their age. However, your Ryzen 1000, 2000, or 3000 series CPU doesn't need a switch with an AM5 chip for the upgrade to count as significant. You have a lot of options within the AM4 ecosystem to consider. The Ryzen 5 5600, Ryzen 5 5700, Ryzen 7 5700X3D, and Ryzen 5 5600X3D are a few of them (the 5800X3D is impossible to find).

The Ryzen X3D CPUs will be the best upgrade options for older Ryzen CPUs — for instance, the Ryzen 7 5700X3D is around 60-70% faster than the Ryzen 5 3600. AMD has also launched a plethora of other AM4 CPUs, such as the Ryzen 7 5800XT, Ryzen 5 5600XT, Ryzen 5 5600GT, and Ryzen 5 5500, at various price points. You can compare them to your current AM4 chip, and decide for yourself which one is worth the investment.

2 A platform upgrade to AM5 can still be expensive

The cost-benefit analysis might not be in your favor

Suppose you bite the bullet, and decide to move to AM5. You're looking at a significant investment, thanks to a new CPU, motherboard, and RAM. Even if you pick the cheapest AM5 CPU i.e. the Ryzen 5 7600 (7600F and 7400F are pretty hard to find), it'll cost you around $200. Add another $200 for a decent B650 motherboard, and $100 for a DDR5-6000 32GB memory kit. This $500 investment might not even yield a dramatic performance increase if your previous CPU was a fairly recent AM4 chip.

The $500 could instead go into a new GPU — something like the new Radeon RX 9070 (if you can find it around MSRP). This will deliver a much bigger impact on your gaming performance than a CPU upgrade to the Ryzen 5 7600. You might say that more powerful AM5 chips exist, such as the Ryzen 7 7800X3D, but the cost will increase significantly, and the alternative GPU you could buy will also be potentially faster.

Moving to AM5 is the next logical step for most AM4 users, but unless the performance uplift is significant enough, you should consider staying on AM4. If you have the budget to make the switch, then go ahead. However, the next generation of Ryzen CPUs might be worth the wait, which is what I tackle in the next section.

1 Waiting for Zen 6 is worth it

That's what I'm doing

It's no secret that AMD's Ryzen 9000 series was disappointing. After two years, we got a lineup that was pricier yet barely faster than the Ryzen 7000 series. Thermal efficiency improved, yes, but without a significant generational uplift, Ryzen 7000 users had no reason to consider an upgrade. What about AM4 users, though? If you have a Ryzen 5000 CPU, I'd suggest playing the waiting game and seeing what AMD does with Zen 6 — I'm planning to do just that.

If it isn't worth upgrading to the Ryzen 7000 CPUs, it follows that the Ryzen 9000 CPUs are equally unexciting. Except for the $400+ X3D chips, which are too expensive for most people, the Zen 5 CPUs are nothing more than a stepping stone to (hopefully) much better CPUs in the next generation. If you're already satisfied with the gaming performance of your AM4 rig, why not wait a year or two?

AM4 holdouts - keep "hodling"

AM4 has been a fantastic platform, lasting from 2017 to 2022, and even after that, thanks to AMD launching a bunch of new CPUs for the platform. AM5 is a future-ready platform and offers the latest technologies to Ryzen users, but the raw performance for most people isn't too different from that of AM4. Ryzen 5000 CPUs and DDR4 RAM are still great for modern gaming, and upgrading to AM5 is a significant investment that might not always yield huge gains. You can upgrade within the AM4 product stack, or wait to see what AMD does with Zen 6.