It feels like yesterday when AMD unveiled its new AM5 socket, replacing the much-celebrated socket AM4. It's actually been over 2 years, and we already have two generations of CPUs available on AM5 — Ryzen 7000 and Ryzen 9000. The introduction of AM5 was a huge step for AMD, as it finally adopted DDR5 & PCIe 5.0, and set the stage for another 5–6 year run on the new socket.
If you have an AM4 CPU, you might be wondering if it's time to upgrade — whether to a newer AM4 CPU or one of the AM5 CPUs. Let's break it down to several different scenarios, and see where it makes sense to upgrade your AM4 AMD CPU.
Do you really need to upgrade your CPU in 2024?
With both AMD and Intel missing the mark this generation in performance gains, maybe it's a good time to pause your upgrading habit.
Should you upgrade your AM4 AMD CPU?
As always, it depends
There are largely two different scenarios you could be facing on an AM4 system. You either have a considerably old processor from the Ryzen 1000, Ryzen 2000, or Ryzen 3000 series, or a relatively recent Ryzen 5000 CPU. The decision to upgrade or stay with your current chip will heavily depend on which bucket you fall into, and whether you really feel like you want more performance from your PC.
For those rocking a Zen, Zen+, or Zen 2 CPU such as the Ryzen 5 1600, Ryzen 7 2700X, or Ryzen 5 3600 (and even higher-end chips), an upgrade to, say, a Ryzen 7 5800X3D (or 5700X3D/5600X3D, if you can't find the 5800X3D) can be a game-changing boost for gaming and productivity performance. For reference, the 5700X3D is around 60-70% faster than the Ryzen 5 3600.
On the other hand, if you're already using a Zen 3 CPU such as the Ryzen 5 5600 or Ryzen 7 5700X, you can jump to the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, Ryzen 7 5700X3D, or the Ryzen 5 5600X3D for a decent, although not massive, performance upgrade — the 5700X3D is around 30% faster than the 5600X.
In this case, a complete platform upgrade from AM4 to AM5 makes more sense, but if gaming performance is your primary concern, only the Ryzen 7 7800X3D or the latest Ryzen 7 9800X3D will give a truly generational uplift, as chips like the Ryzen 5 7600 only match the performance of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D.
Lastly, if you already have the best AM4 has to offer, such as the Ryzen 7 5800X3D (or 5700X3D), there's little reason to consider a CPU upgrade right now. AM5 processors such as the Ryzen 5 7600X, Ryzen 7 7700X, or even the newer Ryzen 7 9700X only match the performance of the Ryzen 7 5800X3D. It's better to invest in a faster graphics card for a bigger boost in gaming.
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AM4 vs. AM5: Benefits vs. drawbacks
Short-term savings vs. long-term relevance
Upgrading your CPU to a newer and faster chip will naturally make your system faster (depending on which CPU you're jumping from), irrespective of whether you're staying on AM4 or moving to AM5. However, like always, there are pros and cons to either approach.
If you upgrade from your existing AM4 CPU to another AM4 chip, in addition to the performance boost in gaming and productivity, you'll also extend the life of your system by a few years, allowing you to delay that AM5 upgrade even longer. As long as you have a fairly recent B450 or B550 motherboard (or higher), you won't need a motherboard upgrade or a new memory kit to make everything work. In a nutshell, you save a lot of money, get a decent performance uplift, and get to use your AM4 build for longer.
You will, however, be spending more on a dead platform, while having the choice to move to the latest one for an additional $250 — the cost of an Asus Prime B650-Plus motherboard and 32GB of 6000MT/s CL30 memory. You can save that money in the short term, but a year down the line, you might regret buying a new AM4 CPU over switching completely to AM5, especially considering the many other benefits of the new platform.
Migrating to AM5 from, say, the Ryzen 5 3600 or Ryzen 7 5700X will not only net you a significant boost in performance, but also allow you access to the latest in storage and RAM technology with PCIe 5.0 SSDs and DDR5 RAM. Granted, Gen5 SSDs might not make much sense for gaming yet, but DDR5 RAM definitely does. Besides, both of these technologies can be well worth the investment for your professional workloads.
Even if you don't pick the expensive Ryzen 7 7800X3D (which is getting harder to find at a reasonable price) or the latest (and fastest) gaming CPU, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, the cheapest AM5 processor i.e. the Ryzen 5 7600 offers essentially the same gaming performance as the Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which is the best AM4 has to offer. Besides, if you've already made other high-end component upgrades over the years, moving to the future-ready AM5 platform is the next logical step.
However, with the option to upgrade to a faster AM4 CPU in sight, moving to AM5 can be a hard sell for many users. The latter costs more, leaves you wondering what to do with your older system, and, depending on your previous AM4 chip, might not meet your performance expectations.
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Is it time to upgrade your CPU?
Whether it's staying on AM4 or jumping to AM5, consider a CPU upgrade only if you don't have the budget to switch to a more powerful graphics card instead. Provided you don't have an obsolete CPU, the GPU will undoubtedly boost your gaming performance to a greater degree. Moreover, if you're on a strict upgrade budget, it might make more sense to wait it out, save some more, and upgrade your CPU a few generations later for a greater performance boost.