How many generations of CPUs are this year's AM5 mobos likely to support?

[Delicieuxz]

Maybe I'm off on this, but, according to the chart here, it looks like AM4 motherboards have had some impressive longevity, potentially supporting CPUs all the way from Excavator, then Zen 1, up to Zen 3 - representing up to a 5+ year lifespan.

 

Are this year's AM5 motherboards likely to support new CPUs for even half that timeframe, or are they more likely to just support Zen 4, and then Zen 5 will require a new mobo?

 

I've heard that, while Zen 4 is impressive, Zen 5, slated for 2024, will be more revolutionary, with a completely new architecture. Will it be revolutionary enough that this year's AM5 motherboards won't be able to support Zen 5 CPUs?

 

AMD Zen Architecture Roadmap: Zen 5 in 2024 With All-New Microarchitecture

[Fasauceome]

That gives me pause to assume AMD's support was back in 2020 when they tried to go back on their promise for platform support. The community had to hold them to their promise of "through 2020" and not "until 2020". If AMD decides that it's in their business interest to match Intel's 2-generation model, there's not much we could do.

 

My best hope is that AMD promises 5 years of socket support once again, because it's a lot more feasible this time around in my opinion. One of the biggest contributors to issues with long-term support on AM4 was lack of good boards in the early generations. Lots of crappy B350 and X370 boards, small ROM chips, etc. Now that AMD is dominant in the gaming space, partners are more willing to put good products out for their platform.

Edited August 12, 2022 by Fasauceome

[Delicieuxz]

AMD being reluctant to continue supporting new CPUs on old mobos with AM4 is a sign that they won't do such extended support this time around. And I would guess that mobo manufacturers would like AMD to have shorter support periods, too, so that they can sell more mobos over time. They also might be more willing to put quality components into their AMD mobos if they know that they can sell new ones more frequently. And the roadmap showing Zen 5's planned release for 2024 could coincide with a planned 2-year support lifespan for Zen 4 mobos.

 

A lot of speculation, but my guess is that AMD won't be as generous with the lifecycle of their mobos this time around, and that Zen 4 mobos might be only good for Zen 4.

[Fasauceome]

3 minutes ago, Delicieuxz said:

And I would guess that mobo manufacturers would like AMD to have shorter support periods, too, so that they can sell more mobos over time

There's an element of truth to that, but on the other hand, partners like ASRock were actively pushing to enable support for 5000 series CPUs before AMD even officially allowed compatibility, by way of Beta BIOS releases, and these came out very soon in the product lifecycle of 5000 series. There seems to be a desire to have multi-generational support as a selling point, at the very least.

[PDifolco]

Long support of AM4 is a real AMD advantage now, and is really appreciated by customers, they'll be fools to abandon that.

AM4 supported Zen to Zen3 for 4 generations, I don't see why AM5 couldn't last as long