should I be worried about building a new budget am4 build?

[RKPC10]

So recently just bought an am4 motherboard planning on playing some light games and some ai work, I am going to use a radeon rx 9060xt for the build, but from what I have heard recently, the am4 platform is outdated and it doesn't make sense to go am4 anymore, but for me who wants to build a budget build with new parts, it makes sense, should I be worried about going am4 for the next 4-5 years? 

[KidKid]

2 minutes ago, RKPC10 said:

So recently just bought an am4 motherboard planning on playing some light games and some ai work, I am going to use a radeon rx 9060xt for the build, but from what I have heard recently, the am4 platform is outdated and it doesn't make sense to go am4 anymore, but for me who wants to build a budget build with new parts, it makes sense, should I be worried about going am4 for the next 4-5 years? 

If you have the budget for it, AM5 is better. Faster RAM, PCIE Gen5, and the future-proof and upgradable AM5 socket. But if you already have an AM4 board, that changes things.

[Eigenvektor]

16 minutes ago, RKPC10 said:

but from what I have heard recently, the am4 platform is outdated and it doesn't make sense to go am4 anymore

AM4 is outdated in the sense that no new⁽¹⁾ CPUs will be released for it, or more precisely no new CPU architectures. The AM5 platform supports current Zen 4 and Zen 5 CPUs and likely will also support upcoming Zen 6 CPUs. That's why it has better longevity. If you buy AM5, you can expect to be able to upgrade to at least one more future architecture.

 

As was said above, AM5 also has the advantage of faster RAM (DDR5 instead of DDR4).

 

The advantage of PCIe 5.0 is a bit more situational upgrade, since storage is more than fast enough on PCIe 4.0 already, and GPUs generally don't benefit either. The exception to that are underpowered GPUs like the RTX 5060 Ti and RX 9060 XT with 8 GB. When playing a game that exceeds the VRAM buffer, they need to fall back on system memory. In that case PCIe 5.0 has some advantage (or rather, the GPU doesn't crap the bed quite as badly)

 

________________________________________

1) AMD actually just released a new CPU for AM4: Ryzen 5 5500X3D. But it's essentially just a small upgrade to an already existing CPU

[thrasher_565]

i heard pci 5.0 gpus were having problems on pci 4.0...

[Dutch_Master]

7 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

advantage of faster RAM

Debatable, really. DDR5 still has issues with more then 1 RAM stick per channel, which DDR4 has not. This means buying an AM5 board with 4 RAM slots is a waste of money for the time being. But when, not if, that problem is solved, having a 2 slot board limits upgrade-ability. And the speed increase of DDR5 over DDR4 isn't exactly breathtaking either. Most DDR4 will happily do 3200 or even 3600 speeds, DDR5 is generally stable at 4800, most will accept 5200 or 5600, but faster RAM (6000 and up) needs to be dialled in and sometimes won't work at all at the advertised speed => waste of money 'cuz you paid much $$$ for that 6000 kit

 

The performance/$ analysis is still very much in favour of DDR4, for the time being. It'll swing DDR5's way surely, but not in the immediate future.

[RKPC10]

yeah, im considering returning my motherboard now, it is still brand new and in the box... I havent fully committed to am4 yet

 

[YoungBlade]

15 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

i heard pci 5.0 gpus were having problems on pci 4.0...

Only in the sense that, if you exceed the VRAM buffer, the extra bandwidth afforded by Gen 5 is very helpful. It can keep a game playable when it would otherwise be a disaster.

 

If you don't run out of VRAM, anything Gen 3 and up is totally fine - you don't lose any significant amount of performance.

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, RKPC10 said:

yeah, im considering returning my motherboard now, it is still brand new and in the box... I havent fully committed to am4 yet

 

Then do so. However what is your budget and location?

 

Am5 is very affordable now HOWEVER it does still command a higher price than am4 but it does come with higher performance. currently the goto am5 chip is a 7500f which is about 150 usd then a 110 usd board and 80 usd for ram. A 5600x can be found for 100 usd then another 100 for a decent am4 board and 60 usd for ram. So yes you do save money but at a lower performance.

 

To be comarable a 5700x3d is comparable to a 7600 for gaming and is 230 usd (prices are wonky) ish. The 7600 is sub 200 now. So the cost different quickly vanishes and thus id opt for am5 here always.

[Millios]

8 minutes ago, thrasher_565 said:

i heard pci 5.0 gpus were having problems on pci 4.0...

I have only seen some cards having a lil worse performance (like >5% difference usually) to noticably slower rather than outright problems

Hardwareunboxed covered it with the 9060xt (both versions) on PCIe 3 through 5 and the only problem showed up with the 8gb model was that the extra bandwidth can help performance

[Eigenvektor]

12 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

Debatable, really. DDR5 still has issues with more then 1 RAM stick per channel, which DDR4 has not.

True, but at the same time, most consumers probably don't need more capacity than you can already do with 2 slots. And usually e.g. 2x32 or 4x16 isn't really that much difference price wise?

 

13 minutes ago, Dutch_Master said:

This means buying an AM5 board with 4 RAM slots is a waste of money for the time being. But when, not if, that problem is solved, having a 2 slot board limits upgrade-ability.

Haven't looked at motherboards in a while. Are 2-slot motherboards more common now and are they actually significantly cheaper?

[PDifolco]

Unless you're really broke enough to not be able to get any AM5 platform go AM5 

It's significantly faster and offers good upgrade path

[Millios]

2 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Haven't looked at motherboards in a while. Are 2-slot motherboards more common now and are they actually significantly cheaper?

Not more common (at least in a fairly respectable tier and chipset) from what I've seen but there are more good choices like the b650m HDV/m.2 which can (emphasis on can cause it also can be quite a bit more sometimes) be 100 to 120 bucks (give or take) and although it has only 2 slots it can handle OC'ed 7800x3Ds and 9800x3Ds just fine and with good temps and performance

[Eigenvektor]

5 minutes ago, Millios said:

Not more common (at least in a fairly respectable tier and chipset) from what I've seen but there are more good choices like the b650m HDV/m.2 which can (emphasis on can cause it also can be quite a bit more sometimes) be 100 to 120 bucks (give or take) and although it has only 2 slots it can handle OC'ed 7800x3Ds and 9800x3Ds just fine and with good temps and performance

Yeah, but are you actually wasting significant money compared to another board that has 4 slots, as was said? Otherwise, I don't think that argument makes too much sense.

[Millios]

16 minutes ago, Eigenvektor said:

Yeah, but are you actually wasting significant money compared to another board that has 4 slots, as was said? Otherwise, I don't think that argument makes too much sense.

If the other board is more expensive cause it has features you wont use (say USB 4or wifi in the case you have ethernet) then I'd argue yes (in a way) you would be "wasting" money, cause with the 2 slot board you pay a pretty reasonable price especially when you are on a budget and or just need a board that works and want to spend more on other aspects such as GPU, CPU or storage

 

For OP tho who wants to spend as lil as possible ,from what I can see, I will say this "Not really but you could save more money going with a cheaper 2-slot board like the HDV/m.2"

 

I said "not really" cause personally I dont think you are wasting money (unless you are on a tight budget/100% sure dont need anything "extra" and wont need it in the future) on the board by going slightly more with a board like the b650m Pro RS (can be found for about 15 bucks more and is a 4 slot one) because you get objectively better VRMs and other features than can be viewed as somewhat upgrades in QoL but that is an anecdote and not objectively true 

[OhYou_]

am4 makes zero sense financially, am5 mobos cost the same and am5 cpus are cheaper than am4 of the same class and perform much better.
 

[RKPC10]

so, I found an am5 motherboard with all the same features as the am4 one, except it had newer pcie, and it is cheaper, am4 only makes sense for extreme budget builds (200 dollars, all used parts, etc) the final build will be a ryzen 5 9600x paired with a radeon 9060xt 16gb, in a mid atx case, 32 gb's of ram, 1tb ssd, and a 650 watt power supply. 

[YoungBlade]

10 minutes ago, OhYou_ said:

am4 makes zero sense financially, am5 mobos cost the same and am5 cpus are cheaper than am4 of the same class and perform much better.
 

At the lowest end, that's not true.

 

Find me the AM5 build that can beat this for a budget system:

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vCRCzf 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($69.98 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI A520M-A PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($70.98 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($25.97 @ Newegg Sellers) 
Total: $166.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-06-20 14:44 EDT-0400

 

That's cheaper than a Ryzen 5 7600 by itself, let alone with RAM and motherboard.

 

If you need something that can get you going reasonably well, AM4 can make sense. But if you have at least $400 to spend on the platform, then sure, AM5 all the way. 

[KidKid]

2 hours ago, thrasher_565 said:

i heard pci 5.0 gpus were having problems on pci 4.0...

It's just that they don't run as fast.

[OhYou_]

5 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

At the lowest end, that's not true.

 

Find me the AM5 build that can beat this for a budget system:

 

PCPartPicker Part List: https://pcpartpicker.com/list/vCRCzf 

CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5500 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor  ($69.98 @ Amazon) 
Motherboard: MSI A520M-A PRO Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard  ($70.98 @ Amazon) 
Memory: Silicon Power GAMING 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 CL16 Memory  ($25.97 @ Newegg Sellers) 
Total: $166.93
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2025-06-20 14:44 EDT-0400

 

That's cheaper than a Ryzen 5 7600 by itself, let alone with RAM and motherboard.

 

If you need something that can get you going reasonably well, AM4 can make sense.

ok well fair, I was more focusing on something that will be viable for 5 years but that and 2x24gb ram should be good to go i guess since you eventually can swap in an better cpu.
Unfortunately neweggg isnt running their promotion anymore on ram but you could get a 9600x and 16gb of ddr5 for free with it so youd be in it $260 for the mobo cpu ram comparatively. to me that is worth it, which is why i did exactly that in the same situation of OP when i came up on a am4 mobo.

[Eigenvektor]

8 minutes ago, KidKid said:

It's just that they don't run as fast.

As long as you're not VRAM constrained, it usually makes very little difference. Even PCIe 3.0 isn't that much slower in many titles.

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5090-pci-express-scaling/

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5060-ti-pci-express-x8-scaling/

 

Unfortunately they didn't include the 8 GB model, where it makes much more of a difference, if you exceed 8 GB. At least going by Hartware Unboxed's video. Though of course PCIe 5.0 doesn't really save the card's performance in this case, it just makes it slightly less bad.

 

1 hour ago, Millios said:

If the other board is more expensive cause it has features you wont use (say USB 4or wifi in the case you have ethernet) then I'd argue yes (in a way) you would be "wasting" money, cause with the 2 slot board you pay a pretty reasonable price especially when you are on a budget and or just need a board that works and want to spend more on other aspects such as GPU, CPU or storage

Yeah, but then it's not really the 2 additional slots that increase the price, it's all of the other stuff.

[thrasher_565]

3 hours ago, YoungBlade said:

Only in the sense that, if you exceed the VRAM buffer, the extra bandwidth afforded by Gen 5 is very helpful. It can keep a game playable when it would otherwise be a disaster.

 

If you don't run out of VRAM, anything Gen 3 and up is totally fine - you don't lose any significant amount of performance.

ya but if you run out a vram both 4.0 and 5.0 you have problems. but i think there is a problem with 5.0 gpus on 4.0 without running out of ram but i could be wrong. sounds like there is with 4.0 pci extensions

 

 

[YoungBlade]

1 minute ago, thrasher_565 said:

ya but if you run out a vram both 4.0 and 5.0 you have problems. but i think there is a problem with 5.0 gpus on 4.0 without running out of ram but i could be wrong. sounds like there is with 4.0 pci extensions

Those are interesting results. I would have liked to have seen testing with more motherboards and riser cables to see if he could isolate where the actual problem is.

 

I'm running an RX 9060 XT 16GB directly through the slot in my AM4 system at Gen 4 speeds - no issues whatsoever. The PCIe is set to Auto, it negotiated to Gen 4 just fine, and I've not noticed any oddities when it comes to the card's ability to communicate with the rest of the system, nor with instability at stock settings.

[freeagent]

I have an AM4 system running with a 5800X3D as my sons system. Its still ok, but AM5 is the way to fly. In 2025 I wouldn't be spending any money on that socket.

[RKPC10]

well anyways to rap up the conversation, im going for midrange, and am5 is the best. Thanks LTT community for the advice!

[thrasher_565]

i there there are 2 camps.

1: you build a system then sell it 3-5 years

2: you build a system and make it last 5+ years

 

if 1: then if you can find a deal and make a am4 system with mid upper cpu with and ok gpu then ok and upgrade in a few years

 

if2: ied say go with an am5 sysyem

 

but you have to price everything out to see what is what how much for a am5 system vs used am4. there alot of hype from upgrading and just depends on what you play and settings

 

some times you can build an am5 new cheaper then an older am4 its kinda funny but market is weird like that...

normally am4 stuff should be cheaper...

 

ya looking on ammazon you can build an am5 cheaper or same price as am4 so... i guess you can get more cores on am4 for the price but unless you need it dont no.

Edited June 20 by thrasher_565