Some good news for those interested in staying aboard the good ship AMD on its voyage to socket AM5 has emerged via a purported leaked technical document today. Tech Twitterer Ulysses, via TechPowerUp, has shared some images that appear to show that retention clip and mount-hole spacing for AM5 is the same as with the existing socket AM4.
PC DIYers and enthusiasts often pay premiums for powerful, competent and quiet cooling (and a bit extra for RGB), so a chance to reuse this kit in a move to the next generation CPUs from AMD will be appreciated. With the significant change that will come with socket AM5, many feared the worst with regard to cross generation cooler compatibility. AMD isn't just changing some pin arrangements, or even the proportions of its next gen CPUs – it is switching from PGA to LGA – which means that (like Intel) its CPUs will become more robust (no more accidental bent or broken pins) but motherboard sockets will be a bit more fragile.
According to TPU, some enthusiasts had been worried that AMD would scale down its TR4/sTRX4 sockets / fittings for AM5, but the leaked docs are evidence that isn't going to be the case. If we can stick to a similar if not identical retention clip and mount-hole spacing for a AM4 to AM5 transition it means that there will be negligible if any costs to transiting your premium cooler – depending on the level of support provided by the manufacturer.
It is expected that AMD Socket AM5 processors will come in TDP values of 45W, 65W, 95W, 105W, 125W, and 170W with only the latter desperately requiring a liquid or AiO type cooler to avoid throttling under duress.
AMD Socket AM5 will be designed to power AMD's newest Zen 4 architecture processors, coming in 2022. TSMC N5 fabricated Zen 4 is touted to deliver a 25 per cent IPC gain over Zen 3, and feature modern platform benefits such as DDR5 memory support, USB 4.0, as well as PCIe 5.0 compatibility, and even be installed in APUs packing RDNA2 graphics.
