AMD to Boost Supply of Older AM4 Components
AMD has announced active efforts to increase the supply of its older AM4 components. This initiative responds to a growing demand for previous-generation CPUs during a period of memory scarcity and rising prices. David McAfee, AMD's corporate Vice President and General Manager, confirmed to Tom's Hardware that the company intends to reintroduce AM4 products.
Market Conditions and Consumer Response
The current market environment includes a shortage of memory, specifically DDR5, HBM, and LPDDR types. Data centers are procuring significant quantities of HBM and LPDDR memory, leading manufacturers to prioritize large-scale clients. This situation has resulted in memory price adjustments and prompted some companies, such as Micron, to discontinue consumer-facing memory businesses like Crucial.
In response to these market dynamics, consumers have increasingly opted for more contained system upgrades, including the construction of AM4-based systems. The availability of older AM4 CPUs has decreased, contributing to corresponding price increases for these components.
AMD's Stated Strategy
During CES, McAfee addressed the difficulties encountered by consumers seeking hardware upgrades. He stated that AMD is "certainly looking at everything that [it] can do to bring more supply and kind of reintroduce products back into the [AM4] ecosystem to satisfy the demands of gamers that maybe want that significant upgrade in their AM4 platform without having to rebuild their entire system." He further confirmed that this is "definitively something [AMD is] actively working on."
Potential Impact and Industry Trends
Potential components for reintroduction include Zen 3 Ryzen 5000 series CPUs. Performance analysis indicates that at 1440p and 4K resolutions, the performance difference between high-end AM4 and AM5 CPUs is not substantial in many gaming applications.
Simultaneously, reports indicate that Samsung is delaying its plans to halt DDR4 production, while SK Hynix is increasing its DDR4 output. These developments suggest a continued operational lifespan for DDR4-based platforms, such as AM4.