CES is the platform where major players in the tech industry unveil their latest innovations, and AMD certainly did not disappoint this year. In a surprising move, the company introduced new CPUs specifically designed for the AM4 socket, a socket that has demonstrated remarkable durability with an active support period spanning seven years. Donny Woligroski, AMD's Technical Processing Marketing Manager for Desktop and Laptop Consumer Processors, engaged in a conversation with PCWorld's Adam Patrick Murray during a recent YouTube video, shedding light on the developments.
Woligroski underscored that the significant existing user base heavily influenced the strategic decision to prolong support for the AM4 platform, introducing the Ryzen 7 5700X3D and three additional chips tailored for this socket. He elaborated that while the AM5 solution caters to those looking to future-proof their systems, the commitment to support AM4 will persist for the foreseeable future. The potential cessation of this support, he suggested, might hinge on the economic considerations surrounding the production or availability of older DDR4 memory in comparison to DDR5.
Turning attention to the AM5 socket, the domain of AMD's latest and most advanced consumer desktop chips, Woligroski detailed that market dynamics played a role in delaying the launch of combined APU designs. This delay was compounded by the enhanced integrated graphics capabilities of the Ryzen 7000 CPUs, featuring the RDNA 2 architecture. However, the advent of DDR5 is positioned as a game-changer, unlocking superior graphics performance. Consequently, the new Ryzen 8000 series integrates RDNA 3, with the flagship chip, the Ryzen 7 8700 G, boasting access to a Radeon 780M graphics core.
Delving into the realm of Neural Processing Units (NPUs) integrated into select AMD laptop and desktop chips, Woligroski addressed the rationale behind emphasizing this seemingly emerging use case. Drawing a parallel to the proverbial chicken and egg scenario, he explained, "Like everything else in PC hardware, it's the chicken or the egg — if you don't build the hardware, developers can't develop it." This encapsulates the company's strategic bet on AI with NPUs embedded in their chips.
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