The launch of the AM5 socket will, like Intel’s Alder Lake, bring support for both DDR5 memory and PCIe 5.0. But unlike team blue, which offers the option of 600-series motherboards that support either DDR4 or DDR5, long-running rumors suggest AMD might limit buyers of Ryzen 7000 CPUs to the latter. Backing up those claims is a new report from Tom’s Hardware, whose sources say X670 and B650 motherboards have no provisions for DDR4 support. That’s not something most people want to hear, given that DDR5 memory modules remain more expensive and harder to find than their DDR4 counterparts while offering little benefit in most games; check out our own memory scaling and DDR4 vs. DDR5 benchmarks for Alder Lake guides.
AMD has been talking up Zen 4’s abilities when it comes to DDR5 overclocking. AMD Memory Enabling Manager Joseph Tao said the platform would make a “big splash” in this area, offering speeds that users thought weren’t possible. Some are holding out hope that Ryzen 7000’s memory controllers will support DDR4. If this does turn out to be the case, AMD could offer DDR4 support on some of the lower-end A-Series motherboards, but don’t hold your breath on that one. Separately, Tom’s also reports that AMD will use a dual-chiplet design on the X670 platform, thereby doubling the connectivity options, while B650 and A-series motherboards and will feature a single chipset chip. The decision to go DDR5-only, assuming it is true, is unlikely to be welcomed by the majority of users. Whether Zen 4 can get more out of the latest memory type, or if prices and availability improve before Ryzen 7000 lands, remain to be seen.
