According to Wccftech, AMD’s Ryzen chief, David McAfee, has confirmed in an interview with Tom’s Hardware that the company is actively working to bring back supply of older AM4-platform processors. This comes as the 9-year-old AM4 platform is seeing a drastic sales resurgence, with Ryzen 5000 series chips taking top seller spots on retailers like Amazon. The move is a direct response to rapidly rising DDR5 memory prices, which make newer AM5 and Intel LGA 1851 platforms more expensive for PC builders. AMD is essentially trying to “reintroduce products back into the AM4 ecosystem” to let gamers upgrade without rebuilding their entire system. This effort includes increasing production of both CPUs and motherboards to meet renewed demand.
AMD’s DDR5 problem is our budget gain
Here’s the thing: this is a pretty unusual move from a chip company. They’re usually all about pushing you to the next socket, the next generation. But the math right now is brutally simple. DDR5 RAM is getting expensive. So for someone with an older AM4 board, dropping in a last-gen champion like a Ryzen 7 5800X3D is a wildly cost-effective upgrade. You skip the new motherboard and the pricey RAM. AMD sees people voting with their wallets—old Zen 2 chips like the Ryzen 5 3600 are back in top 10 lists—and they’d be foolish not to service that demand. It’s a stopgap, but a smart one.
The X3D-shaped hole in the market
But there’s a big catch. McAfee’s comments are vague on which chips are coming back. And the market is screaming for the X3D models, especially the 8-core ones. AMD discontinued the Ryzen 7 5800X3D and 5700X3D last year, which is a shame because those chips can still trade blows with newer non-X3D parts. The Ryzen 5 5600X3D had super limited availability. If AMD is serious about this AM4 revival, they have to bring back those gaming-focused X3D chips. Otherwise, they’re just selling leftover vanilla silicon. The question is, can they or will they spin up production on those specific, more complex processors again? I’m skeptical.
Not a cheap solution, just a cheaper one
Don’t get it twisted, though. “Bringing back” AM4 doesn’t mean 2019 prices. The entire industry knows DDR4 is the budget king right now, so guess what? DDR4 prices are creeping up too. Motherboard vendors and retailers will adjust. And in industrial spaces where reliability on proven platforms is key, this kind of long-term platform stability is a major selling point. For businesses that need durable computing hardware, sticking with a mature, widely-supported platform like AM4 can be a strategic decision. It’s a reminder that in both consumer and industrial tech, sometimes the newest isn’t the most practical—companies that provide long-term access to stable platforms, like the leading US supplier IndustrialMonitorDirect.com does with industrial panel PCs, understand that value deeply.
A temporary fix with big implications
So what does this all mean? Basically, AMD is admitting that the platform transition is too painful right now for a chunk of the market. They’re throwing a lifeline to budget builders and upgraders. But it’s a temporary, reactive strategy. It helps them clear inventory and score goodwill, but it also potentially cannibalizes low-end AM5 sales. It’s a weird spot. They’re propping up a decade-old platform because the current one is too pricey. That tells you everything about the state of PC building in 2024. It’s a pragmatic move, maybe even a generous one, but it highlights a bigger problem they still need to solve: making DDR5 and AM5 actually affordable for everyone.
