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With the growing cost of PC hardware and no defined end in sight, AMD is leveraging older hardware and promising extended support of existing platforms as its business strategy for the foreseeable future.
AMD made a variety of announcements at Computex, but two of the most important involved hardware that many PC builders have been familiar with for some time already. AMD announced that its bringing back arguably its most popular CPU ever made, with the 5800X3D AE returning to shelves on 25 June for $350. The AM4 chip was originally released in 2022, and was the first to feature AMD’s 3D V-Cache memory technology that boosted performance in games substantially. This re-release gives gamers still stuck on older AM4 platforms a means to upgrade without having to replace their entire system, and leverage the lower prices of older DDR4 memory as faster DDR5 models are swallowed up by the AI industry.
If you have already made the jump to AMD’s latest AM5 platform, or are still planning to do so, then a new 7700X3D gives you the cheapest entry point into 3D V-Cache CPU power. Retailing at $330 and launching on 16 July, this slightly cut-down version of the 7800X3D features the same 16 cores and 32 threads, but with 200MHz less core clock speed, and a further 500MHz less on the boost clocks. That might affect very specific CPU-limited workloads, but should be negligible in most gaming scenarios. It’s only a fraction less expensive than the better chip, but given how AMD has gone in the past it’s likely the 7800X3D will be discontinued soon to allow for the 7700X3D to take its place.
Upgrade to AM5 might not be a terrible idea either, with AMD committing to an extended lifespan for the platform. The company says that it will continue to support AM5 through 2029, giving you over three more years of official support and hardware releases. AM4 has endured far longer than AMD anticipated, and continues to do so with the re-introduction of the 5800X3D. So it’s possible that AMD pushes out AM5 support even longer still, especially with the environment PC gaming hardware finds itself in currently.
That’s especially true when considering that AMD didn’t mention its new platform, AM6, at all during Computex, with the company likely reserving more announcements for CES next year.
