Socket AM4 is a

PGA PGA is an acronym or initialism that may stand for: Aviation * IATA code for Page Municipal Airport, Coconino County, Arizona * ICAO designator for Portugália, regional airline based in Lisbon, Portugal * Abbreviation for Prince George Airport ...

microprocessor socket used by

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...

's central processing units (CPUs) built on the

Zen Zen ( zh, t=禪, p=Chán; ja, text= 禅, translit=zen; ko, text=선, translit=Seon; vi, text=Thiền) is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty, known as the Chan School (''Chánzong'' 禪宗), and ...

(including

Zen+ Zen+ is the codename for a computer processor microarchitecture by AMD. It is the successor to the first gen Zen microarchitecture, first released in April 2018, powering the second generation of Ryzen processors, known as Ryzen 2000 for mainstre ...

Zen 2 Zen 2 is a computer processor microarchitecture by AMD. It is the successor of AMD's Zen and Zen+ microarchitectures, and is fabricated on the 7 nanometer MOSFET node from TSMC. The microarchitecture powers the third generation of Ryzen proces ...

and

Zen 3 Zen 3 is the codename for a CPU microarchitecture by AMD, released on November 5, 2020. It is the successor to Zen 2 and uses TSMC's 7 nm process, 7 nm process for the chiplets and GlobalFoundries's 14 nm process, 14 nm process for the I/O die on ...

) and

Excavator Excavators are heavy construction equipment consisting of a boom, dipper (or stick), bucket and cab on a rotating platform known as the "house". The house sits atop an undercarriage with tracks or wheels. They are a natural progression fro ...

microarchitectures. ''AM4'' was launched in September 2016 and was designed to replace the sockets

AM3+ AM3+ is a modification of the AM3 Socket, released in mid-2011, designed for CPUs which use the AMD Bulldozer microarchitecture and retains compatibility with AM3 processors. The Vishera line of AMD CPUs also all use Socket AM3+. It is the last A ...

, FM2+ and FS1b as a single platform. It has 1331

pin A pin is a device used for fastening objects or material together. Pin or PIN may also refer to: Computers and technology * Personal identification number (PIN), to access a secured system ** PIN pad, a PIN entry device * PIN, a former Dutch de ...

slots and is the first from AMD to support DDR4 memory as well as achieve unified compatibility between

high-end In economics, a luxury good (or upmarket good) is a good for which demand increases more than what is proportional as income rises, so that expenditures on the good become a greater proportion of overall spending. Luxury goods are in contrast to n ...

CPUs (previously using

Socket AM3+ AM3+ is a modification of the AM3 Socket, released in mid-2011, designed for CPUs which use the AMD Bulldozer microarchitecture and retains compatibility with AM3 processors. The Vishera line of AMD CPUs also all use Socket AM3+. It is the last A ...

) and AMD's lower-end

APUs Apus is a small constellation in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere, southern sky. It represents a bird-of-paradise, and its name means "without feet" in Greek language, Greek because the bird-of-paradise was once wrongly believed to lack feet. ...

(on various other sockets). In 2017, AMD made a commitment to using the AM4 platform with socket 1331 until 2020. AM5 succeeded the AM4 platform in late 2022 with the introduction of the

Ryzen 7000 Ryzen ( ) is a brand of multi-core x86-64 microprocessors designed and marketed by AMD for desktop, mobile, server, and embedded platforms based on the Zen microarchitecture. It consists of central processing units (CPUs) marketed for mainst ...

series, however, AMD has continued to release new CPUs for AM4 even after the release of AM5.

Features

* Support for

(including

and

) based family of

CPUs A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor or just processor, is the electronic circuitry that executes instructions comprising a computer program. The CPU performs basic arithmetic, logic, controlling, and ...

and

(

Ryzen Ryzen ( ) is a brand of multi-core x86-64 microprocessors designed and marketed by AMD for desktop, mobile, server, and embedded platforms based on the Zen microarchitecture. It consists of central processing units (CPUs) marketed for mainst ...

Athlon Athlon is the brand name applied to a series of x86-compatible microprocessors designed and manufactured by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD). The original Athlon (now called Athlon Classic) was the first seventh-generation x86 processor and the fi ...

), as well as for some A-Series APUs and Athlon X4 CPUs (Bristol Ridge based on the

microarchitecture) * Supports

PCIe 3.0 PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common mot ...

and PCIe 4.0 * Supports up to 4 modules of

DDR4 Double Data Rate 4 Synchronous Dynamic Random-Access Memory (DDR4 SDRAM) is a type of synchronous dynamic random-access memory with a high bandwidth ("double data rate") interface. Released to the market in 2014, it is a variant of dynamic rando ...

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM may refer to: Animals * A male sheep * Ram cichlid, a freshwater tropical fish People * Ram (given name) * Ram (surname) * Ram (director) (Ramsubramaniam), an Indian Tamil film director * RAM (musician) (born 1974), Dutch * Ra ...

dual-channel In the fields of digital electronics and computer hardware, multi-channel memory architecture is a technology that increases the data transfer rate between the DRAM memory and the memory controller by adding more channels of communication between ...

configuration

Heatsink

The AM4 socket specifies the 4 holes for fastening the heatsink to the motherboard to be placed in the corners of a rectangle with a lateral length of 54×90 mm. Previous sockets have 48×96 mm. Some heat sinks for older sockets are not compatible. Some cooler manufacturers, however, are reported to be offering brackets allowing previously manufactured coolers to work with AM4, while other coolers will be redesigned. Alternatively, some motherboard makers are including both

AM3 Socket AM3 is a CPU socket for AMD processors. AM3 was launched on February 9, 2009 as the successor to Socket AM2+, alongside the initial grouping of Phenom II processors designed for it. The sole principal change from AM2+ to AM3 is support for ...

and AM4 cooler mounting holes, allowing previous generation coolers to be used. AM4 coolers that use a two-pronged bracket approach (such as the AMD Wraith Prism) to mount the cooler will work with AM4 and all the way back to Socket 754/939.

Chipsets

Socket AM4 is currently a base for 8

chipset In a computer system, a chipset is a set of electronic components An electronic component is any basic discrete device or physical entity in an electronic system used to affect electrons or their associated fields. Electronic components are ...

models. While the processors for this socket have been designed as systems in a package (SiP), with the traditional northbridge and southbridge on board the processor, the motherboard chipset will increase the number of

PCI Express PCI Express (Peripheral Component Interconnect Express), officially abbreviated as PCIe or PCI-e, is a high-speed serial computer expansion bus standard, designed to replace the older PCI, PCI-X and AGP bus standards. It is the common ...

lanes and other connectivity options. These connectivity options include:

NVMe NVM Express (NVMe) or Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCIS) is an open, logical-device interface specification for accessing a computer's non-volatile storage media usually attached via PCI Express (PCIe) bus. The ...

SATA SATA (Serial AT Attachment) is a computer bus interface that connects host bus adapters to mass storage devices such as hard disk drives, optical drives, and solid-state drives. Serial ATA succeeded the earlier Parallel ATA (PATA) standard to ...

, and USB 3.2 Gen 2. There also exists chipset-less variations of A320 and X370, called A300 and X300 respectively, that rely solely on the I/O die integrated into the CPU; these platforms are designed solely for small form factor (SFF) systems where there is a possibility that there is not enough space on the board to fit an actual chipset; these 'chipsets' are also solely available for OEM use only and are not available for purchase with SFF boards.

Compatibility

In 2020, AMD faced some criticism when it was announced on May 7 that its

-based Ryzen 5000 microprocessors would only be compatible with newer 500-series chipset AM4 motherboards. This was explained as motherboard BIOS's sizes not being large enough to support the full range of AM4 socket processors. This had upset some of the user base as, described by ''AnandTech'', they "...had assumed that this meant any AM4 platform based motherboard would be able to accept all processor made from 2016 to 2020, including the new Zen 3...". After the announcement some motherboard manufacturers announced they were planning to add in support for Zen 3 processors via BIOS updates. On 19 May 2020, however, AMD changed its position and stated that Zen 3 would be coming to selected older X470 and B450 motherboards via a BIOS update. This would be achieved by disabling support for some older AM4 processors in the BIOS ROM in order to allocate space to support the newer processors. On 12 November 2021, according to ''TechPowerUp'', ASUS and Gigabyte were the few vendors that allowed Ryzen 5000 on A320 motherboard, and according to ''Tom's Hardware'', it was done by removing support for AMD's 7th Generation A-series and Athlon X4 series (Bristol Ridge) processors. AMD later officially expanded Ryzen 5000 support to 300-series motherboards in March 2022.

References

External links