High Upgrade Costs Prompt AMD to Hint at Reinstating Old AM4 Chips
During a roundtable interview at CES 2026, AMD's David McAfee suggested the company might think of reintroducing older AM4-based desktop processors. The purpose behind such a move would be to lessen the effect of the ongoing chip crisis and the unreasonably high costs for consumers to upgrade to a new platform that requires relatively expensive DDR5 memory.
A Major Issue The Price of Modern Upgrades
The transition to DDR5 memory places very good PC users in a catch 22 situation. They not only have to procure new CPUs, but motherboard and memory for DDR5 also, if they wish to upgrade from a system which is a few years old. New upgrades with a new CPU motherboard and 32 GB DDR5 memory can cost easily over a thousand dollars.
AMD's Consideration of AM4 Ecosystem
On being asked about how difficult that must stand for those users, McAfee confirmed AMD is looking into possibilities for its established AM4 platform.
"We certainly are looking at everything that we can do to bring more supply and kind of reintroduce products back into the ecosystem to satisfy gamers that maybe want that significant upgrade in their AM4 platform without having to rebuild their entire system," McAfee said, adding that this is "definitely something we [AMD] are very actively working on."
Market Data in Support of a Possible AM4 Revival
The thought is backed up by market trends and internal data. Some key signs indicate strong demand for the AM4 platform:
- Telemetry data from AMD's Adrenalin software shows users are still heavily utilizing older 2000- and 3000-series Ryzen chips.
- McAfee noted retailers have reported CPU-only purchases at a very high level, indicating consumers are opting to upgrade existing systems instead of building new ones.
The Situation for DDR4
While the focus is on the costly DDR5, DDR4 prices are also on the rise. Supply, however, is reported to be stable, with Samsung reversing its decision to halt its DDR4 production and SK hynix reportedly ramping up its output. This guarantees that the components for AM4 upgrades are there, making a CPU re-release a possible option for enthusiasts wanting to extend the life of their present machines.
Note that this information is based on a statement from an executive and does not constitute an AMD-wide announcement.
Source: tomshardware.
