AMD might not give up on AM4 just yet as it looks like more refreshed 5000-series chips are on the way

AMD might have cracked open the AM5 lid with Ryzen 9000-series processors such as the Ryzen 9 9950X, but it seems to be set on churning out more AM4 platform CPUs, too. And as far as I’m concerned, that’s good news—milk AM4 for all it’s worth, I say.

The two new chips are headed to the now-two-generations-out 5000-series. It looks like AMD might soon be launching two new Ryzen 5000-series CPUs in the form of the Ryzen 5 5600T and 5600XT, as, following momomo’s mention of the 5600T, VideoCardz noted the appearance of these CPUs on various motherboard manufacturers’ pages.

AMD’s been pumping out 5000-series chips for quite a while now. There was 2023’s Ryzen 5 5600X3D (limited to MicroCenter), and 2024’s Ryzen 7 5800XT and Ryzen 9 5900XT, plus a Ryzen 7 5700X3D that launched at the start of the year which we reckon is now the best AM4 CPU upgrade for gamers. Oh, and a potential Ryzen 5 5500X3D, but we haven’t seen much mention of that since August.

Originally and officially, a ‘T’ suffix was meant to mean ‘low-power’, but that doesn’t seem to have been the case for some time. The 5900XT, for example, has the same TDP as the 5900X, and is more powerful because it has more cores. A ‘T’ suffix just seems to designate a refreshed version of the previous non-T version. Or maybe AMD is just running out of names.

Based Asus’ listings for these CPUs, here’s how the specs should compare to the non-refreshed versions of the 5000-series CPUs:

This doesn’t tell us much. We can see that the 5600XT might have a base clock 100 MHz higher than the 5600X, but boost clocks are more important for gaming. There is precedent for boost clocks being raised with AMD ‘T’ refreshes—the 5800XT, for instance, has a boost clock 100 MHz higher than the 5800X—and this would certainly differentiate the 5600T and 5600XT from their non-refreshed counterparts.

What would also differentiate them is price. If AMD can bring out two new 6-core 5000-series processors with slightly higher boost clocks and slap on reduced price tags, this would be a big win for prospective PC builders on a budget. Though we’re also likely to see these used by some system builders in lieu of older parts.

(Image credit: Asus)

You can currently pick up a Ryzen 5 5600X for $128 at Amazon, and this is still a perfectly reasonable chip for gaming. It’s not one of the best gaming CPUs on the market, but it gets the job done. Now imagine if you could cut even just $10-15 off that price tag, add an extra 100 MHz on the base clock and the boost clock, and maintain a 65 W TDP to boot. Such a CPU would be a fantastic budget upgrade option for those using an older AM4 system.

All speculation, of course. We don’t even have official confirmation that these CPUs will be released, let alone what their final specifications would be. But based on previous 5000-series refreshes, such speculations aren’t unreasonable fantasies. We’ll just have to wait and see.

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