More than eight years after the release of the first AM4 socket chips, AMD continues to bring this platform to life, but not in every country in the world.
In March 2017, in a bid to wipe the slate clean and start a new cycle, AMD decided to move away from socket AM3 and AM3+ and launch their replacement, socket AM4. Above all, this was the opportunity to introduce the Zen micro-architecture, which was to bring AMD back to the forefront against Intel. Since then, one generation has followed another, and the AM4 has held its own. Of course, the AM5 has been launched to incorporate a few new technologies, such as PCI Express 5.0 and DDR5 RAM, but the AM4 has still not been completely abandoned.
The Ryzen 5 5600X3D just got a little brother © AMD
Already mentioned in 2023 and confirmed the following year by AMD, the Ryzen 5 5500X3D is the umpteenth processor on the AM4 platform, but it's "only" the fourth 5000X3D model, distinguished by the presence of 3D V-Cache technology, which considerably increases the amount of L3 cache memory, so useful in video games in particular. The Ryzen 5 5500X3D is a Zen 3 processor with six cores (twelve threads) etched by TSMC in 7 nm. Its maximum boost frequency is 4 GHz, compared with its basic 3 GHz, but it's the cache that sets it apart: it has 384 Kb of L1 cache, 3 Mb of L2 cache and 96 Mb of L3 cache.
Alas, if this new AMD release further increases the platform's longevity, it won't affect every country in the world. The American firm's roadmap is very clear today, and the AM4 platform is mainly used as a second-tier solution in emerging markets, while the AM5 is at the heart of AMD's strategy in Europe and the USA. In fact, the Ryzen 5 5500X3D will never see the light of day in France, for example: on the product sheet posted by AMD, the mention "LATAM" confirms this orientation, as the chip will only be released in Latin America. In France, to stay with AM4 and take advantage of X3D, you'll have to turn to the Ryzen 7 5700X3D, which costs considerably more (around 250 euros).
