A new AMD Ryzen 5000 CPU just dropped, and Socket AM4 is now seemingly immortal

AMD has just dropped yet another Socket AM4 CPU, breathing yet more life into the aging platform. The new AMD Ryzen 5 5600F has just been launched nine years after AMD first introduced Socket AM4 in September 2016, meaning you could potentially upgrade a first-gen Ryzen motherboard to a brand new CPU. There is a catch, though, which is that this CPU is currently only available in the Asia Pacific and Japan region, so it may not make it to the US and EU.

From the model name, you would be forgiven for thinking the 5600F is basically an AMD Ryzen 5 5600G with the integrated Radeon Vega GPU disabled, but there's more to this chip than the name suggests. The new is based on AMD's Vermeer silicon, rather than the later Cezanne design. As such, the 5600F has twice as much L3 cache as the 5600G, for example, looking more like a Ryzen 5 5600, but with lower clock speeds. It's not likely to make it onto our guide to buying the best gaming CPU with these specs, but it's really interesting to see AMD continuing to produce new AM4 CPUs.

AMD Ryzen 5 5600F specs

The Ryzen 5 5600F has the same six Zen 3 cores as the 5600X and 5600, with support for SMT (simultaneous multi-threading) to enable it to execute 12 threads at once. Unlike AMD's G-series CPUs with integrated GPUs, it also retains the same 32MB of L3 cache and 3MB L2 cache (512KB per core) as the standard 5600-series GPUs.

The main difference, as far as we can see, is the clock speeds. With a base clock of just 3GHz and a maximum boost clock of 4GHz, the 5600F is clocked a fair bit lower than the 3.5GHz and 4.4GHz respective speeds of the Ryzen 5 5600. However, it also has an unlocked multiplier, so you may well be able to push up the clock speeds yourself if you have the best CPU cooler for the job and a decent motherboard.

You can see the full details on AMD's website, where the new CPU is listed as having a launch date of September 16, 2025, and where the regional availability is listed as APJ, meaning the Asia-Pacific Japan region.

While this CPU may not get a worldwide launch, though, it's really interesting to see AMD still bringing out new AM4 CPUs - there's clearly still substantial demand for them in some places, even though the company's AM5 socket has now been out for several years. Meanwhile, the new Intel LGA1954 socket for Nova Lake is expected to last four generations, marking a big strategy change for Intel, as its sockets usually only last for one or two architectural generations.

If you're thinking about upgrading to one of AMD's new CPUs, then check out our guide to the best gaming motherboard, where we take you through all our favorite options right now.

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