AMD confirms AM5 socket support through 2029 and announces EXPO Ultra Low Latency memory update

At Computex 2026, AMD confirmed that the AM5 socket will be supported by new processors through at least 2029 — an upgrade from the "2027 and beyond" commitment the company made back in 2024. Alongside that, AMD announced EXPO Ultra Low Latency, or EXPO ULL, a new memory overclocking profile that promises up to 4% better gaming performance compared to a standard EXPO setup.

The extended AM5 lifespan means the socket will span Ryzen generations from the 7000-series all the way through to potentially the 11000 or 12000-series, assuming AMD sticks to its current naming scheme — which, admittedly, isn't guaranteed. Zen 6 chips are expected sometime later this year or in early 2027, and the 2029 commitment implies Zen 7 will also land on AM5. Whether existing X870 or B850 boards will actually support those future chips depends on BIOS chip size, but boards with larger BIOS storage stand a decent chance. As for EXPO ULL, catching that 4% performance gain requires an updated motherboard BIOS and a new DDR5 kit with the updated profile — and the gains are really only meaningful at 1080p with high-end hardware, where RAM becomes the actual bottleneck. That makes it an esports-crowd feature more than anything else.

AM5 is already shaping up to rival the legendary AM4 socket in terms of longevity — AM4 is still receiving new chips even now. Socket longevity is one of the main reasons PC enthusiasts gravitate toward AMD over Intel, and the prospect of dropping a future Ryzen 9 11950X3D into a board currently running a Ryzen 5 9600X is genuinely appealing for upgrade-minded builders.

AMD hasn't given a firm release date for EXPO ULL. Given the cost of new DDR5 kits and the narrow use case, it's a nice-to-have rather than a must-upgrade for most people — but for competitive players chasing every frame at 1080p, it's worth watching.