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All my life I have bought all my gaming PCs with Intel CPUs.

I always face a major issue, though: 2 to 3 years after buying a new PC, when I try to replace my 2 to 3 years old GPU with a brand new latest 2x to 3x more powerful GPU to match my gaming needs, my Intel CPU always becomes the bottleneck. I can’t even just upgrade the CPU to latest generation to match the GPU because the motherboard won’t allow it. As a result, just to use a new GPU, I have to buy a completely new PC!

Are AMD motherboards better future-proofed so that after 3 to 4 years I could upgrade my CPU to match new GPU speed without buying a whole PC? Or is Intel also more future proof in recent products they release?

I’m buying a new PC again, so this time I’m trying to decide: Should I go AMD or Intel; which will be better future proofed?

If history repeats itself, then only AMD motherboards can support the next few generations of CPU and Intel will not; right? Will an AMD socket AM5 motherboard support Zen 5 and Zen 6 CPUs too?

Will Intel launch any socket which will support a few more future generations?

Jeff Schaller
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Ezio
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  • It might help to change your perspective on upgrading your CPU to always include a motherboard purchase. These days the technology is iterating so fast that there is always something like a new DDR, PCIe, or USB version available before the socket has even hit end of life. A socket redesign is usually required to support the next generation for those things. – Romen Jan 02 '23 at 18:47

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At r/buildapc we don't really look at future proofing since it's generally more expensive and not really that good.

But if you are looking to upgrade your CPU every 2 or 3 years, you are currently better off with AMD. They have a reputation for supporting their sockets pretty long (AM4 was 5 years, AM5 is gonna be at least 3 years) while Intel tends to makes their socket incompatible after 2 generations of CPUs (1 1/2 to 2 years).

If you are upgrading often, AMD and the higher end B650 boards are probably best for you.

James Risner
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Irsu85
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