AMD's next-gen AM6 socket expected to deliver 22% pin increase count, retain AM5 sizing

AMD's next-generation AM6 socket will house next-generation Zen 7 processors, and it'll feature 2100 pins with a higher pin density than the AM5 socket, but it won't be any bigger.

2

We're hearing about AMD's next-gen AM6 socket from the folks over at Bits and Chips, reporting that AM6 has a higher pin density than AM5, something that was pointed out in an AMD patent labeled "US20250149248". The new AM6 socket will have up to 2100 pins, up from 1718 pins on AM5, which is a 22% increase in pin density, all while retaining the same socket size as AM5.

This is great news for AM5-compatible coolers, as they should work, on the next-gen AM6 socket as well. It also technically means that AM4-compatible coolers should work with AM6, but that'll be harder as the next-gen Zen 7 family of CPUs could see cooling manufacturers needing to release new AM6-ready cooling designs depending on the chiplet layout of the next-gen Zen 7 chips.

AMD's next-gen AM6 rocking all those additional pins will provide more power delivery into the CPU, which should see 200W+ sustained power delivery into the processor. AM5 can deliver 170W of power through its 1718 pins, so with additional pins + more data lanes = higher bandwidth I/O with things like next-gen PCIe 6.0 support on next-gen AM6-ready motherboards.