Hi,
I’m planning on upgrading to AM5, is there any benefit on waiting or should I just take the leap now and buy my system?
My rig will be a workstation for developing and some gaming.
The host will be Arch Linux and I will use GPU passthrough to both Windows and macOS that will run simultaneously.
Jumping into a new platform when you plan on running linux with PCIE passthrough sounds like misery. Any fomo or other desire to upgrade immediately should be weighed against how much less headache it could be to wait as the platform and its linux support matures. If you’re calling your computer a workstation, stability and platform maturity are important too.
On AM5 specifically, the motherboard and DDR5 costs give me pause compared to AM4 and LGA1700. I would at least wait until B650 AM5 boards have been announced so you can see if the PCIE layout meets your needs. Hopefully B650 will be appreciably cheaper.
Your existing specs and areas for improvement would be helpful to know. If you’re not on Ryzen 5000 or Intel 12th gen already, I would seriously consider those platforms too because you might save a lot of money and still get a very speedy system.
Thanks for your input 
I’m currently on a laptop, so I don’t have an existing platform to build upon.
A laptop is a platform too. What’s in it, and which parts aren’t meeting your needs?
CPU: Intel Core i7 9750H 2.6 GHz - 4.5GHz
GPU: RTX 2070 Max-Q
RAM: DDR4 32GB
The CPU is a little under-powered for my workload, also GPU passthrough doesn’t work on this laptop which is a big deal breaker.
If you have the budget then now would be a good time to crack on with it.
You should go high if you have the money because otherwise you may as well go AM4.
You may have to build your fancy VM based version of your workstation when the BIOS updates have settled down but your hardware should be fine.
It’s going to be quite a system and you will want to keep it for some time so get the latest generation and get the best parts you can afford.
If you wait it will become cheaper and easier to build but it sounds like you’re in need of it now. No point in waiting for Intel because for what you’re building using Linux will work better on AMD in my opinion.
My budget is around 3200$. Just curious but are the BIOS updates required to use GPU passthrough? I’m not very experienced when it comes to PC builds.
I think AM4 or LGA1700 could meet your needs. For example, here’s a performance comparison of some cheaper CPUs on those sockets and AM5 vs your laptop’s:
By all means you can go higher end than that easily on any of those sockets, but as you can see they will all offer a meaningful boost to single-threaded and multi-threaded workloads without having to go AM5. AM4 and certain LGA1700 boards take DDR4 which is way cheaper for similar performance kits than DDR5, and the motherboards themselves are way cheaper than what’s currently available for AM5.
I can’t speak to the AMD vs Intel linux compatibility angle that @wayland is referring to. If you want PCIE passthrough, it would be really good to do your homework on the specific motherboard you’re looking at, as some board are hit and miss with IOMMU groupings which makes PCIE passthrough harder.
If you’re new to PC building and PCIE passthrough I would really urge you to avoid AM5 for the next ~6 months. There can be (but isn’t always) a lot of headache with being in the bleeding edge while BIOS and software bugs are teased out.
The BIOS updates will default your carefully tweaked BIOS settings. You will get quite a lot of updates in the first couple of months and you should keep updating and watching your system get more stable.
You will at least need to set a couple of things in the BIOS to be able to run VMs and pass through hardware. If you don’t mind having to go through that a lot then yeah build your VM based system.
By contrast a normal Windows or Linux install will run with default BIOS settings, your VM based one won’t.
Morganaut builds this system using AMD GPU and an AMD ZEN based CPU. The MAC VM prefers AMD.
I’m able to wait until 2023, but not any later because of planned work. I think maybe I should wait until 2023 and see how the IOMMU groups are on the motherboards available at that time.
Oh ok, yeah I’m comfortable with tweaking my BIOS settings so that should be no problem.
I would spec out an AM5 and non-AM5 build and see if AM5 (after potential early teething issues are resolved) is a better value for you (either due to higher absolute perf or perf/$, whatever is important to you). If the non-AM5 build is more attractive to you, I wouldn’t wait super long to build it because availability of last-gen parts (especially motherboards) might not be as good as it is now. You may be picky about motherboards because you plan on running GPU passthrough.
How many GPUs do you need anyway? Are you planning on having the mac and windows VMs running at the same time (requiring slightly more complicated GPU sharing or separate GPUs)? The host system might need its own GPU too, and high end AM4 CPUs don’t have integrated GPUs.
You don’t need a separate GPU for the host really. You should have separate GPUs for the two VMs so you can run them at full speed at the same time with no compromise or complexity.
I would not expect AM5 to be the same price so I’d say make sure you go for maximum performance within your budget. Probably better to get the top AM4 5950X than the bottom AM5 if money is tight.
Yeah I’m planning on having separate GPU’s for the host and guests. Zen 4 has integrated graphics which is nice. I think your suggestion of making a spec for AM5 and non-AM5 is a smart choice. Just might do that.
if you want to save a bit of money then wait a few months for board partners to release there more budget friendly options.
that and the price of ddr5 is a bit rough considering the issues with it.
right now all your really seeing is the high end.
and your also seeing the early adopter tax (extra mark up).
so yeah i would wait a couple of months if theres no immediate reason to upgrade.
its actually a buyers market atm. with nvidia mispricing there latest 4000 cards (+$200 at the base over last gen?)
amd about to drop some new rdna cards. that you might be able to buy.
a flooded second hand market thats finally fell bellow mrsp across the board…
prices are tumbling in real terms… (although inflation is causing some e-tailers to increase there prices short term, eventually even they will have to reduce there prices too.)
so yeah if you wanna save some money… wait a little while… not to long though or you will be waiting till next Christmas 
if not then jump aboard am5 and enjoy the ride. 
This. Initial mobo prices are ridiculously and unjustifiably high. Manufacturers want to milk as much out of people with more money than sense in the initial release. Once the whales have handed over the big bucks the manufacturers will release mobos with virtually identical performance for more reasonable prices. Just like they do every… single… generation.
So wait a couple/few months and get the same performance for half the price.
By the time the more reasonably-priced mobos are released, Linux support will have improved as well, so a double-win. There are always obscure issues associated with new platform releases that take a few months to iron out. Unless you like to be on the bleeding edge it’s better to wait.
Didn’t know about the inital mobo prices. I think the smartest thing right now is to wait based on all the replies I have gotten.
You could wait for the refresh if you can wait.
Linux on AM5 should be really sweet in Q1 or Q2 2023. By then most distrod should have out of box support with no need to get a more recent kernel.
Before then, if you are fine with being a potential beta tester for the mother board platform of your choice, then yeah go AM5. While not the best bang for the buck right now, waiting will save you $200-$300, you do get to partake within and learn about the most interesting and fascinating quirks you never thought possible.
It is a good learning experience but not something to recommend for the average worker, for sure.