Noctua declares compatibility with AMD AM5 socket
All Noctua coolers except the low-profile AM4 cooler “NH-L9a-AM4” will be compatible with AM5 socket and next-gen Ryzen 7000 series.
As we know, AMD officially confirmed their new LGA1718 socket also known as AM5 will be compatible with AM4 cooling solutions. This greatly reduces the platform shift cost for many users, especially those already using high-end AIO cooling kits.
In short, AMD developed the AM5 package to be the same size as AM4, which means that the mounting holes for existing AM4 coolers are compatible. This means that all ‘standard’ AM4 coolers will have no problem supporting the same CPUs but using a different socket. AMD even retained the same Z-height as well, which means that even mounting kits for AM4 socket will mostly be compatible.
Noctua confirms that all Noctua coolers and mounting kits except two products will be compatible. The company specifically mentions NH-L9a-AM4 low-profile cooler and the NM-AM4-L9aL9i mounting kit as incompatible. However, the company is working a custom AM5 kits for those products specifically.
Only the coolers that were purchases before 2019 will require mounting kits for AM5, but they will still support for next-gen Ryzen 7000 CPUs once such kit is purchased.
FAQ: Which Noctua CPU coolers are compatible with AMD AM5?
AM5 (LGA 1718) is AMD’s upcoming socket for its next-generation Ryzen 7000 (Zen 4) series processors. Please refer to our socket compatibility overview in the Noctua Compatibility Centre (NCC) to see which Noctua CPU cooler models support socket AM5 out of the box or via mounting upgrade kits.
In short, all Noctua coolers and mounting kits that support AM4 are upwards compatible with socket AM5, except the NH-L9a-AM4 and the NM-AM4-L9aL9i.
All Noctua AM4 mountings except the ones of the NH-L9a-AM4 and the NM-AM4-L9aL9i attach to the threads of the standard AM4 stock backplate. Since these backplate threads and their pattern are identical on AM4 and AM5, our AM4 mountings that attach to the standard AMD backplate also support AM5.
This means that all SE-AM4 models as well as all Noctua multi-socket coolers purchased since 01/2019 already support socket AM5. Multi-socket coolers purchased before this date that have already been upgraded to AM4 using the NM-AM4 or NM-AM4-UxS kits also require no further upgrades. Older multi-socket coolers that have been purchased before 2019 and have not yet been upgraded to AM4 can be made compatible with AM5 using the NM-AM4 or NM-AM4-UxS upgrade kits.
The NH-L9a-AM4 and the NM-AM4-L9aL9i are not compatible with AM5 because they require replacing the standard AMD backplate with a custom one, which isn’t possible on AM5. A dedicated AM5 upgrade kit for NH-L9a, NH-L9a-AM4 and NH-L9i coolers is in preparation.
Source: Noctua AM5 FAQ, Noctua Product Socket Compatibility
