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Today AMD are launching their new 990FX chipset motherboards and we are looking at the Asus Sabertooth model which is a board loaded with a plethora of features. The Ultimate Force (TUF) Sabertooth 990FX has a 10 phase Digi+ VRM and it is wired to four DDR3 DIMM slots which support dual channel DDR3 1866mhz. This connects to the 990FX chipset across a HyperTransport 3.1 link.
No one will argue that Asus make some of the finest motherboards on the market. Their Republic Of Gamers (ROG) and Asus Crosshair V Formula motherboards have won many awards across the globe. My personal favourite right now is the Asus Rampage III Black Edition X58, which scored a staggering 9.5/10 when it was reviewed on Kitguru in March.
The Asus Sabertooth 990FX also supports both Quad GPU SLI and Quad CPU CrossfireX. Is this one of the best AMD based gaming motherboards on the market? On paper it certainly looks like it.
Specifications Summary
- CPU: AMD socket AM3+ for AMD FX series CPU up to 8 core. Compatible with AMD socket AM3 for AMD Phenom II/Athlon II/Sempron 100 Series Processors.
- Chipset: AMD 990FX/SB950
- System Bus: Up to 5.2 GT/s HyperTransport 3.0
- Memory: 4x DIMM, Max 32GB, DDR 3 1866/1600/1333/1066mhz, ECC, Non ECC and unbuffered memory.
-Dual Channel - Expansion Slots: 3x PCI Express 2.0 x 16 slots (single @ x 16, dual @ x16, triple @ x16/x8).
-1x PCI Express 2.0 x 16 slot (Black @ x4).
-1 x PCI Express 2.0 x1 slot. 1x PCI Slot - Multi GPU Technology: Supports Nvidia QUAD SLI and AMD Quad GPU CrossfireX
- Storage: AMD SB950 Chipset:
-6x SATA 6Gb/s ports with Raid 0,1,5, 10 support.
2x Micron JMB362 SATA controllers:
-2x SATA 3GB/s ports.
-1x Power eSATA 3GB/s port (green).
-1x eSATA 3GB/s port (red). - LAN: Realtek 81111E Gigabit Lan Controller
- High Definition Audio: Realtek ALC892 8 channel High Definition Audio CODEC
– Absolute Pitch 192KHz/24bit True BD Lossless Sound
-BD Audio Layer Content Protection
-Supports Jack-Detection, Multi Streaming, Front Panel Jack Retasking
-Optical S/PDIF out port at back I/O - IEEE 1394: VIA VT6308P controller supports 2x IEEE 1394a ports (1 port at mid board. 1 port at back panel).
Funky colour scheme…. looks very similar to the ‘army’ MSI boards ive noticed in the last few months.
I really like the new bios systems. my bud bought a sandybridge board and they are leaps ahead of the older bios systems. This is a nice option for AMD lovers, but I wonder what percentage of sales these boards really get on the market against Sandybridge
Good boards, but the new cpus are the main thing im waiting on. id say SLI and CFx are small markets. a new range of CPUs might make AMD competitive again. If they can match the 2600k they are onto a winner, but its a tall order.
A lot of detail in this. I really do rate the X6 processors. I thought they would be pretty poor and my friend bought the 1090T and I wouldnt even know it wasn’t an intel chip. I suppose benchmarks highlight it more, but for gaming? I doubt anyone would know if someone changed their system without them looking.
Im excited to see the new CPU’s. Its a nice start, but its pretty uninspiring, apart from SLI support. and most people who want SLI will already have intel chipsets.
I bet this took some behind the scenes negotiations. Nvidia allowing AMD to use SLI.
Good move however and nice new range of boards. Will be looking forward to the new range of processors.
AMD have such a tough job really. Intel are dominating the CPU market. I do agree, the 1100T and 1090T are great products. for gaming they are perfect.
Asus make great boards, this is one of them. Sorry but im waiting for the new cpus before I even contemplate a new board. The current phenom X4 and X6 range doesnt appeal to me. im not a power user, but I dont see any reason yet to move to intel.
Finally a modern board that can do X16 sli, Intel can stick their thousand different socket types where they belong