AM3+ 990 FX mobo shoot-out

[Dirk Broer]

After spending much time deciding what FM1 or FM2 mobo gives the most bang for a buck I will now turn unto the enthusiast platform, the AM3+ mobos with their Phenom X6 and 8-core Bulldozer and Piledriver support.

What makes an AM3+ mobo a good mobo? A bit as with the FM1 and FM2 criteria:
* Support for 4 sticks of RAM, so you do not run out of memory. Not now, never, even when doing 4 BURP WUs at a time.
* The most versatile chipset possible, here the 990FX, so you can e.g. have RAID5, USB3 and SATA3.
* At least three slots for discrete graphic cards -but rather four-, so you can go for triple/quad crossfire or triple/quad SLI.
* d-Sub (VGA), DVI, HDMI and Displayport connectors: with Phenom, Bulldozer and piledriver this is video card dependent, so not a criterium for the mobo.
* eSATA support, for them external goodies.
* Firewire support (as LucidLogix Virtu MVP did not make any sense when these boards came out).
* Rock-solid power design, with preferably at least 10 (8 APU+2 RAM) phases, so overclocking is safer.

Which mobos can count on a sign of approval?
Asrock: Has three 990FX boards. Their top AM3+ mobo is the ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Professional
* Memory: up to 32 Gb, 2100 Mhz.
* Raid 5: Yes USB 3: Yes Sata 3: Yes
* PCIe-16 slots: 3
* eSATA support: Yes
* FireWire: Yes
* Power design: 12+2 Power Phase Design
Asrock also has the 990FX Extreme4 that compared to its more expensive brother differs in having a 8+2 Power Phase Design and a blue-white-black-golden mbo design as opposed to Fatal1ty's red-and-black.
The even cheaper black-and-grey 990FX Extreme3 has to do with a 4+1 Power Phase Design and has DuraCaps instead of Premium Gold Caps. Both are claimed as living 2.5 times longer than traditional caps though, so it is probably only the paint that differs. The Extreme3 costs roughly half the price of the Fatal1ty and the Extreme4 is usually in between these two.

ASUS: has six 990Fx boards, their top AM3+ mobo being the ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z
* Memory: up to 32 Gb, 2400 Mhz (OC).
* Raid 5: Yes USB 3: Yes Sata 3: Yes
* PCIe-16 slots: 4 (2x16 (or 1x16 and 2x8) and 1x4)
* eSATA support: Yes
* FireWire: Yes
* Power design: 8+2 Power Phase Design
ASUS has more 990FX boards: when you spend another $50 -and you can find it- the board comes with Thunderbolt support. The ASUS Crosshair V Formula (without Z) drops the FireWire support, as does the cheaper Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 (but not the older Sabertooth 990FX!), that do not seem to differ from the Formula on the criteria above. The cheapest ASUS 990FX motherboard finally, the M5A99FX PRO R2.0, drops a PCIe-16 slot and has a 6+2 Power Phase Design.

Biostar: The TA990FXE is Biostar's sole 990FX board.
* Memory: up to 32 Gb, 2200 Mhz (OC).
* Raid 5: Yes USB 3: Yes Sata 3: Yes
* PCIe-16 slots: 3 (2x16, 1x4)
* eSATA support: Yes
* FireWire: Yes
* Power design: 4+1 Power Phase Design.
Apart from the Power Phase Design Biostar offers good value for money.

Gigabyte: Their top AM3+ mobo is the shiny black-and-golden GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD7
* Memory: up to 32 Gb, 2000 Mhz.
* Raid 5: Yes USB 3: Yes Sata 3: Yes
* PCIe-16 slots: 6 (2x16, 2x8 and 2x4 speed)
* eSATA support: Yes
* FireWire: No
* Power design: 8+2 Power Phase Design
The black-and-blue GA-990FXA-UD5 drops one PCIe-16 slot (x8), the black-and-grey GA-990FXA-UD3 drops the other PCIe-16 slot (x8), as does the white-blue-navy colored GA-990FXA-D3, that also drops the eSata support.

MSI: MSI has two 990FX boards, the 990FXA-GD80 being their top model.
* Memory: up to 32 Gb, 2133 Mhz (OC).
* Raid 5: Yes USB 3: Yes Sata 3: Yes
* PCIe-16 slots: 4 (2x16 (or 1x16 and 2x8) and 1x4)
* eSATA support: Yes
* FireWire: Yes
* Power design: 8+2 Power Phase Design
The 990FXA-GD65 drops two PCIe-16 slots, the FireWire support and the eSata connectors.

It is sure time for a new design in the AM3+ field, as none of these boards offer PCIe-16 (3x16) and only some PCIe 3.0 for that matter. Some features (e.g. eSata, USB3) come from other chips than the chipset itself, making the 990FX boards so perhaps rather power-hungry and giving Bulldozer and Piledriver a reputation as energy wasters (read: consuming more Watts in idle state than Ivy Bridge). As for the boards above it is a matter of personal taste, needs and budget. The more expensive boards have more features, but you might not need them all.

[Nflight]

I just spent two hours on one post, Oh my Dirk you out did your self!

[Jason1478963]

The MSI 990FXA-GD80 seems decent so far.

[vaughan]

Excellent post Dirk. Lots of research time and effort has gone into that. Thank you.

[NeoGen]

That is an awesome rundown of the best AM3+ boards out there. Great post Dirk!

And I agree with you 110% on your last paragraph. AMD needs a new chipset soon, and by soon I mean in the 1st quarter 2013.

But hey... you can't say their graphics division isn't working extra hard these days. Filling in the orders for potentially all three next generation gaming consoles is an awesome feat!
Wii U - AMD Radeon HD (unspecified)
Xbox 720 - (rumoured) AMD Radeon HD 6750
PS4 - (rumoured) AMD’s A10 APU