Will a AsRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer/3.1 support a AMD FX-9590?

Power Phase Design doesn't relate to CPU compatibility, it relates to power stability. For example, in a 4+1 design, four phases are dedicated to the CPU and in an 8+1 design, eight phases are dedicated to the CPU. An easy way to think about it is to imagine one gridlocked road with four lanes and one gridlocked road with eight lanes. The road with eight lanes will move faster and suffer fewer collisions because there's more space.

TDP is a measurement of heat, not power, and as the CPU sits inside the motherboard, the motherboard needs to be suitably protected. If it isn't, then it could literally melt.

I have been running a rig with the following specs for a month now and have had no issues whatsoever:

Fatal1ty 990FX Killer
FX-9590
Sapphire Radeon R9 290 (4GB)
Corsair Hydro H60
Corsair Vengeance Pro Red DDR3 PC17000/2133MHz CL11 2x8GB
Corsair CX750M, and still no issues with V-drop during extreme load
Samsung SSD 840 EVO 120GB
+
A couple of extra 3TB for storage

I didn't update the BIOS so just plug and play. However the case is a bit old and that will be the next planned change in this setup...
The CPU runs at a stock 4.9GHz but been tested up to 5.7GHz with a core-temp of 75deg C.

Witcher 3 on Ultra gets a nice 60FPS with max settings and GPU temp of 80 deg C and stock fan on 60% (higher and it gets a bit noisy...). Just need to sort out the Frame-rate drop issue that came with the first release.

SO, answer to the question, YES.

I would watch out as I had this board as for a month and a half. It was running great till one day it didn't. The CPU fried the Fata1lity Killer 990FX with my FX-9370. I had to go out and buy an Asus Sabertooth 990FX R.0 board

Side Question:
So all of you that have an FX-9370 or 9590, what is the actually max temp for this CPU? I have seen people say that CPU is only rated at 60 C. I am afraid to push the CPU past that point.

Hello ConfucedGamlber,
You are right about the board not being built to handle a TP of 220W but if the weak-point is kept cool there is no issue. The weak-point is: VRM's, between the CPU and the backplate. My solution was crude and easy.

Found a suitable nylon string some 10 inches long (25cm) and strapped a small 3,5" fan (80mm) on top of the cooling-flange, let it blow uppwards, causing suction around the flange that is printed "Killer" in nice red letters! Problem solved, VRM doesn't go above 62deg C and no more lost frames on Witcher 3 as I had earlier. SO conclusion a happy, cool VRM will always save the day

Now I just hope that the rig will go beyond your month and a half. As for the Maximum Core Temp. it's rated just like the FX-8350 and here is an answer from AMD I saw on a Swedish Board (Sweclockers.com) on the subject:



I understand that you are wondering about the FX-8350 CPU's temperature. Please correct me if I have misunderstood your problem.

The maximum temperature for the FX-8350 CPU is 61.1C, and is for the CPU internally, not the CPU socket. The motherboard will report the socket temperature, which can be up to 15 degrees hotter than the CPU itself, and most temperature monitoring programs will use the socket temperature, or variations on those readings, to report the CPU temperature. It will also estimate the CPU temperature using an equational offset, which may or may not be incorrect and provide inaccurate temperature readings.

If you download the AMD OverDrive software at http://sites-prod.amd.com/us/game/downloads/amd-overdrive/Pag... , it will provide an accurate temperature reading from inside the CPU. For reference, Package is the estimate of the temperature of the CPU, using the equational offset, while CPU is the temperature of the socket, where the CPU and motherboard meet. The equational offset can be wrong sometimes, which is why OverDrive is the authoritative source (reporting the temperature from a thermistor inside the physical CPU).

Please let us know if there's any other assistance needed. Thanks!


SO, stick to having 60deg Celcius as a maximum temp just not to fry the CPU

dude look at the extreme 6 its just about the same board but has the 220w support , and that usb 3.1 is a add on card anyway that you can pick up at like newegg and have it if you feel its that important to you
also gets you away from that killer lan thing [bla]