- Jul 27, 2014
- 8,346
- 3
- 50,565
990FX chipset:
AMD’s latest chipset comes with official (native) SLI capability thanks to 38 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 2.0 for Northbridge. That equates to 2 full x16 slots and more x4 and x1 slots in general with the use of multiplier chips. Simply put, it is a feature rich chipset and the choice of AMD enthusiast builders. All boards natively contain SATA3 ports.
Quality is decent in general, only a fraction supports high TDP FX 9, most do fine with FX 8 and there are a couple exceptions as well. The known issues have been clearly labeled. Look into tier description for more info.
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Tier One-Class A: Extreme Enthusiast Level. Only one MoBo in this tier, as only this MoBo supports 4-way SLI config, great for extreme OCing. Lacks mSATA, M.2 and SATA-E. But has eSATA and USB 3.0 ports. Superb quality, the best AMD board out there.
GA-990FXA-UD7
Tier One-Class B: Enthusiast Level. Great boards for extreme OCing on any current FX in the market. Feature laden, high quality boards. No known issues with any of them.
Extreme6 (Termed as 990X chipset board on some sites)
Extreme9
Fatal1ty 990FX Professional
Crosshair V Formula-Z
Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
GA-99FXA-UD5
MSI GD80V2 (See NOTE1 below)
M5A99FX PRO R2.0
GA-99FXA-UD3
NOTE1: GD80V2 has limited voltage control, so it is not perfect for OCing FX 9.
NOTE: All the boards from here-onwards, in any chipset, do not support FX 9 CPUs due to not good enough thermals on VRMs and/or power phases. So with FX 9 CPU, you only have to choose from one of the above options.
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Tier Two: High end. Good boards quality wise, great for OCing, have enough power for some serious OC on FX 8 or lower CPUs. High quality but don’t support FX 9. Have all the standard features.
MSI GD65V2 (See NOTE1 below)
990FX Killer
Extreme4
NOTE1: GD65V2 only does SLI/CFX at x8/x8, the layout for 990FX boards in general is x16/x16 which does matter with high end GPU's today, as it has only PCIe Gen 2.0. Moreover the voltage control on this board is limited, so it's not perfect for OCing FX 8 either.
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Tier Three: Mid range. Only one MoBo in this list as the thermals on VRM and PPs are not good enough for FX 8. Issues have been reported of instability with FX 8 even w/o OC, so this board is only good for FX 6 or lower. The board itself isn’t low quality, but the Power Phases and thermals are just not good enough.
Extreme3
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Currently Untiered: MSI 990FXA GAMING
Not enough reviews and/or info on product page.
__________________________________
NOTE: This thread is a part of the article series 'Motherboard tier list'.
AMD’s latest chipset comes with official (native) SLI capability thanks to 38 PCIe 2.0 lanes and 4 PCIe 2.0 for Northbridge. That equates to 2 full x16 slots and more x4 and x1 slots in general with the use of multiplier chips. Simply put, it is a feature rich chipset and the choice of AMD enthusiast builders. All boards natively contain SATA3 ports.
Quality is decent in general, only a fraction supports high TDP FX 9, most do fine with FX 8 and there are a couple exceptions as well. The known issues have been clearly labeled. Look into tier description for more info.
__________________________________
Tier One-Class A: Extreme Enthusiast Level. Only one MoBo in this tier, as only this MoBo supports 4-way SLI config, great for extreme OCing. Lacks mSATA, M.2 and SATA-E. But has eSATA and USB 3.0 ports. Superb quality, the best AMD board out there.
GA-990FXA-UD7
Tier One-Class B: Enthusiast Level. Great boards for extreme OCing on any current FX in the market. Feature laden, high quality boards. No known issues with any of them.
Extreme6 (Termed as 990X chipset board on some sites)
Extreme9
Fatal1ty 990FX Professional
Crosshair V Formula-Z
Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
GA-99FXA-UD5
MSI GD80V2 (See NOTE1 below)
M5A99FX PRO R2.0
GA-99FXA-UD3
NOTE1: GD80V2 has limited voltage control, so it is not perfect for OCing FX 9.
NOTE: All the boards from here-onwards, in any chipset, do not support FX 9 CPUs due to not good enough thermals on VRMs and/or power phases. So with FX 9 CPU, you only have to choose from one of the above options.
__________________________________
Tier Two: High end. Good boards quality wise, great for OCing, have enough power for some serious OC on FX 8 or lower CPUs. High quality but don’t support FX 9. Have all the standard features.
MSI GD65V2 (See NOTE1 below)
990FX Killer
Extreme4
NOTE1: GD65V2 only does SLI/CFX at x8/x8, the layout for 990FX boards in general is x16/x16 which does matter with high end GPU's today, as it has only PCIe Gen 2.0. Moreover the voltage control on this board is limited, so it's not perfect for OCing FX 8 either.
__________________________________
Tier Three: Mid range. Only one MoBo in this list as the thermals on VRM and PPs are not good enough for FX 8. Issues have been reported of instability with FX 8 even w/o OC, so this board is only good for FX 6 or lower. The board itself isn’t low quality, but the Power Phases and thermals are just not good enough.
Extreme3
__________________________________
Currently Untiered: MSI 990FXA GAMING
Not enough reviews and/or info on product page.
__________________________________
NOTE: This thread is a part of the article series 'Motherboard tier list'.
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