ASUS 970 PRO GAMING/ AURA Review

👤by Tony Le Bourne Comments 📅07-02-16
Introduction

Product on Review: ASUS 970 PRO GAMING/ AURA
Manufacturer & Sponsor: ASUS
Street Price: £100 GBP / $119 USD

ASUS need no introduction, but the AM3+ platform may require a memory refresh for our younger readers. The AM3 platform was released way back in 2009 as AMD started to ship their Phenom II CPUs with a DDR2/3 memory controller. Come 2011 AMD were ready to release their Bulldozer based CPUs with the natural progression to the AM3+ socket. This socket was very similar to the AM3 socket, so much so that motherboards with good enough power regulation could support AM3+ CPUs with a BIOS update... give or take a refreshed CPU here or there, this is where the high end AMD platform, still, currently remains.

Though it is too early to say of the future, there has been interesting news from AMD about their plans and it would seem that the AM4 platform is on its way, unifying both APU and CPU platforms into one, along with interesting news about future CPU/APUs.

Back on topic, here we find another example of ASUS creating for the sake of creating, and never to let their product line lag too far behind, the 970 PRO GAMING/ AURA, is part of the AURA series that features customisable RGB LED lighting. 2015 seems like a prelude to 2016 in regards to RGB lighting and this is the first glimpse of that glorious spectral delight shining down on AMD. ASUS didn't stop there, they have added 2x USB 3.1 ports, having twice the standard bandwidth of USB 3.0 and geared this motherboard towards enthusiast gamers by including support for AMD's CrossFireX and NVIDIA's SLI.

It would be easy to question why ASUS chose to go with the 970 chipset and not the 990FX, but this is arguably a very smart move as it provides the majority of the features that the 990FX does, yet will make the final price significantly cheaper, making it more attractive on a platform that wouldn't look out of place as an extra on The Walking Dead.


ASUS on their 970 PRO GAMING/ AURA/b]
970 Pro Gaming/Aura is built for play, shaped by professional gamers and tested for gaming perfection — strong enough storm through the industry's most punishing labs workouts. We engineer and test for the finest quality, longevity, performance, stability and compatibility. Our world-class engineers are themselves avid gamers, and combine their own passion with the skills and demands of some of the planet's best players to create innovative gaming features everyone will crave. With 970 Pro Gaming/Aura you do more than just play — you'll experience gaming on the edge of reality.



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