Despite the age of the 990FX platform, this refresh is one of the more exciting ones we have seen regarding actual end user benefit as well as a major overhaul to the aesthetics. Yes, sure, I recognise that the heatsink design is the same as the original 990FX, except on the southbridge, but overall, the design is a lot more coherent, modest, and less garish. The PCB digital camo print is subtle, and hasn't gone over the top. The AURA lighting is actually really attractive, giving your graphics/expansion cards a backlight which can change to the beat of whatever audio source you are listening to. As RGB lighting effects go, when say compared to some mechanical keyboards, it is still fairly primitive, and the colours could be calibrated a little more accurately regarding the software, but the fact it is there, it works, and it looks good, is always a huge positive.



The TUF SABERTOOTH 990FX R3.0 delivers hard in the connectivity, giving the latest USB standards and some. In our testing, there was no major ground broken regarding performance of the FX CPUs, overall things were positive. Our overclocking experience was actually enjoyable, if not, fantastic! It has been a while since I have booted this FX 8350 in at over 5GHz (maybe its due to the season changing) but I have no doubt that this would make a great board for those who wish to put their FX chip under water (figuratively). The components and TUF reassurance literally guarantees stability, and while that is for 'normal operation' I am beginning to wonder how long it will be before I see a Challenger II or an Abrahms coated with ASUS SABERTOOTH motherboards.

Sure I could continue down the path of railing on the ancient AM3+ platform, but there is still some value and life left in it, and until AMD release anything new the ASUS TUF SABERTOOTH R3.0 is likely going to be the best motherboard available (regarding chipset and contemporary features) for AMDs FX CPUs. It is also an exciting reminder that AMD are stirring and new things are coming.

The TUF SABERTOOTH 990FX R3.0 delivers more than a facelift, not only is reliability guaranteed (backed by the 5 year warranty), it is packed with all the contemporary connectivity you could wish for.


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