ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 Review
Category : 990
Published by Marc Büchel on 14.02.13
Concerning the TUF series, to which the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 from ASUS belongs, the manufacturer promises durability thanks to the use of high quality components. Furthermore this thing comes with a camouflage look, which in an elegant way, addresses a certain niche of gamers and in general users who demand quality. You also find that there are numerous connectors on this board and at a first glance it looks like this thing seems to be an excellent allrounder.





The Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 belongs to ASUS' TUF-series motherboards regarding which the manufacturer focuses on durability. As always we're very curious what this thing is capable of from a layout and design perspective.


Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

 

Specifications / Delivery

CPU AMD AM3+ FX/Phenom II/Athlon II/Sempron 100 Series Processors
Chipset AMD 990FX/SB950
Memory Dual Channel DDR3, 4 x DIMM, Max. 32 GB DDR3 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz
Multi-GPU Supports NVIDIA SLI, 3-Way, Quad-GPU SLI Technology
Supports AMD CrossFire, 3-Way, Quad-GPU CrossFireX Technology
Slots 3 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (dual x16 or x16, x8, x8)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (x4 mode)
1 x PCIe 2.0 x1
1 x PCI
Audio Realtek ALC892 8-Channel
Storage AMD SB950 Controller
6 x SATA 6Gb/s port (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10)

ASMedia USB 3.0
2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (2 at mid board)

ASMedia USB 3.0
4 x USB 3.0/2.0 (4 at back panel blue)

AMD SB950
12 x SUB 2.0/1.1 (8 at back panel, 4 at mid board)

ASMedia PCIe SATA Controller
2 x SATA 6Gb/s port
2 x eSATA 6Gb/s port
I/O internal / Connectors
  • 1 x USB 3.0 connector supports additional 2 USB 3.0 ports (19-pin, moss green)
  • 2 x USB 2.0 connectors support additional 4 USB 2.0 ports
  • 1 x TPM connector
  • 1 x COM port(s) connector
  • 8 x SATA 6Gb/s connectors
  • 1 x CPU Fan connector (1 x 4 -pin)
  • 1 x CPU OPT Fan connector (1 x 4 -pin)
  • 4 x Chassis Fan connectors (4 x 4 -pin)
  • 1 x S/PDIF out header
  • 1 x 24-pin EATX Power connector
  • 1 x 8-pin ATX 12V Power connector
  • 1 x Front panel connector
  • 1 x System panel (Q-Connector)
  • 1 x DirectKey Button
  • 1 x DRCT header
  • 1 x MemOK! button
  • 1 x Clear CMOS jumper
  • I/O external
  • 1 x PS/2 keyboard/mouse combo port
  • 2 x eSATA 6Gb/s
  • 1 x LAN (RJ45) port
  • 4 x USB 3.0 (blue)
  • 8 x USB 2.0
  • 1 x Optical S/PDIF out
  • 6 x Audio jack
  • 1 x USB BIOS Flashback Button
  • Formfactor ATX (30.5 cm x 24.4 cm)
    BIOS 64Mb Flash ROM, EFI AMI BIOS GUI
    Warranty 3 years




    Regarding the delivery you find everything you need. Next to numerous manuals there is a SLI bridge, SATA cables, a Q-connector as well as an I/O shield.


    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    Features

    TUF Thermal Radar The TUF Thermal Radar monitors temps in critical parts of the motherboard in real time, automatically adjusting fan speeds to make sure the system maintains high stability without overheating. It consists of multiple sensors for various components on the motherboard, giving users the ability to monitor each one individually. The Thermal Radar automatically calculates ideal fan speeds based on different parameters selected by users for each component, keeping everything cooler and longer lasting.
     
    Digi+ VRM Meanwhile ASUS also provides its boards with digital power designs. Using the the right software, in this case ASUS DIGI+ VRM Utility it is not only possible to adjust voltages whilst being in Windows one can also control impedances.
     
    ASUS Update Allows us to check and update the latest available BIOS directly from ASUS website.  
     
    ASUS FAN Xpert FAN Xpert allows you to adjust both the CPU and chassis fan speeds according to different ambient temperatures and your PC's system loading. The various fan profiles offer flexible controls of fan speed to achieve a quiet and cool system environment.
         
    ASUS MyLogo Allows you to change the POST Logo at system startup with any pic you want.  
         
    ASUS TurboV EVO Allows you to overclock the bus frequency, CPU voltage, IMC voltage and DRAM Bus voltage in Windows and takes effect in realtime without exiting and rebooting the OS.  
         
    ASUS TPU As soon as one activates the TPU this chips monitors all available voltages and clock speeds using the corresponding software. The difference to the EPU is that TPU will provide as much performance as possible. Therefore it can increase clock speeds and voltages.




    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    Layout



    The Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 comes with the typcial military look ASUS provided their TUF series motherboards with. Therefore the manufacturer uses colors like olive-green, black and grey. Generally it is the goal to achieve a look that automatically suggests that this is a high quality and "tough" product. The different cooling blocks also consist of ceramic. Altogether ASUS succeeded in generating a homogenous look but one really needs to like the color scheme and we think that not everybody will enjoy the military looks.



    ASUS provided their latest TUF board with a digital power design, whereas the CPU gets eight phases and the memory gets two phases. Looking at the capacitors themselves you'll find ML caps around the CPU socket. These multilayer polymer capacitors offer advantages over ceramic capacitors. Super ML caps remain stable under regular as well as AC voltage, don't have any aging mechanisms and are resilient under thermal shock.



    Totally you'll find four DIMM-slots on the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0. Officially supported are DDR3 1866 / 1600 / 1333 / 1066 MHz with up to 32 GByte capacity. There is plenty of space to install even big aircoolers and they shouldn't interfere with memory.



    The current converters are being held at adequate temperatures via a passive heatpipe cooling solution. The southbridge got a passive cooling block which has not been integrated into the heatpipe loop of northbridge and VRM. The fact that the cooling blocks around the CPU socket aren't too big makes it comfortable to install a big aircooler. We also noticed the very high manufacturing quality of the cooling blocks and their weight which is quite immense.
       



    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    Connectors and I/O



    Totally ASUS equipped the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 with eight angled SATA ports which should be enough for any office PC or gaming system. Unfortunately you won't find practical onboard power- and reset-buttons. ASUS also didn't equip the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 with a debug display which would have been useful if you should once have issues with one of the components in your system.
     



    Totally you'll find six fan headers on the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 which is more than enough, to provide a well equipped midrange or even a high-end-system with fresh air. The fanheaders are located around the CPU and their also spread over the whole board which makes them easily accessible from any position in an enclosure.
      



    Looking at the external connectors directly at the back-panel ASUS equipped the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 with four USB 3.0/2.0 ports, eight USB 2.0 port, two eSATA 6 Gbps ports, one gigabit ethernet port, an analogue audio panel as well as an optical out. Furthermore there also is a practical BIOS reset button.



    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    BIOS

    What you're meanwhile getting with every single board that can be use for overclocking is the feature to save and afterwards reload different BIOS profiles. Once again ASUS succeeded in creating another very well structured BIOS. Furthermore all the new ASUS boards come with a graphical UEFI-BIOS which allows a navigation via mouse. These day one can undoubtedly say that ASUS is setting the standard when it comes to BIOSes which can be configured easily. Other manufacturers can only try to catch up at the moment.

       


       


       


       


       


       


       


       



    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    Test Setup

    Hardware

    Motherboards
    • ASUS Crosshair V Formula
    • ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z
    • ASUS Sabertooth 990FX
    • ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0
    • ASUS M5A99X Evo
    • ASUS Crosshait IV Extreme
    • ECS A890GXM-A2
    • ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4)
    • DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5
    • ASUS M4A78T-E
    • ASRock M3A790GXH/128M
    • Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P
    Processor Cooling System
    Thermal compound
    AMD Phenom II 1090T BE
    Noctua NH-D14
    GELID GC-Extreme
    Memory 4 GB Mushkin Redline PC3-12800 6-8-6-24
    1600 MHz 8-8-8-24 (Default)
    Graphic card nVidia GTX 285
    Hard Disk OCZ Vector 128 GB
    Power supply Seasonic platinum Fanless 520w (SS-520FL2)


    Benchmarks:


    Crysis (Benchmark CPU and GPU)

    Quality Low
    Resolution 800x600
    Demo Loop 3
    Time of Delay 9
    DX9 Enable

    Street Fighter IV

    Display FPS Disable
    AntiAliasing Without
    Resolution 800x600
    Refresh Rate 60 Hz
    V-Sync Disable
    Frame Rate Variable
    Aspect Correction Auto
    Brightness 50
    Parallel Rendering Enable
    Texture Filter Disable
    Model Quality Low
    Background Quality Low
    Soft Shadows Disable
    Self Shadows Disable
    Motion Blur Disable
    Particles Low
    Extra Touch Disable

    Resident Evil 5

    Resolution 800 x 600
    Display Mode Full Screen
    Refresh Rate 60 Hz
    V-Sync Disable
    Frame Rate Variable
    AntiAliasing Without
    Motion Blur Disable
    Shadow Detail Low
    Texture Detail Low
    Overall Quality Low


    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    Futuremark

    3DMark06

    3DMark 06 is getting older these days. Therefore if you are using really powerful graphic cards you will hit CPU limitation which means that the graphic card isn't the bottleneck in the system. This is also the reason why in recent high-end desktop systems 3DMark 06 scales nicely with the CPU and the graphic card has much less influence on the scores.

    Total

    3DMark 06 Total Marks Percent
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 17'542 102.25 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 17'490 101.95 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 17'471 101.83 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 17'421 101.54 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 17'267 100.65 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 17'262 100.62 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 17'256 100.58 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 17'164 100.05 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 17'156 100.00 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 17'053 99.40 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 17'054 99.40 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 16'866 98.31 %
      Higher is better


    CPU

    3DMark 06 CPU Marks Percent
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 5'839 103.11 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 5'835 103.04 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 5'803 102.47 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 5'802 102.45 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 5'792 102.28 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 5'781 102.08 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 5'746 101.46 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 5'693 100.81 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 5'663 100.00 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 5'663 100.00 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 5'657 99.89 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 5'647 99.71 %
      Higher is better

     

    3DMark Vantage

    3DMark Vantage is able to squeeze nearly everything out of a recent system. Therefore the feature liste is also pretty long: DirectX10, FP16-HDR, motion blur, parallax occlusion mapping, GPU-physics simulation and different shader effects are being used to even make recent high-end systems struggle.

    Total

    3DMark Vantage Total Marks Percent
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 13'009 100.69 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 12'960 100.31 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 12'979 100.46 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 12'969 100.38 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 12'945 100.19 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 12'924 100.03 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 12'920 100.00 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 12'884 99.72 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 12'862 99.55 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 12'857 99.51 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 12'792 99.01 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 12'760 98.76 %
      Higher is better


    CPU

    3DMark Vantage CPU Marks Percent
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 16'747 103.21 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 16'724 103.07 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 16'657 102.66 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 16'550 102.00 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 16'643 102.57 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 16'592 102.26 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 16'543 101.95 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 16'527 101.86 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 16'390 101.01 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 16'286 100.37 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 16'226 100.00 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 16'194 99.80 %
      Higher is better



    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    SiSoft Sandra 1

    SiSoft Sandra is a theoretical multi purpose benchmark suite which is able to show differences in CPU architectures. We split the tests with SiSoft Sandra into two parts. Therefore on this page you'll find Arithmetic-, Multimedia- and Cryptography-benchmarks.

    Arithmetic Benchmark

    Dhrystone GIPS Percent
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 76.17 100.00 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 75.15 98.56 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 75.00 98.46 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 74.56 97.88 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 74.49 97.79 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 74.08 97.25 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 72.47 95.14 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 70.58 92.66 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 68.99 90.57 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 65.33 85.77 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 65.30 85.73 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 63.00 82.71 %
      Higher is better


    Whetstone GFLOPS Percent
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 56.63 101.51 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 56.59 101.43 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 56.00 100.38 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 56.00 100.38 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 55.86 100.12 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 55.79 100.00 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 55.76 99.94 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 55.74 99.91 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 55.62 99.70 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 55.56 99.59 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 55.50 99.48 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 55.35 99.57 %
      Higher is better


    Multimedia

    Integer MPixels/sec Percent
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 83.39 100.23 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 83.36 100.19 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 83.33 100.15 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 83.30 100.12 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 83.20 100.00 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 83.20 100.00 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 83.19 99.99 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 83.14 99.93 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 83.10 99.88 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 83.00 99.76 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 83.00 99.76 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 82.86 99.59 %
      Higher is better


    floating point MPixels/sec Percent
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 137.24 101.24 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 137.19 101.20 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 136.19 100.46 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 136.16 100.44 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 136.00 100.32 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 135.86 100.22 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 135.80 100.18 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 135.70 100.10 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 135.56 100.00 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 135.38 99.87 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 135.35 99.84 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 135.34 99.84 %
      Higher is better


    Crytography

    AES 256 MByte/s Percent
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 980 101.03 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 979 100.93 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 978 100.82 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 977 100.72 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 977 100.72 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 976 100.62 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 976 100.62 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 974 100.41 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 974 100.41 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 971 100.10 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 971 100.10 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 970 100.00 %
      Higher is better


    SHA 256 MByte/s Percent
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 899 103.21 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 890 102.18 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 883 101.38 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 882 101.26 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 882 101.26 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 881 101.15 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 880 101.03 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 879 100.92 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 878 100.80 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 878 100.80 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 878 100.80 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 871 100.00 %
      Higher is better


    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    SiSoft Sandra 2

    At this point we deliver the values regarding Memory Bandwidth, Memory Latency as well as Memory and Cache Access.

    Memory bandwidth

    Integer GByte/s Percent
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 14.30 145.33 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 14.30 145.33 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 14.29 145.22 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 14.27 145.02 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 14.24 144.71 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 13.10 133.13 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 13.00 132.11 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 13.00 132.11 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 13.00 132.11 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 13.00 132.11 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 12.70 129.06 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 9.84 100.00 %
      Higher is better


    floating point GByte/s Percent
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 14.30 145.33 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 14.30 145.33 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 14.30 145.33 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 14.26 144.92 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 14.24 144.71 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 13.00 132.11 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 13.00 132.11 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 13.00 132.11 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 13.00 132.11 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 13.00 132.11 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 12.75 129.57 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 9.84 100.00 %
      Higher is better


    Memory latency

    Memory latency ns Percent
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 70.40 92.39 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 71.00 93.17 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 72.50 95.14 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 75.40 98.95 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 75.60 99.21 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 75.50 99.08 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 76.20 100.00 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 76.30 100.13 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 78.20 102.62 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 80.20 105.25 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 81.00 106.30 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 85.90 112.73 %
      Lower is better


    Memory and cache access

    Memory and cache access GByte/s Percent
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 85.84 105.84 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 85.19 105.04 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 85.00 104.81 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 84.48 104.17 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 84.40 104.07 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 83.87 103.41 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 83.00 102.34 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 81.70 100.74 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 81.30 100.24 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 81.10 100.00 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 81.14 100.05 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 80.70 99.50 %
      Higher is better


    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    Super Pi 1M / 32M, wPrime

    Meanwhile Super Pi even in its latest version has become pretty old. Never the less it is able to show scaling to the clock speed nicely. Following we will also run Super Pi with different memory frequencies as well as different latencies. This shows the influence of the memory subsystem.

    Super Pi 1M

    SuperPi Mod 1.5 XS 1M sec Percent
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 21.319 99.00 %
    Asus Crosshair IV Extreme 21.341 98.77 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 21.344 98.79 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 21.357 98.85 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 21.403 99.06 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 21.481 99.42 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 21.531 99.65 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 21.563 99.80 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 21.590 99.93 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2) 21.606 100.00 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 21.642 100.17 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 21.653 100.22 %
      Lower is better


    wPrime 32M

    wPrime is based on a multithreaded algorithm to calculate the square root to up to 32 billion digits. Therefore it is possible to put 100 percent load on every core or thread and to see differences between architectures.

    WPrime v1.55 32M sec Percent
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 8.126 98.65 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 8.143 98.86 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2) 8.237 100.00 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 8.269 100.39 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 8.341 101.26 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 8.344 101.30 %
    Asus Crosshair IV Extreme 8.345 101.31 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 8.502 103.22 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 8.515 103.38 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 8.531 103.57 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 8.656 105.09 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 8.734 106.03 %
      Lower is better



    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    Games

    Crysis DX9 800 x 600, low details

    Crysis is still one of the games which has very high system requirements. Therefore developer Crytek implemented Direct3D-10-API, High-Dynamic-Range-Rendering, Parallax Occlusion Mapping, Soft Shadows, Motion Blur, Depth of Field as well as Soft Particles. We test Crysis by using DirectX9 to show CPU-sacaling especially which low resolutions. If we look at the high resolutions we are able to spot that the CPUs influence compared to the graphic card becomes much less important.

    Crysis DX9 800 x 600, low details   Percent
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 120.40 fps 102.86 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 123.32 fps 105.36 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 119.21 fps 101.85 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 119.21 fps 101.85 %
    Asus Crosshair IV Extreme 118.78 fps 101.48 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 118.68 fps 101.39 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 118.61 fps 101.33 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 118.30 fps 101.07 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 117.62 fps 100.49 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 117.05 fps 100.00 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 111.22 fps 95.02 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 113.25 fps 96.75 %
      Higher is better

     

    Resident Evil 800 x 600, low details

    Resident Evil uses nearly every modern rendering technology: HDR, Hemisphere Lighting, Soft Shadows, Soft Particles, Field- und Motion-Blur oder auch Alpha to Coverage and static Ambient Occlusion. Furthermore Resident Evil 5 has been optimized for multicore architectures and already comes DirectX11 ready. By using the DirectX9 as well as the DirectX10 benchmark we can again show you CPU-scaling with low resolutions and the compared to the CPU overproportional influence of the graphics card at high resolutions.

    Resident Evil DX9 800 x 600, low details   Percent
    Asus Crosshair IV Extreme 134.0 fps 109.84 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 133.2 fps 109.18 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 130.9 fps 107.29 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 130.7 fps 107.13 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 127.4 fps 104.43 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 130.1 fps 106.64 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 129.5 fps 106.15 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 127.9 fps 104.83 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 124.3 fps 101.88 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 122.0 fps 100.00 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 121.5 fps 99.59 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 120.4 fps 98.69 %
      Higher is better

     

    Street Fighter 4 800 x 600, low details

    Street Fighter 4 comes with an extra benchmark version which makes testing you system childrens play. At low resolutions the system requirements are pretty low and we can see CPU-scaling in the results. At high resolution the graphic card becomes more important and the CPUs clock speed has less influence on the fps.

    Street Fighter 4 800 x 600, low details   Percent
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 596.11 fps 109.41 %
    Asus Crosshair IV Extreme 566.52 fps 103.98 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 544.85 fps 100.00 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 530.72 fps 97.41 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 526.76 fps 96.68 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 527.78 fps 96.87 %
    Gigabyte MA790FXT-UD5P 518.49 fps 95.16 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 517.81 fps 95.04 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 516.37 fps 94.77 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 515.90 fps 94.69 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 503.59 fps 92.47 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 491.83 fps 90.27 %
      Higher is better



    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    Overclocking

    Bus frequency overclocking


    CPU Overclocking CPU Freq Percent
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 4'368 MHz 107.85 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 4'362 MHz 107.70 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 4'350 MHz 107.41 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 4'350 MHz 107.41 %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo 4'306 MHz 106.32 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 4'275 MHz 105.55 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 4'210 MHz 103.95 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 4'100 MHz 101.23 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 4'090 MHz 100.99 %
    ASUS M4A78T-E 4'050 MHz 100.00 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2) 4'050 MHz 100.00 %
      Higher is better


    Motherboard SuperPi 1M Average %
    ASUS M5A99X Evo OC 16.209 sec 93.77 %
    DFI LanParty DK 790FXB-M3H5 16.224 sec 93.86 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula-Z 16.228 sec 93.88 %
    ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme 16.256 sec 94.05 %
    ASUS Crosshair V Formula 16.284 sec 94.21 %
    ECS A890GXM-A2 16.380 sec 94.76 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 16.442 sec 95.12 %
    ASRock M3A790GXH/128M 17.203 sec 99.53 %
    ASUS Sabertooth 990FX 17.273 sec 99.93 %
    ASUS M4A78-HTPC (DDR2-800-CL4) 17.285 sec 100.00 %
      more is better



    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion



    Discuss this article in the forums [pagebreak]

    Conclusion

    Allgemein   + -
    The Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 generally is an interesting board. If you like the Sabertooth military design, then this is definitely an attractive board with a higly level of attention to detail. This version of the AMD Sabertooth board from ASUS also looks more grown up than others before. We especially like the set of connectors this board features. There are not only more than enough SATA ports also the number of USB 3.0 as well as USB 2.0 ports was able to convince us. Additionally you get an extensive software bundle which let's you control lots of parameters from within Windows.   - Design
    - Connectors
     
           
    Layout   + -
    Generally the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 layout is well thought. Once more very practical are the angled SATA connectors. Unfortunately there are no practical power/reset buttons onboard and also for a debug LED you'd be looking in vain. On the other hand the fan headers are easily accessible. We also liked the fact, that it's possible to equip this board with up to three graphics cards. If you should want to upgrade your gaming system a year or two after you bought this board with another one or two graphics cards that would be no big deal.
      - Angled SATA connectors - No Power/Reset-Button onboard
    - No Debug Display
           
    Performance   + -
    A closer look at the performance values shows that on average the Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 ranges in the top-3 span. Which is very surprising because the TUF series isn't know for performnace/efficiency but here most of the time the board ends up close to the top if not on top. There are only two benchmarks where the board didn't do well, SiSoft Sandra - Arithmetic and Street Fighter.   - Performance - SuperPi 1M, WPrime 32M - SiSoft Sandra - Arithmetic
    - Street Fighter
           
    BIOS / Overclocking   + -
    Regarding overclocking overclocking, the Sabertooth wasn't a convincing product. The max stable clock we were able to run our Phenom at is 160 MHz lower than what the processor is actually capable of on better boards with same settings. In this case our Phenom was overclocked to 4.21 GHz. Meanwhile it's 120 MHz better than the previous Sabertooth model.
    The ASUS UEFI-BIOS is very well structured and very pleasant to look at. You'll quickly find the settings needed and even the tool tips provide useful, additional information.
      - Well structured BIOS - UEFI-BIOS - Overclocking
           
    Recommendation   + -
    If you should be looking for a good and solid AMD based gaming PC with a design motherboard, then the abertooth 990FX R2.0 is the only one of his kind. You can get this motherboard for about CHF 165.- (est. EUR 136.-).   - Gaming PC - Office PC
           
    Rating
    We give the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX R2.0 good four out of five stars.





    Page 1 - Introduction Page 8 - Futuremark
    Page 2 - Specifications / Delivery Page 9 - SiSoft Sandra 1
    Page 3 - Features Page 10 - SiSoft Sandra 2
    Page 4 - Layout Page 11 - Super Pi / wPrime
    Page 5 - Connectors and I/O Page 12 - Games
    Page 6 - BIOS Page 13 - Overclocking
    Page 7 - Test setup Page 14 - Conclusion


    Discuss this article in the forums

    Author: m.buechel@ocaholic.ch