When we reviewed the ASUS Sabertooth 990FX motherboard several weeks ago, the planned launch date for AMD's new AM3+ compatible Bulldozer chips was September 19th. Surprisingly that day came and went with little explanation as to when exactly we might finally see the product hit store shelves. We didn't have too long to wait however, on October 12th the chips began popping into online inventories everywhere. Unfortunately not many likely made it into checkout carts, as a slew of reviews published that same day gave the FX series Zambezi chips scathing remarks. AnandTech's review of the current top offering FX-8150 gave it a fair shakedown, and concluded that, "If you have an existing high-end Phenom II system, particularly an X4 970 or above or an X6 of any sort, I honestly don't see much of a reason to upgrade."


Despite lackluster performance from the new FX processors, AM3+ does still have some benefits to offer AMD users, particularly if you're still on an older AM2+ board or utilizing nVidia SLI. If a $200 motherboard isn't in your budget, the ASUS M5A99X EVO we have for review today may be just your cup of tea. It is in many respects similar to the higher-end Sabertooth 990FX when it comes to features, such as Digi+VRM, auto-tuning TPU and energy-saving EPU through either onboard switches or software control, EZ Mode UEFI BIOS interface, AI Suite II utility and nVidia SLI plus ATI CrossFireX support. As they share the same SB950 southbridge, really the only difference between the 990X and 990FX is the number of PCI-E lanes available for multi-gpu support.

Join us as we take a closer look at the ASUS M5A99X EVO motherboard.