Crosshair V Formula 990FX

The long-awaited 990FX Chipset is finally here. The manufacturing partners have put together their offerings, each putting their personal touches to the design. Benchmark reviews is here with a look at the ASUS Crosshair V Formula 990FX motherboard and the all new 990FX Chipset. It's been a long time coming, and a full six months after the Intel P67-Express chipset means that AMD is behind the curve. A lot is expected of the new chipset and ASUS has a name to keep up with the Republic of Gamers series name.

The 990FX Chipset doesn't bring a whole lot of new stuff to the table. A higher RAM speed compatibility, a new socket, and SLI compatibility are about it. Even the SB950 southbridge is pretty much identical to the older generation SB850. The thing about that is, however, the 990FX and SB950 still offer a lot more in some ways than the P67-Express Chipset.

The 990FX Chipset offers a full 42 PCIe 2.0 lanes compared to 16 on the P67-Express. The SB950 gives you six SATA 6Gb/s ports, compared with only two from the Intel alternative. Neither chipset offers native USB 3.0 support, but ASUS has never been one to let that bother them. They fix this in the ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard with not just one, or even two, but three Asmedia USB 3.0 controllers for a total of 6 USB 3.0 ports. Additional features found on the Crosshair V Formula we will talk about in this article include:

• uEFI - User Extensible Firmware Interface (BIOS replacement) with Graphical User Interface
• Extreme Engine DIGI+ - Precision digital Voltage Regulator Module replaces analog management
• AI Suite II - Combines DIGI+ VRM, EPU, TurboV EVO, BT GO!, FAN Xpert, and Probe II software into one program
• ASUS DIP2 - Dual Intelligent Processors integrated onto the motherboard:
  - ASUS TPU (iROG Chip) (TurboV Processing Unit) Relieves parts of process-intensive tasks from CPU
  - ASUS EPU (Energy Processing Unit) Reduces power drain by up to 80%
• Go! Button - Automatically enables an overclocking profile you set in the uEFI

All motherboard manufacturers realize that the key to making their product stand out from the crowd of nearly identical motherboards is to add their own features. While some are common-place, like USB 3.0 ports that AMD oddly left of the 990FX chipset, others are rare. Some are seemingly cosmetic or serve a little used function. Whatever the case may be, all motherboards, even those from the same manufacturer, vary somewhat in their feature sets. Below is a table that outlines some of the ASUS motherboards so you can compare their features with those of the ASUS Crosshair V Formula motherboard.