What are the best AMD AM3+ motherboards for gaming?

Question

3

Options
Considered

5

User
Recs.

Nov 2, 2017

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

3 Options Considered

3 Options Considered	Price	Last Updated
-- Asrock AMD 990FX Extreme9	$193.68	Jun 17, 2016
-- ASUS TUF SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0	$179.99	Nov 2, 2017
-- Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P	$83.04	Nov 2, 2017

See Full List

5 Community Recommendations

Request recommendations from the community

Harvey

Contributor for 4 years

1.9K

Total
Recs.

92K

Total
Karma

ASUS TUF SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0

Recommended 2 years ago

Harvey hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

Harvey

Contributor for 4 years

1.9K

Total
Recs.

92K

Total
Karma

Asrock AMD 990FX Extreme9

Recommended 2 years ago

Harvey hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

thermoplastics

Contributor for 4 years

2.9K

Total
Recs.

1M

Total
Karma

ASUS TUF SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0

Recommended 2 years ago

thermoplastics hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

thermoplastics

Contributor for 4 years

2.9K

Total
Recs.

1M

Total
Karma

Asrock AMD 990FX Extreme9

Recommended 2 years ago

thermoplastics hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

thermoplastics

Contributor for 4 years

2.9K

Total
Recs.

1M

Total
Karma

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P

Recommended 2 years ago

thermoplastics hasn’t added their experience, pros or cons to their recommendation.

No highlighted recommendations.

I Recommend...

Help millions of people make better decisions.

Each month, over 1.7 million people use Slant to find the best products and share their knowledge. Pick the tags you’re passionate about to get a personalized feed and begin contributing your knowledge.

score 2 · Answer 1

Asrock AMD 990FX Extreme9

Top Pro

Crossfire compatible at good speeds

With the available PCIe lanes on the board the user can easily Crossfire their GPUs at 8x speed each. See More

Top Con

Not the best onboard sound

While the onboard sound is serviceable, a dedicated card will sound much better. This can often be the norm for a motherboard, but there are boards out there wil quality built in sound, this is just not one of them. See More

Top Pro

Good selection of USB

There are four USB 3.0 slots as well as four USB 2.0 slots, so should allow for a multitude of USB devices to be connected easily. See More

Top Con

Poor SATA placement

The GPU will cover some of the SATA ports making them inaccessible if a GPU is used. That means the GPU will have to be taken out in order to gain access to those ports, either to add a new drive or unhook one already plugged in. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 2

ASUS TUF SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0

Top Pro

Easy access settings

Controls in the BIOS can be accessed through a desktop GUI app, meaning the user does not need to boot into the BIOS in order to change their settings. This is great for fan controls as well as other key settings. See More

Top Con

Not all sockets are clearly labled

Some sockets on the board are difficult to figure out what they are for due to poor labeling. It can be looked up online, but that should not have to be a necessity. See More

Top Pro

Good heat dissapation

This board uses a ceramic coating which allows for more heat dispersion and thus a cooler running system. This is good being an AMD board where the CPUs do tend to run hot. See More

Top Con

Memory is too close to CPU

Depending on how high the heatsinks are on ones RAM modules, it may be too close to the CPU when using a tower cooler. Depending on ones case size and how they have to attach the cooler, the RAM may get in the way. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 3

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P

Top Pro

Humidity protection

The board is made with specially woven glass fabric that eliminates large gaps in the material. This helps with humidity protection, which is great for those that live in a humid region or use a humidifier in that particular room. See More

Top Con

BIOS issues

The UEFI BIOS have not been updated fully to fix all known bugs. Users have reported double boot issues as well as poor mouse input in the BIOS itself. See More

Top Pro

Good clear sound

The board uses high quality audio capacitors as well as has a separated zone on the board to protect it from electrical magnetic feedback. This way it can provide clear audio with no feedback from the power that is constantly going through the board. See More

Top Con

Odd color choice

While the board may look black in color in pictures, up close you can see that it is actually brown. While not a huge issue, those that do like to match their color schemes of components may have a hard time finding anything that really goes with this brown color. See More

See All

What are the best AMD AM3+ motherboards for gaming?

3 Options Considered

Asrock AMD 990FX Extreme9

Crossfire compatible at good speeds

Not the best onboard sound

Good selection of USB

Poor SATA placement

ASUS TUF SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0

Easy access settings

Not all sockets are clearly labled

Good heat dissapation

Memory is too close to CPU

Gigabyte GA-970A-UD3P

Humidity protection

BIOS issues

Good clear sound

Odd color choice

Don't see your favorite option? Add it.

5 Community Recommendations

One sec!