ASRock 990FX Extreme9 Motherboard Review

To test the ASRock 990FX Extreme9 motherboard, we paired it with an AMD FX-8350 processor and 8GB of 2133MHz memory from Patriot. We will be outlining the ASRock 990FX Extreme9 motherboard's performance with the AMD FX-8350 CPU at its stock frequency of 4.0GHz and when overclocked to 4.6GHz.

We are also including the performance of a similarly-priced Intel Z77 configuration consisting of an Asus P8Z77-V motherboard and i5 3570K processor.

Both systems are kept as identical as possible to eliminate variables. The only difference between each test system (other than the CPU and motherboard) is the SSD used; this could have an impact on some of the test results.

AMD FX-8350 Test System:

• Processor: AMD Bulldozer FX-8350 4.00GHz & overclocked to 4.60GHz
• Motherboard: ASRock 990FX Extreme9
• Memory: 8GB Patriot Viper 2133MHz 11-11-11-27
• Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Dual-X
• System Drive: 120GB Kingston HyperX 3K
• CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120M
• Case: NZXT Phantom
• Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum-1000
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Comparison Intel i5 3570K System:

• Processor: Intel Core i5 3570K 3.40GHz
• Motherboard: Asus P8Z77-V
• Memory: 8GB Patriot Viper 2133MHz 11-11-11-27
• Graphics Card: Sapphire Radeon HD 7850 1GB Dual-X
• System Drive: 128GB Kingston V100
• CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Seidon 120M
• Case: NZXT Phantom
• Power Supply: Seasonic Platinum-1000
• Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit

Settings:

• AMD Catalyst 13.1 VGA drivers.
• ASRock 990FX Extreme9 BIOS V1.10
• Asus P8Z77-V BIOS V1504

Software Suite:

• 3DMark
• 3DMark Vantage
• 3DMark 11
• PCMark 7
• Unigine Heaven Benchmark 3.0
• SiSoft Sandra 2013
• Cinebench 11.5 64 bit
• Super Pi
• WinRAR 4.20
• VLC Media Player 2.0.5
• CyberLink Media Espresso 6.7
• HandBrake 0.9.8
• ATTO
• CrystalDiskMark 3.0.2
• XFast RAM V2.0.28
• XFast USB
• XFast LAN V6.61
• Battlefield 3
• Metro 2033
• Crysis 2

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