Asus announces TUF Series Sabertooth motherboard with PCI Express 3.0

Asus has announced its TUF Series Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 motherboard, which the comapny claims is one of the world’s first AMD-based motherboard to feature PCI Express 3.0 for use with next generation high performance graphics cards. It supports up to three DirectX 11 graphics cards with 28nm GPU technology and can be used through Nvidia SLI or AMD CrossFireX to create desktop PCs.

As per the press release, the Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 also features the Asus TUF Series thermal design for heat removal. The motherboard is backed by a five-year warranty.

The company claims that the Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 meets strict TUF Series quality assurance standards, which consist of multiple-stage military and server-grade tests. TUF-certified alloy chokes, together with solid state capacitors and MOSFETs, offers reliability even when the motherboard is subjected to intense use. Four DIMM slots support up to 32GB DDR3 memory at frequencies up to 2400MHz, aided by an eight-layered PCB that promotes faster memory performance while ensuring stability and compatibility with improved cross-component signal quality. Both the Northbridge and Southbridge use dual-heatpipe heatsinks with CeraM!X micro-ridged coating that increases the effective heat dissipation surface area by around 50 percent.

The Asus TUF Series Sabertooth 990FX/GEN3 R2.0 motherboard

The motherboard also features TUF Thermal Radar, which uses multiple heat sensors across the motherboard for real time temperature monitoring. Independent and automatic fan speed control then allows components to be cooled individually for maximum efficiency and operating stability.

Back in December, Asus had announced its Radeon HD 8000M series of GPUs. The first of these, known as the Radeon HD 8555M, is shipping inside the Asus Vivobook U38DT. The GPUs will be making their presence felt in 2013

AMD has also revealed some promises about the GPU, which show the Radeon 8800M destroying Nvidia's Geforce 650M in benchmarks. The company hasn't released any more information though, such as power consumption.

All four chips in the series—the 8500M, 8600M, 8700M and the 8800M—contain AMD's latest 28nm Graphics Core Next architecture. This gives them benefits when it comes to DirectX 11.1. The GPUs are also set to benefit from power saving features like ZeroCore, which cuts off power to unused cores, and PowerTune, which boosts clock speed to use untapped power.

Back in November, AMD had announced its FirePro GPU workstations in India. According to AMD, the FirePro W9000 GPU features incredible compute and increased memory bandwidth and offers better multi-display support performance than the competing solution. AMD has also launched the AMD FirePro W8000, W7000 and W5000 workstation graphics cards, which are all built on the AMD Graphics Core Next Architecture, and designed to balance compute and 3D workloads efficiently for computer-aided design and engineering, and for media and entertainment professionals.

AMD FirePro A300 Series accelerated processing unit (APU) is designed for entry-level and mainstream desktop workstations. Featuring AMD Eyefinity multi-display technology, the new AMD FirePro A300 Series APUs are designed for users who require a high-performance computing platform to power their computer-aided design, and media and entertainment workflows.