Last year, in a bit of an odd move, the 990/950 AMD AM3+ motherboards built for the Bulldozer CPUs were released a few months ahead of the CPUs themselves, and the 990 AM3+ boards were roundly reviewed. About the same time that talk and speculation about the release of the second generation Piledriver CPUs was being discussed, there were rumors of a new 1090/1050 chipset that would accompany the new release. The new chipset did not come to fruition, whether it was actually never on the map or pure speculation from the get go nobody seems to know, but It does bring the 990FX motherboards back into play with what initially appears to be a successful release of the Vishera Piledriver CPUs.

The main reason for the release of the 990FX boards was stated as the new CPU architecture needed a beefier and more stable power delivery phasing, as only the higher end 890 chipset motherboards were made backwards compatible with a BIOS update. Perhaps with the Vishera being more efficient with its power requirements, the need for the alleged 1090/1050 was dropped as being redundant.

Today we have the Sapphire 990FX Pure Black motherboard on our bench; the company's one and only entrance into the AMD AM3+ high end category. As with all of the 990FX boards, Sapphire touts the Pure Black as being the choice for the enthusiast, heavy overclocking user with all the signs and features for those who push their chps to the limit. Let's have a look, heat it up, and see if it belongs with the big dogs.