ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0 Users Must Read (maybe other AMD boards as well)

[Chucs_Padina]

TL;DR: Turn off ECC under Northbridge settings will fix annoying stutter.

Hey guys I have had this board for almost 3 years now and ever since I have had it I have had issues in any game that doesn't keep constant 60 fps. It seems like anything between about 30 - 45 fps runs like it would if it was only running at 20 fps. Not sure if any of you have had this problem, but it is more apparent in the more demanding type games, such as Crysis 3, Fallout 4, FarCry 3 and 4, and a few others I have. After months of pulling my hair out and trying everything I could think of, I put it to rest assuming my FX8350 was the culprit and it really just can't handle games. Well tonight I was bored and started messing around with each and every BIOS setting and realized something.

ECC under the northbridge settings is set to enabled by default. Most of you are not using ECC RAM just as I'm not, because it's more of a specialty RAM for servers and such. I turned it off and holy ♥♥♥♥ I almost can't tell the difference between 30 and 60 fps. No more stuttering or jerkiness that I was experiencing before. I'm extremely upset that I have been dealing with this for years, but I assumed it wouldn't be an issue, because it would only be "activated" if ECC RAM was installed. If any of you have the time, test this out. I would like to know if it helps anyone else.

Finally, this also improved my cinebench and Firestrike scores by about 5%.

If any of you have the time, test this out. I would like to know if it helps anyone else. I hope this helps you, because this just made me love my system all over again.

ASUS SABERTOOTH 990FX R2.0
FX8350 @4.5Ghz
Kinston Hyper X 1866 Ram (non-ECC lol)
XFX 7970GHz Sapphire 7950 w/boost crossfire.
Thermaltake TR2 750 Watt 80+gold

[The Muppet Surgery Special]

If you are not using ECC ram, then ofcourse it should be off. Probably the BIOS code is crappy and it does not auto detect ECC or non-ECC ram and just assumes you are fitted with ECC ram if you say so in the BIOS lol.


First thing on a new setup, always check the BIOS settings.

[Pcnuttie]

I really recommend posting this thread in www.overclock.net we have a thread club based off that motherboard. You can get plenty of users and owners who own this motherboard give out some feedback that may benefit you. It's free to register and that's a great forum to get help and it helped me build my own system on my own and not to mention gain knowledge of computers. I don't have the newest motherboard but i do have an saberetooth z77 and it runs great.

[The Muppet Surgery Special]

Originally posted by Kal-El:

I really recommend posting this thread in www.overclock.net we have a thread club based off that motherboard. You can get plenty of users and owners who own this motherboard give out some feedback that may benefit you. It's free to register and that's a great forum to get help and it helped me build my own system on my own and not to mention gain knowledge of computers. I don't have the newest motherboard but i do have an saberetooth z77 and it runs great.

For fun BIOS things https://www.bios-mods.com/

[Chucs_Padina]

Thanks guys and I see what you are all saying, but I have NEVER had to do this on any other board. My FX6300 on my MSI board runs fine with ECC on or off it makes no difference. As far as all of those sites I am aware of them and have been looking and digging. In fact now that I found the problem I only see one forum that directly talks about this and it's not even the highlight so unless you search specifically for this board and issue, you probably won't find it. I'm going to repost thins on overclock.net later.