Watch This Before Buying A New Power Supply!

I really like this format of one person roleplaying as the curious potential buyer and Gordon giving a very detailed answer. Thank you very much for this video! Gonna build a Zen 4/RDNA 3 build soon so this is excellent info!

I've been purchasing EVGA products since my X58 Nehalem build. Thank you guys for the "No BS" content.

I'm currently using a Fractal 860p ION. Was forced to buy a fractal 860p ion during the Covid-19 lockdowns in early 2020 when my previous PSU's fan started making a racket as the ball bearing started making a noise and it was actually alot cheaper than a 650 watt semi-modular in the UK due to supply and demand / component shortages. The reason the PSU fan was constantly running was that I was it as an additional exhaust to keep temps down as - fan facing down into the bottom of the chasis as the corner of the case where the PSU is installed gets alarmingly warm even with fan constantly on)... silly me I had the the H500M 200mm fans running with the included y splitter and that had the fans running at verrrry low RPM (later became evident as there was hardly any dust in the case). I later bought a commander pro and now I have them running at 370 RPM (lowest) - within a month (the fractal ion psu has been running in eco mode since first install as the air literally forced out the PSU keeping it cool) or so there was some dust build up over the mesh indicating that the fans were running at super low RPM.

Hey Gordan, NO AMD GPU is going to use that new 12V connector that's rated for very high wattage, according to AMD. I don't know if that means AMD branded but to me it sounds like, at all, and on top of that it's ONLY the top end of AMD's stack that even needs 3 PCIe connections from the PSU because they use less power.
AMD responded to the question of them using that connector and they said no.
The problem with that connector is 600W over such a small connector. You end up with very thick wires going into a small jack and NO soldering job is good enough to deal with that connector being bent. You HAVE to mount the plug on the GPU at an angle like Nvidia does or you're asking for trouble. The problem right now is AIBs are mounting them like the regular 12V PCIe connectors, and then that connector/cables are pushing up into side panels for the PC case because these are getting put onto very big GPUs, and it starts to damage the connection, break strands or break a solder jobs, etc.....
A PCIe - PSU connector is rated for 150W. With 2 of those being used and 75W coming from the PCIe slot you get 375W.
I'll give different advice to people. Which is if you don't ever plan on buying a GPU that uses over 350W don't bother with a PSU that has that connection. You can always go buy an adapter if needed, and frankly most the GPUs that have that connector come with the adapter.
Also, the Nvidia adapter is 600W, not 450W. Once again each connection to the GPU for one of the PCIe connections is 150W. Nvidia's dongle, or adapter has 4 connections for the PSU, not 3. FOUR, not three. There are FOUR sense lines and 4 connections to the PSU, so a 450W connection is not good enough for the top end 4090s and anything greater than that, so the 4090 Ti. THOSE GPUs need the 600W adapter. Now, the 4090 can get by with a 450W adapter I think, as long as it has the sense lines, so it won't OC, which means some of the OC models might not work up to their full specs.

Ok so I have a question, I am going to build myself a PC with an RXT 4080 or 4090 and a Asus ROG Strix Z790-E Gaming WiFi motherboard. Do I need to worry about any kind of compatibility issues? Or will anything be ok just as long as it has all he proper connections and needed power? I was wondering this because when I was looking at the ROG site for this motherboard it also has a list of compatible parts ( ram, power supply and ect ) so I just wanted to be safe then sorry and check with people more knowledgeable then myself.

Building a new rig, and will have the last parts soon.
I want to use a new ATX 3.0 PSU with the new 12VHPWR connector, but companies are being painfully slow at releasing them.
My preference is Seasonic, but I will potentially end up going with one from another company due to their slowness to launch.
Regardless, it looks like I have to temporarily use my old PSU, which will look horrible due to the ancient cables and red connectors.

I just recently found your channel and I really enjoy the dialogue style (as contrast to the rambling on other channels). Thank you :)

When I built a few years ago, I bought an AX1600i mostly for the lulz. I didn't actually expect to need it. Thanks industry 😄

Thanks for this well done video.

It is difficult to find good reviews of power supplies and many of them don’t get reviewed. I just buy Corsair and Seasonic because that is what I know to be good. But you get what you pay for is the general rule. If someone is selling a 1000W power supply for 50 bucks I would be extremely sceptical. Only time I ever had any issues was when I bought a 600W PSU back in the day around 2004 when 300W was more the norm and most cases came with a 300W no name PSU already installed. It was cheap and had blue LED and UV reactive cables and was an unknown brand. The ATX motherboard cable burned. Since then I’ve stuck with Antec back when they were considered the best and then in the last decade Corsair and Seasonic.

I find it hard to go with anything but Seasonic and Super Flower. The PSU is too vital. I'll spend the little extra. EVGA psu's got a good rep from Seasonic supplying them. But, then they switched. You just don't know who's making what for whom or when they stop.

Warranties are very much worth it 🙂

I heard this past week that AMD is skipping that new pcie connector and will not include it on any of their new 7xxxx cards.

Very informative!

Great information, thank you!

You need the new 12VHPWR because it will be used a lot until next year when they release the new new 12V Super High Power connector.

👍 Nice job fellas.

bought the new Blacklabel CX550m, i think it's gonna cut it for up to something like 6600 XT.

What I been using since 2018 is a EVGA SuperNOVA 850W P2, 80+ PLATINUM. I have no reason at all to upgrade, not for another few years. Currently using a 5950x/3070 and soon changing over to AMD cause Nvidia to me now is just shit. The 4090 is ridiculous and oversized, draws to much power, and has a connector that can possibly catch fire and pose a serious fire hazard. Also AMD's Scott Herkelman confirms that Radeon will not be using the 12VHPWR connector with its RDNA 3 graphics cards.

thx guys, very informative 👍

@PCWorld do you all think my old Corsair 1050HX (W) would be safe to use on a brand new 4090 or even the (unknown) RDNA3 cards?

I love these videos!

Useful topic, good video guys

Is the old maxim of having a power supply at 1.5x your system's max power draw still a good rule to go by?
Also, while it seems the transients on the 40 series aren't as bad as we were expecting, I guess we'll have to see how RDNA 3 behaves, especially if they aren't using the new power connector.

Without Looking at the Comments, I bet you, there are at least 10 of the 55 Comments here so far, that say:
"Ummm, Gordon, Actually..., AMD Officially Said that they will NOT be using the 12VHPWR on their new Graphics card."
Lets see how right I am...
Oh and good job as always Gordon and Adam! Even though I haven't been there live as much recently, I am still a friend of the show, and still watch every episode! Hope all is well! And if you are here in Vegas in a few days for the AMD Event, hit me up, I can give you guys a tour of the local Arena and show you all the cool tech their!

Looks like my CoolerMaster 650 seems happy 12 years later today.

atx 3.0? is 750w too low in todays standards or is 850 / 1000 the right place to start

Hardware Busters is also a great Clip-Share channel for power supply reviews

Right now I am actually running an gainward Phantom(same as palit) 4090+13900k on an 600w corsair sfx psu with not issues what so ever. the gainward is using an ref pcb design and has therefore much bigger ripples than the more advanced designed from asus, gigabyte and msi but the 600w sfx psu still can handle it with no issues.

The fact that no Seasonic PSU laying around ;(

80 Plus was a good standard in the past, as they had to have the best parts of the time to make it,
now those parts are today, are the cheap options. Gordon most Brand don't make or design PSU anymore, whatever the PR people say however, Corsair doses design their own and also modify OEM PSU (not a cosmetic like ASUS), OEM seasonic, super flower, fsp, gragt walls etc. make good ones but,
they make cheap ones that have in the past has been pushover spece by some brands and go bang,
sometime box says, 750w, but the 12v rail is just 500w.
efficiency and 80plus is a guideline, but don't get sucker in thinking, by not going big, you same money.
I got the corsair ax1200 OEM (Flextronics/Flex today) at launch at end of 2009 or was start of 2010,
it still works,
IF Brands go out of their way to make it hard to find who is the OEM safe thing is to walk away.

We're nearly to the point where our computers are drawing too much power. Older homes might not have circuits that can provide enough sufficient power to the circuit or outlet in your room.
Think of it this way. A 750-watt power supply is equivalent to the power usage of a small microwave oven, while a 1,000-watt PSU draws slightly less than a large microwave oven.
Ever notice how the lights might dim when you turn on the microwave? Now think about that being on 12 to 18 hours a day.
This leads to another discussions about our power grids and the challenge of so-called green energy, but let's not walk down that rabbit hole.
By the way, I've had very good experiences with EVGA (four PSUs) and Silverstone. I've only had one power supply die on my PC.
A friend had an eMachine, and the power supply in-line fuse blew. So we (I) bypassed the fuse. When we turned it on, one of the capacitors exploded! That was memorable.

I just got the cablemod 4 8pin to 16pin. works great

Seasonic and Superflower are the best brands on the market. BOTH BRANDS whole business is JUST power supplies. That's all they make. That hyperfocus makes them king. So much so, that other brands like EVGA, Asus, Corsair, even Antec, use SEASONIC internals in their own powersupplies. AKA "clones". My antec 1300w is literally the seasonic prime 1300w.... exact same internals and cables, the difference is how the external design is.
If you have a PSU that is relatively new and NOT "no name brand" then you dont need to upgrade. I would go to your maker (like corsair) and buy their two 8pin to 12vhpwr connection, that plugs DIRECTLY into the PSU instead of being an adaptor after the fact.... honestly, this new cable being sold by suppliers prove we never needed a 12vhpwr connection.... two classic 8pin is more than capable of supplying current to a gpu to supply 600+ watts. In fact, using common electrical engineering 101, the 8pin connection is capable of 360w and that's being extremely "fair".... in reality 18 gauge wire (common psu wire gauge size) is capable of 10 amps per wire. 10 amps times 12 volts equals 120 watts, per wire. The 6pin pci-e connection has THREE positive wires, that means 360 watts! ON THE 6pin!!!!! With the 8pin, you gain 2 extra grounding wires. This REDUCES impedance of the positive wires allowing MORE power to flow through them. YES the PCI-SIG official information rates said connections at 6.75 amps and 13.5 amps respectively (6pin/8pin). That correlates to 61 watts 6pin and 182 watts 8pin. Which is HEAVILY under-rated.... In reality I would say 6pin 360 watts based on common sense and 8pin rated 450-500 watts thanks to 2 extra ground pins. BUT EVEN THEN, two 8pin is more than enough to supply current to your gpu.... the 12vhpwr connection shouldn't even exist.
IF PCI-SIG really wanted to update for the future, they should have kept the 8pin as is, and simply require ATX 3.0 compliant PSU's to adopt 12gauge wire for the new standard. This would relate to about 35 amps per wire, times three positive wires would be 105 total amps, which correlates to 1260 watts, with ONE 8pin connection MINIMUM. And the best part? BACKWARDS COMPATIBILITY!!!! Oh you have an older GPU, no problem, the connection is the same! No issues with new cables, no issues with adaptors burning down your house.... its so simple to future proof computing. BUT NOOOOOO, we have NVIDIA paying PCI-SIG to adopt their 12vhpwr and of COURSE PCI-SIG is gonna take that "Sweet donation money" and adopt nvidia's useless 12pin connection.... yes, Nvidia owns the 12vhpwr patent. It does not belong to pci-sig. ALSO, INTEL isn't using the new connection. AMD isn't using the new connection. The only brand using it and FORCING it to be used, is Nvidia. The only reason to do that is they get money every time its used. Nvidia made all the adaptor cables found in ALL 4090 boxes (both AIB and founders edition) and then more than likely the brands themselves had to buy the GPU side termination points from Nvidia, more money, and then patent wise have to pay Nvidia to even MAKE the graphics card. More money. And people are CONFUSED why EVGA stopped making Nvidia graphics cards.....
Sapphire, aka AIB for TEAM RED (aka AMD) should buy EVGA now that they are worthless, put all those genius engineers to work making AMD cards.... make Sapphire and even better/bigger brand for team read (I mean they are already the king AIB of team red.... but they could be even better).

anyone having any experience using XPG core reactor 750w gold psu? it seems to be on tier A list of psu list but seen few youtube clips with some issue with it. i know those would be very rare instances but just need to be sure.

The fun never ends! For the enthusiast the last two years have been a non-stop cluster frack and this year is no different. I guess all the PSU manufacturers didn't get the Nvidia *12VHPWR MEMO* because there are NO ATX 3.0 PSUs to be found at the launch of the RTX 40 series!
_(Yeah no kidding. I know it's nearly impossible again to get it Nvidia GPU.)_ However, I like many got one at lunch.
I just ended up purchasing the ASUS Thor 1200W Platinum and ordered a 4x8-pin 12VHPWR sleeved connector from CableMod.

The 12VHPWR connection is NOT in any way necessary. Corsair is not implementing it on their PSU's as of yet. They are offering a $20 dual 8-pin cable to the 12VHPWR connector, using 16ga wire. And that will work on any Corsair PSU that uses type 4 cables. That cable is capable of 720 watts because a single mini-fit 8-pin connection can handle 10 amps per wire with 16ga cable. With three 12v leads, that's 360 watts per 8-pin. That's in the spec sheet directly from Molex. Even with 18ga you're at 8.5 amps for a total of 306 watts per 8-pin. For the record, with 16ga cable, the 12VHPWR connection is rated at 9.5 amps for a total of 684 watts. It's a step back, so it's not in ANY way necessary.
I'm not trying to bash on the connection, I just think it's shortsighted, and bad advice, to tell people to not buy a PSU because it doesn't have the 12VHPWR connection on the PSU side. Just get a Corsair PSU and get their cable, or buy any other decent PSU and get the cable from Cable Mod for that specific PSU, and you're MORE than covered. Or buy a PSU with the 12VHPWR connection on it... doesn't really matter. Just don't limit yourself on that factor alone. It shouldn't really factor into your buying decision from a functionality standpoint.

For power supply reviews on Clip-Share, Hardware Busters International is my first stop. They have write ups on their website too.

Thanks a lot for very understundable and prooer explenation.

In fact you can watch at hardware busters international channel which is the creator of cybenetics badge. He does detailed PSU reviews

14:25 You should have said "Hardware Busters International". That's Aris Mpitziopoulos' english youtube channel.
Steve Burke is putting out solid PSU reviews as well...but the speed of his output is glacial in nature.

Corsair, Seasonic, and EVGA sell decent PSUs.

the problem with a 10 year warranty is you cant find the sales info .I had a Enermax 850 gold I thought had a life time warranty but it killed a motherboard one day but I didnt know it was the PSU thinking it was the board I got a new one plugged it in got to windows ........ Black screen.. oh dam lucky the Asus Tuf board got change by Asus :) I got an EVGA PSU and away I went but Enermax was no help they asked for the serial number and just said it was 10 years old . just because it was made 10 years ago dont mean I have had it 10 years it may have been in the shop for 3 years ! so I will not get another Enermax and as my other pc has the same PSU in it when I upgrade that to R9 7000x3d and a RX7900xtx ill be changing the psu too 1300w should be ok I think

The new ATX 3.0 standard is a bit of bullshit in my opinion. You get one 12VHPWR connection and it's limited to whatever rating the PSU allows for, it could be a 300W, 450W or 600W limit depending on the PSU rating. That Silverstone Hela 850R is rated to 70.8A on the 12V line for 850W, yet the 12VHPWR is only 450W, despite the fact that the PSU can deliver 600W @12V with 250W spare for CPU and any other 12V requirement (hdd motors, fans etc).
The really dumb thing is, that it has 5 8 pin combined EPS or PCIe ports, so given that you generally only need one 8 pin EPS for most uses you still have 4 ports left over, the other really dumb thing is that you get two 6+2 pin cables, one of which has two 6+2 pin connectors and one has one, so even if you use all the given cables, you only have enough for 4 of the ports using two EPS cables. You don't have enough to populate a 12+4 HPWR adaptor cable and you can't run a 600W card or overclock a 450W card like you could with an old ATX 2 PSU like their ST85F-PT which comes with 4 6+2 pin cables and 4 ports and is rated at 70.9A on the 12V rail for 850W.
So be very careful what you're getting with your ATX 3.0 PSU, because while an old 850W ATX 2.x PSU can feed 600W to a GPU, the fancy new ATX 3.0 PSU has been nerfed to fit the 200% @ 10ms overprovisioning of the ATX 3.0 standard.
Oh and beware, the Hela 850R proudly reports 80mv ripple P-P max on the 12V line, which is obscenely high. My old EVGA 750W G2 gold PSU is reviewed at 15mv p-p and my current 1000W Leadex Titanium is under 20mv p-p. Perhaps we should wait for a proper review though, just to be fair.

always used Seasonic PSU, never failed me

Thanks Gordon!

I would imagine fanless PSU's might work better if a dead hamster is in them. Such animals might keep the fan from spinning and cause overheating.

What about GAMEMAX Power Supplies? Are they any good?

when i buy i new PSU, my first demand is Platinum, next is 10-12 year warranty, thirdly i prolly end with a Seasonic.

AMD RX7000 series will not be using teh NVidia GPU power connector, they will use multiple 8 pin PCIe power connectors.

Can I power a 3070 with a Seasonic gx550?

never cheap out on your power supply

I think 10 years is a good time to retier your psu

Erp, I just noticed I said 80 watts on an 80 percent efficiency of 1000 watts. I should have said 800 watts of 1000 watt PSU or 80 watts of a 100 watt PSU.

3:24 1000w AC ≠ 80w DC @ 80%

My man!! you didnt go to the push/pull of electricity!

I bought Be quiet 1200w straight power 11 platinum.

Atx 3 psu are hard to find.

Why are there a lot of PSUs that are below 1000?

I was hoping they were going to set something on fire.

Seasonic vertex out of stock and on back ordered VS Silverstone hela 1200r i can get right now?

👍🥴 I want to use the Nvidia's melting 12VHPWR adapter. No!

1200w+ or bust.

I just bought a season GX-1300.

@3:23 to 3:33 there's so much wrong information here.
1.) 80% of 1000W isn't 80W, it's 800W.
2.) The power supply should be able to use the the total amount of watts that it specifies. For example, a 1000W power supply from a reputable brand will be able to output 1000W for all of your needs for an extended amount of time. Cheaper units rated for a 1000W can also output a 1000W, but might only be able to do so for a short period of time before something breaks.
3.) The efficiency relates to: how much of the AC power you're getting from your wall outlet to how much your PC is actually using.
For example, if your 1000W power supply is rated at 80+ titanium (90% efficiency at 100% load) and is under full load, then it's actually drawing 1,111.11W from your wall.
1000W/0.90 ~ 1,111.11W

when a gpu says 750w minimum can i get away with a good 650w

As long as the psu is black , it's the best 👌

Still trying to figure out why there's a picture of an Intel CPU laying on top of some rat or deer turds in the background....

Where's gigabyte :3 ;)

i once bought a power supply and there were dead hamsters in it.

1000w in 80w out... hmm

This video was as useful as pissing in the wind. A lot of tech speak, but nothing of value.

Adam is ... weird. Why is the lead video director partnering with Guru Gordon?

Just avoid asus like the plague. Anything they build fails within a few years, experts at planned obsolescence.

Turn down the acting a bit Adam! It is irritating!

I like the content, but i had to stop watching and only listen because of all the flailing.....

Look, PCWorld, I'm unfollowing. Will Smith computer? Having WCCFTech guy on your show? PLEASE. If I was GN Steve I'd cut ties.

I've been using cybenetics to help shop for a PSU

ARIS HARDWAREBUSTERS for psu reviews! the BEST in the world! (I'm surprised you didn't know that!)