The MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 1300W PSU Review: The ATX 3.0 Era Has Begun
by E. Fylladitakis on December 8, 2022 11:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- MSI
- PCIe 5.0
- ATX v3.0
Hot Test Results (~45°C Ambient)
The resistance of the MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 unit to adverse ambient conditions is astonishing, with the unit hardly affected at all while operating inside our hotbox. There is a practically negligible efficiency degradation of 0.2-0.3% depending on the load, a figure four to six times lower than other similar designs. There is very little additional degradation under heavy loads, suggesting that the components of the MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 are not thermally stressed at all.
Despite the exceptional resilience of the PSU against high ambient temperatures and its 80Plus Platinum efficiency levels, the losses of a unit this powerful sum up to over 100 Watts under high loads. These losses do increase the internal temperature of the PSU significantly but the cooling system of the MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 proves to be more than adequate, as the temperature of the critical components does not get anywhere near critical levels during our testing. As a matter of fact, the MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 delivers lower temperature figures than many units with significantly larger bodies and fans do.
The sizable heatsinks of the MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 seem to be collaborating excellently with the 120 mm PowerLogic fan at keeping the temperature of the critical parts low. With the PSU inside our hotbox, the fan started quicker and sped up even faster, reaching its maximum speed while the PSU was at just 70% load. Regardless, the internal temperatures of the unit kept rising almost linearly and were kept within safe levels.
Facebook
Twitter
RSS
67 Comments
View All Comments
sorten - Thursday, December 8, 2022 - link
Another reminder of why it's good to stick with mid-range gaming and computing. My 1660Ti draws 120W and my Ryzen 3600 draws 65W. No need for a $350 PSU.TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, December 8, 2022 - link
How odd, my 5800x3d and 6800xt dont push over 450 watt combined, I dont need a $350 PSU either.Eliadbu - Friday, December 9, 2022 - link
Even if you had i9-13900k and rtx 4090 you would not need 350$ PSU. At that point it's more a gimmick.a good 150-180$ PSU will do the trick.
powerarmour - Friday, December 9, 2022 - link
'New Era' and '1300W' should never go together in the same sentence, folks shouldn't even need these ludicrously overpowered PSU's if the hardware manufacturers gave a damn about the environment.PeachNCream - Friday, December 9, 2022 - link
They can't talk about that. An entire industry revolves around producing overpriced PC hardware and then using journalism as a supporting strut to add hype and build up demand. It's a necessity to sustain the paychecks of a LOT of people at OEMs, retail chains, reviewer websites, and so forth so you will always get unified messaging hocking the benefits rather than encouraging you to be more sensible. It happens in lots of other industries as well and is a HUGE contributor to why we're burning wrecking our own little proverbial cage through horrific wastefulness without having the ability to leave it for other potentially livable places.GeoffreyA - Saturday, December 10, 2022 - link
Well, as long as money is man's "unit of energy" on Earth, everything else will be subordinated to filling the coffers. I reckon even worrying about the planet ("we use green, vegan manufacturing processes throughout our business because we care") is of a token nature and only important when it can add more dollars to the corporation's bank balance or social prestige. If ever a time comes when damaging the environment is held to be popular, they'll do that too.Dorkaman - Thursday, December 8, 2022 - link
Did you try bending the 12VHPWR cable by the end that plugs into the graphics card? I guess many PC builders would like to do that to get a tidier cable routing.What I read is that 12VHPWR cables are not meant to be bent by the plug. Or is this just the case with NVIDIA supplied pcie-12VHPWR cable adapters?
edzieba - Thursday, December 8, 2022 - link
The various theories of bent plugs or solder joints or etc all turned out to be incorrect: only plugs that were not fully inserted into the socket were able to actually reproduce the overheating issue (even plugs butchered to disconnect half the pins but inserted fully did not fail at all). Plug it all the way in and there is no issue.crimsonson - Thursday, December 8, 2022 - link
And try not to put pressure on the cable after installation - mainly for the chassis side cover bending the cable.WaltC - Thursday, December 8, 2022 - link
So why didn't nVidia ship idiot-proof plugs, then? You know, plugs that latch into place with a satisfying "click" when properly inserted? Lots of differing connectors are made that way.