The Gigabyte UD1000GM PG5 1000W PSU Review: Prelude to ATX 3.0
by E. Fylladitakis on June 23, 2022 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Cases/Cooling/PSUs
- PSUs
- Gigabyte
- 1000W
- 80Plus Gold
- ATX v3.0
- 12VHPWR
Power Supply Quality
As part of our testing, we also check output parameters are within specifications, as well as voltage ripple and line noise.
| Main Output | ||||||||
| Load (Watts) | 203.21 W | 507.02 W | 757.83 W | 1009.06 W | ||||
| Load (Percent) | 20.32% | 50.7% | 75.78% | 100.91% | ||||
| Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts | Amperes | Volts | |
| 3.3 V | 2.27 | 3.45 | 5.66 | 3.45 | 8.5 | 3.4 | 11.33 | 3.37 |
| 5 V | 2.27 | 5.18 | 5.66 | 5.16 | 8.5 | 5.09 | 11.33 | 5.06 |
| 12 V | 15.1 | 12.16 | 37.75 | 12.14 | 56.62 | 12.11 | 75.5 | 12.1 |
| Line | Regulation (20% to 100% load) |
Voltage Ripple (mV) | |||||
| 20% Load | 50% Load | 75% Load | 100% Load | CL1 12V |
CL2 3.3V + 5V |
||
| 3.3V | 2.4% | 12 | 18 | 18 | 18 | 16 | 24 |
| 5V | 2.2% | 16 | 18 | 20 | 22 | 18 | 26 |
| 12V | 0.5% | 16 | 24 | 28 | 32 | 30 | 24 |
The electrical performance of the GIGABYTE UD1000GM PG5 is admittedly better than we initially surmised. There is strong filtering on the primary voltage output, with the GIGABYTE UD1000GM PG5 displaying a maximum ripple of 32 mV on the 12V line under maximum load, which is around 25% of the recommended design limit. The voltage regulation of the 12V line is equally impressive, at less than 0.5%. GIGABYTE’s engineers neglected the 3.3V and 5V lines a little, as the regulation is at about 2.2% and the voltage ripple goes up to 45% of the design limit. These power quality figures are very good for a product of this tier.
Conclusion
The announcement of Intel’s new ATX v3.0 specifications was bound to start a race, as every company is looking to establish itself among the early adopters as a means of growing with the larger market. GIGABYTE took a little different approach here – instead of developing a whole new platform capable of fulfilling all of ATX v3.0 requirements, they simply upgraded one of their existing units and added one 600 Watt 12VHPWR connector to it.
It is the first time we have ever seen a platform from Xiamen Metrotec, the OEM of this unit. The OEM obviously needs to be following the design and guidance of the final developer, which is GIGABYTE in this case. Nevertheless, it appears that they are doing a very good job with their core topology designs and assembly process, both of which we found to be very clean. However, the quality of the components used by GIGABYTE for the production of the UD1000GM PG5 is wanting. The PSU comes with a very long warranty but most of the components, passive and active alike, are of middling quality. Taking into account the high internal temperatures that the UD1000GM PG5 reaches under stress, we feel that GIGABYTE’s engineers are being a little too confident.
When it comes to performance, the GIGABYTE UD1000GM PG5 will not be entering the hall of fame. However, all things considered, it is fairly well-balanced. The power quality of the unit is very good, with excellent regulation and filtering on the primary voltage line and adequate figures on the secondary lines. It is adequately efficient so as to achieve an 80Plus Gold certification with an input voltage of 115 VAC, yet only barely, so there is room for improvement. The only real disadvantage of the UD1000GM PG5 is its small size, which forced the engineers to use a smaller 120 mm fan, making the unit run both hotter and louder than most equally powerful units. This only becomes a true issue while the unit is heavily loaded though, and should not be bothering typical users while they simply want to do their work or browse. The performance of the GIGABYTE UD1000GM PG5 is unimpressive by today’s standards but, taking into account the retail price of the unit, it is good overall.
The true advantage that GIGABYTE’s UD1000GM PG5 currently has is simple – no competition. It is virtually the only unit with a 12VHPWR connector currently available. If someone needs to purchase a powerful PSU right now and expects to be upgrading their graphics card in the near future and/or often, the UD1000GM PG5 is essentially the only choice with respect to forward-compatibility. That being said, one has to remember that this unit does not fully fulfill the ATX v3.0 requirements - it is unlikely but not unfathomable that the UD1000GM PG5 may not be able to handle future graphics card releases that could produce excessive transient loads.
Regardless, the current retail price of $160 is reasonable for an 80Plus Gold certified unit with that kind of output, so buyers are not paying a severe premium for the new 12VHPWR connector. However, if you are not in a rush to purchase a PSU right now, we err on the side of caution, and recommend waiting for actual ATX v3.0 compliant units to pop into the market.
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mode_13h - Monday, July 4, 2022 - link
> renewable sources as substitute of traditional coal/gas/nuclear powerplants> are just a dream of people who don't undrstand physics.
> We in Europe can see it for example in Germany.
In much of Germany, you should be able to get about 200 kWh/m^2 per year from solar. My personal electricity usage is 235 - 370 kWh per month. So, that means I'd just need about 22 m^2 of solar panels to average net zero consumption. However, I still have gas for cooking and heating, so that would need to be factored as well.
> You need to understand that not every country have sunshine like on Sahara,
You import virtually all of your oil and gas. Why should renewable energy be so different? Whatever you can't generate in-country, you could import in the form of hydrogen or perhaps some chemical form that can reuse some of the existing oil and gas infrastructure.
andychow - Tuesday, June 28, 2022 - link
H3 fusion, or any type of fusion, will never occur on earth. The high energy particles they release are just unstoppable and cause too much damage.Maybe we could do H3 fusion on the dark side of the moon, then send it back too earth by radio waves with a huge receptor that goes around the earth, but I seriously doubt that could happen this millennia.
niva - Wednesday, June 29, 2022 - link
Wrong.Firs of, when you type H3 are you talking about Tritium or Helium 3? What are these high energy particles you're talking about. You can look up fusion reactions and see that there are no exotic high energy particles that we cannot contain (like the type of particles you see in cosmic rays). This is true for all viable fusion reactions.
We have done fusion reactions on Earth, and we're getting closer to doing them for less energy than what the actual reaction outputs. This has been the main challenge which has thusfar prevented fusion from taking off... meaning, right now, we usually have to feed more energy into fusion reactors to start and maintain fusion, than the reactors can output.
Some entities have claimed success on those fronts recently too. Our main challenges going forward in terms of fusion is to better optimize the reactors, and to secure enough fuel.
The idea of beaming energy back to Earth from space is a neat one, until you microwave the entire surface of the planet by "accident".
mode_13h - Monday, July 4, 2022 - link
> The idea of beaming energy back to Earth from space is a neat oneIt's not a new idea. People have long talked about putting solar power stations in orbit and beaming down the power via microwaves. If you make the collector large enough, you can make it relatively safe for humans.
> until you microwave the entire surface of the planet by "accident".
Obviously, the larger the area, the lower the energy density. So, the concern wouldn't be "the entire surface", but rather cooking a city block... if one were dumb enough to use such a narrow beam.
mode_13h - Monday, July 4, 2022 - link
> Our long term plan for the planet shouldn't really involve worrying about 600W GPUs.It's not just top-end gaming GPUs, but a general trend that seems to be happening with GPUs and CPUs.
mode_13h - Monday, July 4, 2022 - link
> If GPUs ran on coal I'd be worriedSo much of worldwide power generation is indeed from coal or oil. Even gas isn't much better, depending on how much of it leaks during extraction and transportation.
RSAUser - Wednesday, June 29, 2022 - link
I'm still wondering if California will step in and put a max allowed for a consumer GPU.Also interested if this argument will matter when more and more move to renewable where it won't really matter outside of peak power usage.
mode_13h - Monday, July 4, 2022 - link
I feel like California's electricity prices are already high enough they don't need to.Tunnah - Thursday, June 23, 2022 - link
Gigabyte PSUs are radioactive. I can't imagine ANY enthusiast would risk buying them considering the debacle they went through. Truly a toxic product line. There's just too many great alternatives to take a risk. It's very much the case of "not even if it was free"flyingpants265 - Thursday, June 23, 2022 - link
It was the job of sites like Anandtech to do what GamersNexus did with exhaustive/destructive testing. GN also explained the phony PSU stickers, I think they've done such on other products as well, exposing plenty of shady industry practices and defective products.What we really need (and needed all along) was a chart, rating ALL products by advertised performance, their durability, and the warranty service. Like, a 3-year warranty doesn't help you if a card fails over and over again even outside the warranty period. And if my PSU fails, no way am I using a replacement of the same model that failed.
As usual, some real thought & genuine effort put into anything would be nice...