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
Cold Test Results (~24°C Ambient)
For the testing of PSUs, we are using high precision electronic loads with a maximum power draw of 2700 Watts, a Rigol DS5042M 40 MHz oscilloscope, an Extech 380803 power analyzer, two high precision UNI-T UT-325 digital thermometers, an Extech HD600 SPL meter, a self-designed hotbox and various other bits and parts. For a thorough explanation of our testing methodology and more details on our equipment, please refer to our How We Test PSUs - 2014 Pipeline post.
GIGABYTE’s UD1000GM PG5 obviously earned its 80Plus Gold certification rating with an AC input of 115 VAC. It is not required for a product to meet the certification requirements for any given input voltage and most manufacturers do seek to meet the requirements at 115 VAC, where the requirements are substantially lower and it is therefore easier for them to be certified. The UD1000GM PG5 has an average nominal load range (20% to 100% of the unit's capacity) efficiency of 91.1% when powered from a 230 VAC source, which drops down to 89.5% when powered from a 115 VAC source. It fails to meet the half-load 92% efficiency requirements of the 80Plus Gold certification when powered by a 230 VAC source but does meet the agency’s requirements for a 115 VAC input – even if only barely.
The GIGABYTE UD1000GM PG5 has a semi-passive thermal control circuitry, meaning that the fan will not operate when the unit’s load is very low. The fan will start when the load is a little under 300 Watts. While the internal temperature of the PSU remains reasonably low at all times, the fan becomes clearly audible at half load and downright loud once the unit is loaded, reaching its maximum speed at 90% load with the unit operating at room temperature.
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Khanan - Friday, June 24, 2022 - link
This makes a lot of sense and I agree with this. Same shit they did with recent PSUs, didn’t accept it’s trash and wanted to sell it anyway via Newegg bundles. Hot trash, just sell it fast instead of recalling. Everyone knows what happened after, a PR disaster, there are multiple videos about in on gamersnexus YouTube. Gigabyte nowadays seems to be like a hit or miss, you really should know what’s good and what’s not with them or you risk buying trash or a mediocre product. With this PSU it’s pretty fine, I just don’t get why they put such a cheap fan in it.Leeea - Thursday, June 23, 2022 - link
Anandtech, you are familiar with the rather recent Gigabyte power supply debacle? The recall for "known to occasionally catch fire"?The one where it appeared they realized they had a massive issue with PSU quality
then worked with newegg to dump this defective stock on unsuspecting customers
were outed by Gamers Nexus and others for this blatant anti-consumer behavior
and lastly, recalled the defective models because they were "known to occasionally catch fire"
That was September 2021, not long ago.
https://www.google.com/search?q=gigabyte+power+sup...
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/gigabyte-full-re...
I would think the most important detail in any Gigabyte power supply review would be to address the question:
Will this light on fire?
with pretty much everything else being a distant second concern.
Threska - Thursday, June 23, 2022 - link
Clearly running Crysis would be a bad idea.Khanan - Friday, June 24, 2022 - link
He did a high current test and the PSU passed so yes it’s fine. The issue was with cheaper models, this is a bit more expensive.Leeea - Friday, June 24, 2022 - link
He did many very good tests, and for all the questions not related to "Will this light on fire?" the review was excellent.However, if I remember right, to spontaneously ignite a Gigabyte PSU they were triggering the OCP. It would work once or twice, but the majority of tested units failed with considerable drama.
Thing is, when a GPU pushes its transients up and triggers the OCP, most users do not realize why their computer just shut down. This results most users who trigger OCP triggering it several times in a row.
Which on Gigabytes previous models, was rolling the dice on an unfortunate and dramatic failure. Or as Tom's Hardware put it: "known to occasionally catch fire"
While E. Fylladitakis's testing was excellent and exhaustive, it does not appear he tested the known failure mode for Gigabyte power supplies.
It is also unlikely anyone could answer the question: "Will this light on fire?", because considering Gigabytes recent history, who knows?
DanNeely - Friday, June 24, 2022 - link
Anandtech editors work from home. Deliberately trying to trigger a fire starting failure mode almost certainly goes against E. Fylladitakis's insurance and/or rental agreements. It's the sort of thing that needs to be done in commercial/industrial spaces with fire suppression and enhanced insurance coverage.After the recent debacle, I hope GN does attempt to trigger similar failures in other PSUs but disagree that it should be part of a standard for all reviewers going forward.
Leeea - Friday, June 24, 2022 - link
You make good points.Gamers Nexus did try a whole bunch of other brands, including no name Amazon Brands. They discovered a bunch of Amazon/Ebay brands were lying about their 80+ efficiency, but they were not able to get any of the other brands to self combust.
I suppose for a home reviewer getting a RMA on GPU with scorch marks not going to be doable.
I guess it is one of those catch 22 moments, where if he mentions it people are going to ask why he did not test it, and if he does not mention it people like me are going to pitchfork him.
That said, I do feel consumers should know Gigabyte has a recent history of selling very questionable PSUs while appearing to ignore reports of disaster with said PSUs.
E.Fyll - Friday, June 24, 2022 - link
If that is enough to put your mind at ease, I always test all of the primary safety mechanisms of every PSU. This includes OPP and it worked as expected. If it did not, I would be yet another reviewer with a dead sample on my bench anyway.I am familiar with the issues GB had to deal with. The new revisions, although far from perfect, at least will not blow up while playing minecraft.
Leeea - Friday, June 24, 2022 - link
Thank you!Kaggy - Thursday, June 23, 2022 - link
Wonder if ATX PSUs will eventually graduate from ATX and become smaller through GAN technology.