MSI MPG A1000G PCIe5 Power Supply Review

MSI is one of the best in the world for high-end PC hardware, with many award-winning cases, coolers, motherboards, graphics cards, monitors, systems, gaming chairs, and much more! Of course, today, we'll be finding out if they have an award-winning power supply too. However, looking at the overall features and specifications, I certainly have high expectations of this one. It's capable of up to 1000W, with ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 compatibility, 80 Plus Gold efficiency, and has a plethora of technologies that put it firmly in line with other high-end PSUs on the market. MSI MPG A1000G Featuring the latest PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR connector, it's ready for the latest graphics cards. However, it also comes fully equipped with 105c-rated Japanese capacitors, a DC-to-DC topology, and a suite of protection and stability technologies to ensure excellent performance. There's also a Fluid Dynamic Bearing fan with Zero RPM hybrid mode allowing for ultra-quiet performance. Features 80 PLUS GOLD CERTIFIED - An efficient power supply reduces system energy use & thermal loading; An 80 PLUS Gold rating (up to 90%) is ideal for power-hungry hardware, particularly high-end graphics cards, or demanding games & rendering engines ATX 3.0 FULLY MODULAR - With ATX 3.0, the PSU can handle up to 2x total & 3x GPU power excursions, supporting even the most demanding GPUs; A full modular format with flat black cables (storage bag included) helps reduce clutter & improve airflow PCIe 5.0 GPU SUPPORT - With the native 16-pin (12VHPWR) PCIe connector, the PSU can feed up to 600W of power to a PCIe 5.0 GPU (NVIDIA & AMD supported); The MPG A1000G PCIE5's single-railed design provides ample power to the system 0% RPM MODE - 0% RPM Mode automatically deactivates the 135mm fluid dynamic bearing (FDB) fan when TDP falls below 40%, which increases energy efficiency & reduces unnecessary noise; A manual button at the rear can disable 0% RPM Mode DURABLE DESIGN - A half-bridge LLC with a DC-to-DC converter & active PFC design ensures reliable output (OCP, OVP, OPP, OTP, SCP, UVP protections); Japanese 105°C capacitors provide optimal stability; Includes a 10-year warranty Specifications For in-depth features and specifications, please check out the official product page here. Other Models in This Series Packaging & Accessories The box looks fantastic, with a striking black and purple design, a large photo of the PSU right on the front, and some of the key features clearly detailed on the front. Around the back, there are some clear explanations of key features, such as the ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 support, components used, all the included cables and their lengths, as well as the supported power outputs per rail. A nice warning about the 12VHPWR cable, so you don't get it all melty. The PSU is well protected, with double thick cardboard, two layers of foam, and a protective plastic covering. There's a durable protective bag for housing all the cables. And even then, they're still sealed in plastic! All the cables are flat, with the exception of one of the double 6+2 PCIe cables and the 12VHPWR. All the peripheral cables are flat too, so they're going to be easy to deal with when doing your cable management. The 12VHPWR cable is a thicker design too, but looks to be of good quality. A Closer Look This is a nice-looking power supply, with a lovely two-tone design on the top that forms part of the fan ventilation, and a small MPG logo on one corner. On the base, it's just flat, but there is a small specifications sticker on the lower half. You can clearly see the rating here, and that it'll do a massive 83.5A/1000W over the single 12V rail. That two-tone design carries around to the sides too, with a matching silver plate with a MPG logo and a dark MSI dragon just below that. A small warning sticker explaining the Hybrid fan mode. The back is well-ventilated, with the AC line-in, a master power switch, and the Zero Fan switch. Finally, we have the connectors, with a good range of PCIe and peripheral connectors, which should be more than enough for most high-end systems with a single GPU, and of course, there's the latest +12VHPWR connector too. A Closer Look - Interior MSI is using the well-known Hong Hua HA13525H12SF-Z fan, which is a 135mm FDB fan that we see in many mid-to-high-end power supplies, and we know it to be a good quality fan, given it's used so prolifically in modern PSU designs. The PSU itself is manufactured by Channel-Well Technologies (CWT), and it too is a fairly common design I've seen in a few units I've designed with just a few minor tweaks to make it fit their required specifications and form factor and the larger 135mm fan design. The main bulk capacitor is pretty hefty, clocking in at 400V and 820 uF. There are some fairly large secondary capacitors too, with two 16v 3300 uF units off to one side. And a third one tucked onto the back of the connector board. There are two 16v 2200 uF units here. As well as a 50v 100 uF and a 25v 220 uF next to those, which in total, should more than make up the required 1000W output. Of course, all the capacitors here are 105c-rated Japanese models too. The AC Line-in looks robust, with a good amount of shielding on the socket, and a protective wall between the cables and the main PSU. The solder looks a bit messy, but it's very thick and leads into some robust-looking cables right back to the main transformer behind it. The transformer has a solid PCB with some thick metal contacts going right into the main PCB. Behind that, a larger 3.3v and 5.5v conversion board, and good spacing between them all ensure ample cooling from the fan above them. There are some small aluminium heatsinks too, covering the PFC and DC-to-DC rectifier. There's a control board for the fan, which features an unused 5-pin header for an ARGB fan, as this layout is used for multiple PSU designs. Methodology & Testing At eTeknix we take the power supply testing procedure very seriously and have invested a lot of resources into acquiring the appropriate testing equipment. For all power supply reviews, we test the power supplies with dedicated power supply testing equipment. This means we can get the most accurate results from our testing as opposed to using software benchmarks (such as OCCT) or multi-meter readouts which are broadly inaccurate. Testing Hardware Sunmoon SM-8800 Active Load Tester Stingray DS1M12 USB Oscilloscope Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer What the eTeknix Test Procedure Involves Testing each power supply at 20/40/60/80/100% load (with load balanced across all rails) and measuring PFC (power factor correction), efficiency (actual power divided by power "pulled at the wall") which also uses a 50% load test, and voltage regulation (deviance from expected voltages of 3.3/5/12 on the main rails). Measuring ripple with an oscilloscope at 20/40/60/80/100% load. Transient loads taken with an oscilloscope are taken from 0% to 100% on the 12v raid, 3.3v rail, and then both combined. Measuring fan speed after a stabilisation period of five minutes at each loading scenario using the Voltcraft DT-10L laser tachometer and a reflective strip on the fan. Testing each power supply's OPP (Over Power Protection) mechanism and seeing how many watts each power supply can deliver before shutting down. Any deviation from this will be explained per review as appropriate on the respective testing pages, but this methodology page will remain unchanged. Other Things to Consider We recognise that a single 12-volt cable can provide only 6 Amps before overheating (which corrupts voltage regulation and efficiency) so we used an adequate number of cables for each power supply to ensure there is no efficiency loss from poor cable selection. If there is more than one 12VHPWR on a PSU, all will be used to test their combined loads. We use the same time scale and horizontal millivolt scale on our oscilloscope for all ripple tests, that is a 20ms T/DIV (horizontal) and a 0.02 V/DIV (vertical) meaning the scale is from -80mV to +80mV, ATX spec dictates that the 12v rail must fall within 150mv of ripple and the 3.3/5 within 50mv so that scale allows us to include both 150 and 50mV peaks. (Some older PSU reviews use different scales which were later ditched as the visual representation they give is inadequate, in these reviews written measurements are provided only). Deviance is the terminology used to represent the way voltages diverge from the expected values Voltage Regulation To test voltage regulation we load the power supply to five different load scenarios that give an equal spread of load across every single rail. So that means 20% on all rails, 40% on all rails and so on. We then calculate the average deviation of each rail from its expected voltage. Ideally, anything of +/- 2% regulation is seen as a very good result. Power Efficiency Power efficiency is measured by calculating the supplied wattage divided by the wattage drawn at the wall/plug, multiplied by 100 to give a percentage. We then compare that to the particular 80 Plus certification the company claims to see if it meets that. You can see the 80 Plus certifications below, we always test power supplies at 230v. Transient Loads Power Factor Correction Power Factor Correction is the ratio of the real power flowing to the load, to the apparent power in the circuit. PFC aims to make the load circuitry that is power factor corrected appear purely resistive (apparent power equal to real power). In this case, the voltage and current are in phase and the reactive power consumption is zero. The closer the number to one the better as this allows the most efficient delivery of electrical power (Source - Wikipedia). Ripple An oscilloscope can easily measure noise and Ripple. These show how much voltage fluctuation there is on a particular rail. We tested the rail stability of the 3.3-volt, 5-volt and 12-volt rails using an identical time and millivolt scale for all graphs. millivolt ripple is measured by the peak-to-peak size of the voltage curve. The latest ATX 12-volt version 2.3 specifications state that ripple from peak to peak must be no higher than 50 millivolts for the 3.3-volt and 5-volt rails, while the 12-volt rail is allowed up to 120 millivolts peak to peak to stay within specifications. Millivolt figures are stated to the closest increment of 5 given their variability. OPP Power supplies are often quoted as having various protection mechanisms and the most important of these is Over Power Protection. In our testing, we crank up the power draw until the power supply either shuts down (meaning the OPP mechanism is present and working) or blows up (meaning it is either not present or not working). We then note the maximum power consumption before the power supply shut down, or before it blew up. Fan Speed When testing in a power supply laboratory it is difficult to take fan noise readings as the noise from the Sunmoon test equipment and air conditioning corrupts everything. The next best thing in our circumstances was reading off the fan speed with a tachometer to get an idea of the noise. The ambient temperature during testing is held constant at 22 degrees, with 1 degree of variation. Each power supply had a consistent period of 5 minutes to stabilise between each load scenario. In my experience, the following general relationships apply between noise levels and fan speeds, though it can vary greatly between the type of fan used. Below 800 RPM - Inaudible/Silent 800 to 1000 RPM - Barely audible 1000 - 1200 RPM - Audible but still quiet 1200 - 1400 RPM - Moderately noisy 1400 - 1800 RPM - Noisy 1800 - 2000 RPM or above - Intolerable Internal Components This is just an example of what you can expect to see on a PSU interior. Efficiency The efficiency is just excellent throughout here, with it consistently above 90%, and even surprisingly close to making a Platinum rating. PFC is very good too, with it scoring very high from around 40% upwards, and hitting an optimal peak at around 80% which is great as that's in the sweet spot for a high-end gaming PC. PFC (Power Factor Correction) Voltage Regulation The voltage regulation is absolutely fantastic, well within the 3% target we like to see, and remarkably consistent throughout all loads too. Ripple There's a consistency to the ripple on all rails, with the 12V and 5V running a little higher, but still well within the spec and the 3.3v and 5vsb are very clean. 3.3V 5V 12V 5VSB Over Power Protection and Max Wattage While this unit is rated for 1000W, I was able to pull 1265.6 watts, way over the rated specifications, so it's more than capable of dealing with any unwanted power spikes. Transient Loads These results measure the power supply from 0% load to 100% load on various rails to simulate a power spike from your system. Typically, we would like to see as small a spike as possible relative to the requested voltage. With modern GPUs being notorious for power spikes, this is becoming more relevant in modern PSU design. The specifications for ATX 3.0 were released in February 2022. It includes the new 16-Pin 12vHPWR connector that can deliver up to 600 W to graphics cards. These incorporate data lines for components to negotiate power capabilities with the PSU so they do not draw more power than the PSU is capable of delivering. The specification also has more strict requirements for handling spikes, two times the nominal output for 100 microseconds. The transients are very clean, near-instant on the 3.3v and 5vsb, with a smooth ramp on the 12v with no over or undershoot. 0-100% 3V 0-100% +5VSB 0-100% 12V Cross-Loads When loading the 3.3v and 5v, the 12v rail remainder consistent at -0.8% and while the 12v rail was a little wobbly at lower loads when loading it directly, it is again well within the 3% target we would like to see. Fan Speed The hybrid fan mode resulted in a zero RPM fan from 20-40% load, with the fan sitting at 378 RPM in active fan mode. However, from 60% upwards both modes resulted in matching fan speeds of 800-1200 at high loads. How Much Does it Cost? The MPG A1000G PCIE5 Power Supply is available now from Amazon for a very reasonable £159.99. This is very competitive given the overall design, and it comes with 80 Plus Gold certification, ATX 3.0 ready, PCIe 5.0, Japanese 105°C Capacitors, 0% RPM Mode, Flat Cables and it even comes with a 10-year warranty. Really, you couldn't ask for more for your money! Overview MSI is known to be one of the best in virtually every product market they're a part of, and that's no exception with their new A1000G power supply. It ticks all the right boxes for a high-end gaming power supply. With the latest ATX 3.0 and PCIe 5.0 standards, all modern platforms and connections are supported, especially the 600w 12VHPWR which is idea for the latest Nvidia graphics cards, and no doubt future-proof for many others too. Thanks to its 80% Plus Gold efficiency rating, it's more cost-effective to run, and it really hit a PFC and efficiency sweet spot around 60-80% load, or around 600-800W, which is where I would expect a modern gaming CPU and a high-end graphics card to perform too, making this ideal for gamers. Plus, it features a half-bridge LLC with a DC-to-DC converter & active PFC design, which ensures both a reliable output but also generates less heat. Plus, there's a full suite of protections, such as OCP, OVP, OPP, OTP, SCP, and UVP. While the construction was done by CWT, there are a few modifications to the platform, such as the inclusion of a large 135mm fan for better cooling and lower noise. Even at 1200 RPM, I found the fan to be remarkably quiet. With 105c Japanese capacitors and a clean layout on the interior, it operates great, and can even cool itself passively in lower temperatures or at 40% or lower loads, making it silent when you're just doing your work, but still quiet while gaming. MSI has also given this PSU a very fetching design, with all-black hardware, complemented by some silver decal plats on the sides and the fan grill that really make it worthy of showing off, now just hiding under a PSU shroud. Should I Buy One? With a powerful 1000W design, the latest 12VHPWR connectors and fully modular cables, the MSI A1000G is ticking all the right boxes for those wanting a power supply that not only looks great but delivers excellent performance in all areas. Plus, it's competitively priced and backed by a 10-year warranty that makes it easy for me to recommend it to anyone building a gaming PC.