MSI MEG PCIe 5.0 + ATX 3.0 PSUs: ready for 3 x GPU power excursion

AMD and NVIDIA are both preparing for monster next-gen GPUs, with NVIDIA's new Ada Lovelace-powered graphics cards using upwards of 800W at the flagship next-gen GPU side of things.

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We've had a growing list of manufacturers join the PCIe 5.0 power supply unit (PSU) game, with MSI's new MEG PCIe 5.0 + ATX 3.0 PSUs being tested behind the scenes. MSI has their next-gen MEG Ai1300 and Ai1000P PSUs that will be ready for next-gen GPUs, with some new details to jump into.

MSI says that their next-gen MEG Ai1300/1000P power supplies are the "ultimate future proof PSU" where it has an output port that is compliant with PCIe 5.0 and Intel PSDG (Power Supply Design Guide) ATX 3.0. MSI also states that the new MEG Ai1300P and Ai1000p PCIE5 power supplies can hold up to 2x total power excursion and 3x GPU power excursion.

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• Read more: PCIe 5.0 GPUs can have 'power excursions', use up to 1800W of power

MSI is including a native 16-pin (12VHPWR) PCIe connector on the MEG Ai1300 and MEG Ai1000P PCIE5 power supplies, stating that they're ready for all high-performing future graphics cards. MSI says that they can freely pipe up to 600W of power to PCIe 5.0 graphics cards.

The new MSI MEG power supplies are ATX 3.0 ready, not just PCIe 5.0 ready: so the 800W power limit for NVIDIA's next-gen AD102 GPU shouldn't be a problem. You're going to want the 1300W model of MSI's new MEG power supply family if you get a next-gen flagship NVIDIA GPU for these new "power excursions" that the new graphics cards will be taking us on.

• Read more: NVIDIA's new AD102-based GeForce RTX 4090: 600W+ power usage CONFIRMED
• Read more: Intel intros ATX 3.0, ATX12VO 2.0 standards, for next-gen 600W GPUs
• Read more: PCIe 5.0 '12VHPWR' power connector: 150W, 300W, 450W, 600W settings
• Read more: This is what the next-gen 12-pin PCIe 5.0 power connector looks like
• Read more: PCIe 5.0 power connector allows up to 600W of power, for next-gen GPUs

Intel's Platform Power Specialist, Stephen Eastman, told PCWorld during a recent interview: "With the new PCIe 5.0 connector and ATX 3.0, Intel and the PCI SIG address what both euphemistically call "power excursions." You might recognize it by the less sugar coated term "power spike." The PCI SIG has basically outlined the capability of a GPU to exceed the maximum sustained power of the card by 3x. That means a 600 watt card on a PCIe 5.0 12VHPWR connector is allowed to spike to 1,800 watts for 100 micro-seconds".

"To help smooth out those extremely short power excursions, a power supply has to be designed with enough extra capacitors to prevent the system from sagging power and possibly crashing the PC. By Intel's estimates, a 300 watt GPU on a properly designed ATX 3.0 could be supported with a 750 watt power supply with 300 watts for the CPU and another 150 watts for the rest of the hardware in the box".

• Read more: ASUS intros ROG Thor 1600W Titanium PSU, ready for next-gen GPUs
• Read more: GIGABYTE teases UD1000GM PCIe 5.0 PSU: ready for next-gen 600W+ GPUs
• Read more: Cooler Master launches V1300 Platinum PSU: next-gen PCIe 5.0 connector

"If you were to try to adapt an existing ATX 2.X power supply to run that same 300-watt GPU, you could potentially need a power supply at 1,100 watts to support the GPU, CPU and account for the power excursions, Intel believes. This will likely depend on that older PSU design as well as how often that GPU will make those high power excursions"

"Many will balk at retiring their power supply and wonder why excursions matter so much. Aren't "power excursions" just GPU makers breaking the rules and exceeding power consumption, after all? We'd agree with that outlook, but to limit those extremely short excursions would mean also limiting GPU performance. It's also clear we've been right at the very limit of power supply capabilities for some time".

"Anecdotal reports of the GeForce RTX 3080 and 3080 Ti crashing systems due to transient voltage spikes have been popping up for some time. While the vast majority of gamers were fine, it would appear certain power supplies or system configurations just couldn't handle the same power excursions. Even worse, add-in board makers would know they were exceeding power for microscopic amounts of time but they really had no idea what the varying designs of power supplies could handle".