Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1650 W

[crmaris]

The Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1650 W is the only PSU on the market that offers two 12VHPWR connectors, each capable of 600 W. This unit can support two NVIDIA RTX 4090s with their power limits set to max, along with a powerful CPU and other power-hungry components.

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[Space Lynx]

OTP, OCP, EMI

I feel like the negatives section is some rap song at this point

 

[Braegnok]

My Seasonic TX-1600 comes with two 12VHPWR cables, both rated at 600W. https://seasonic.com/prime-tx#

3090 Ti only requires one cable now and no 8-pin adapter, lot less clutter using the 12VHPWR cable.

 

[Chrispy_]

A year ago I'd have said this was a ridiculous PSU that nobody needs except for crypto miners.

...and then the 4090 happened.

 

[mechtech]

Is there any tests you can do to test the toughness of the toughpower?

 

[shovenose]

Is there any tests you can do to test the toughness of the toughpower?

I have a Toughpower GF1 850W, the way the fan ramps up with even mild load from my GPU drives me insane even though I can feel the air coming out of the PSU is literally room temperatures. It’s TOUGH to tolerate and I’m considering going back to my 500W Seasonic which was silent. That’s why it’s called Toughpower.

 

[Dave65]

For some ODD reason, I just don't trust Thermaltake.

 

[terroralpha]

A year ago I'd have said this was a ridiculous PSU that nobody needs except for crypto miners.

...and then the 4090 happened.

i'm not sure if you're meme-ing, but this isn't the first time we had 400W+ GPUs. 295x2 pulled over 600W in furmark and 450W when just gaming, mine was working fine on 1000w PSU, 4090 owners don't need this either. r9 390x was a 350W+ GPU, and AMD sold tons of those cards. how many 390X owners had 1600W PSUs?

i know someone running a 4090 strix on 10 year old Corsair AX860i, it's working fine. that PSU even accepts corsair's new 600W. 12VHPWR cable.

For some ODD reason, I just don't trust Thermaltake.

same, but i have a reason. i avoid gigabyte, cooler master, thermaltake, fractal and some other similar brands because i really don't have time to research who made whatever model PSU i happen to be looking at when i'm shopping on newegg or microcenter. some of their models are great and made by good OEMs on good platforms while others are just trash that are missing safety features.

when i buy a gold or higher rating corsair PSU, i know that it will be good because they design their own platform and just have CWT or some other reputable factory make it for them.

 

[Dave65]

i'm not sure if you're meme-ing, but this isn't the first time we had 400W+ GPUs. 295x2 pulled over 600W in furmark and 450W when just gaming, mine was working fine on 1000w PSU, 4090 owners don't need this either. r9 390x was a 350W+ GPU, and AMD sold tons of those cards. how many 390X owners had 1600W PSUs?

View attachment 275517

i know someone running a 4090 strix on 10 year old Corsair AX860i, it's working fine. that PSU even accepts corsair's new 600W. 12VHPWR cable.



same, but i have a reason. i avoid gigabyte, cooler master, thermaltake, fractal and some other similar brands because i really don't have time to research who made whatever model PSU i happen to be looking at when i'm shopping on newegg or microcenter. some of their models are great and made by good OEMs on good platforms while others are just trash that are missing safety features.

when i buy a gold or higher rating corsair PSU, i know that it will be good because they design their own platform and just have CWT or some other reputable factory make it for them.

Yeah, Thermaltake should be named Copytake. I use to be a big Gigabyte fan but not these days, Cooler Master do make some nice keyboards but thats about it for them.

 

[mouacyk]

I don't understand any of it, but thanks for doing this!

 

[Mussels]

For some ODD reason, I just don't trust Thermaltake.

probably their litepower PSU's

 

[RainingTacco]

when i buy a gold or higher rating corsair PSU, i know that it will be good because they design their own platform and just have CWT or some other reputable factory make it for them.

Brands dont matter as much in globalized modern capitalism. Always look what specific product has to offer, not judge by the brand as a status of quality.

 

[sLowEnd]

For some ODD reason, I just don't trust Thermaltake.

Their products have definitely been pretty hit or miss over the years.

I can see why some people might not like some of their product launches, like the Toughfan series being a straight knock-off of Noctua's NF-A series fans, but the actual end product is still pretty solid. It's a bit worse than Noctua's offering, but it is also cheaper.

They have had other incidences of copycat behaviour before as well.

Thermaltake Accused Of Stealing - New Computex Products Went Too Far - Legit Reviews

www.legitreviews.com

 

[Chrispy_]

i'm not sure if you're meme-ing, but this isn't the first time we had 400W+ GPUs. 295x2 pulled over 600W in furmark and 450W when just gaming, mine was working fine on 1000w PSU, 4090 owners don't need this either. r9 390x was a 350W+ GPU, and AMD sold tons of those cards. how many 390X owners had 1600W PSUs?

I guess my comment was 50% serious, 50% mocking Nvidia.

Realistically though, with GTX 295 in SLI, or the 295X2 which is just SLI on a stick - you're comparing a multi-GPU solution to a single GPU, and the difference is that whilst the multi-GPU option did use 450W in gaming, it didn't have the high-transient power draw spikes that we have today.

Sure, a 4090 or 7900XTX can pull as much on paper, but the transient spikes of multiple GPUs wouldn't have been synchronised to the exact same instant, so that was 450W at full load and maybe 550W peak (transient testing wasn't a thing back then, because GPUs weren't constantly tripping OCP in PSUs - presumably because no single GPU was hungry-enough to do so at any given moment). Transients for some of the hungriest AIB variants of the 3090 and 6950XT were 2.0-2.5x the rated TDP (video below). GN tested the 4090FE's power consumption in a lot of detail and the "stock" 4090FE with its 450W TDP regularly pulled 630W. There are plenty of AIB models that have higher power delivery than that, already.

If you watch the rest of that test you'll notice that the 4090's transient spikes are much lower than previous generations at just 40% above TDP, but that they last much longer - regularly reaching >1ms in game tests. Despite the 7900XTX's lower 355W TDP, the reference card's transients were 93% over that value, at 685W - though admittedly for only 0.5ms which is more in line with transients of the Ampere and RDNA2 generation of cards.

So yeah, not entirely a meme. These are real problems with many independent hardware reviewers doing serious in-depth testing. Does that mean I won't still take every opportunity to make snide remarks about Nvidia?

...Hell no

I have a Toughpower GF1 850W, the way the fan ramps up with even mild load from my GPU drives me insane even though I can feel the air coming out of the PSU is literally room temperatures. It’s TOUGH to tolerate and I’m considering going back to my 500W Seasonic which was silent. That’s why it’s called Toughpower.

I use Corsair RM850e for low-noise builds.
Cybenetics Platinum rated, reasonably-priced, zero RPM fan mode and even when it's powering a 5950X and RTX 8000 it's not even hitting 20dB.

 

[dirtyferret]

OTP, OCP, EMI

I feel like the negatives section is some rap song at this point

You down with OTP?
Yeah, you know me!

Is there any tests you can do to test the toughness of the toughpower?

definitely don't want a wimpy PSU, they make a mess

Brands dont matter as much in globalized modern capitalism. Always look what specific product has to offer, not judge by the brand as a status of quality.

I disagree, some brands just stick their label on a product and have half assed customer service, warranties, and return policies. Other brands have PSU techs & engineers on staff, test lab(s), work hand in hand with OEMs, and offer quality customer service.

probably their litepower PSU's

never once have I had an issue with a litepower PSU as a door stop or paper weight

 

[Space Lynx]

You down with OTP?
Yeah, you know me!


definitely don't want a wimpy PSU, they make a mess

I disagree, some brands just stick their label on a product and have half assed customer service, warranties, and return policies. Other brands have PSU techs & engineers on staff, test lab(s), work hand in hand with OEMs, and offer quality customer service.


never once have I had an issue with a litepower PSU as a door stop or paper weight

I'm glad someone finally got it, lmao

Naughty by Nature, if I am not mistaken.

 

[Mussels]

Brands dont matter as much in globalized modern capitalism. Always look what specific product has to offer, not judge by the brand as a status of quality.

What you said
I had to move away from corsair because their quality kept dropping and their PSU's kept getting larger

 

[Avro Arrow]

There can be no doubt that this PSU was made with nVidia in mind.

 

[RegaeRevaeb]

If I recall, a garden variety North American 120 residential circuit runs 1,600W by most codes? It's great when PCs will need thir own breakers... Wee Bobby Jr. playing Doom when *SNAP* the breaker trips. 'Daaaad! I told you not to turn on the TV when I'm on the computer!'

 

[DCYY]

I bought this PSU, and I found that the motherboard cable of this PSU adopts a very rare 24+6 pin connection mode, instead of the 18 pin+10 pin connection mode adopted by most other PSUs. This puzzled me for a time. At first, I thought that the extra 6pin was only auxiliary power supply. It happened that there was an extra 6pin connector for PD fast charging next to the 24pin connector on my motherboard. So I plugged the cable backwards. 24+6pin was plugged into the motherboard, and 24pin was plugged into the PSU. Obviously, the PSU could not work normally, but I didn't know what was wrong at that time, so I returned the PSU to the factory. Later, TT told me that this 6pin is used by sense and must be connected to the PSU to work properly. I don't know if you have done some tests on this 6pin during the review process to find out what the technical principle is. Later, I looked up some data and found that this 6pin sense was only used on some GALAKURO PSUs. I hope TT can indicate this unique design in the manual or on the cable. In addition, this kind of cable is also difficult to buy on the market. If it is damaged, I don't know whether TT will provide the replacement of this cable.

 

[Avro Arrow]

I dunno... I've learnt over the years not to trust brands like Thermaltake and Cooler Master when it came to PSUs. I've always leaned more towards names like OCZ/PC Power & Cooling, Antec, Be Quiet!, Corsair and EVGA. If I had to pick an absolute best PSU manufacturer though, I'd have to say that nothing beats SeaSonic.

 

[Mussels]

If I recall, a garden variety North American 120 residential circuit runs 1,600W by most codes? It's great when PCs will need thir own breakers... Wee Bobby Jr. playing Doom when *SNAP* the breaker trips. 'Daaaad! I told you not to turn on the TV when I'm on the computer!'

I mean sure, but america is such a tiny part of the world and thermaltake are a global brand...

I dunno... I've learnt over the years not to trust brands like Thermaltake and Cooler Master when it came to PSUs. I've always leaned more towards names like OCZ/PC Power & Cooling, Antec, Be Quiet!, Corsair and EVGA. If I had to pick an absolute best PSU manufacturer though, I'd have to say that nothing beats SeaSonic.

as soon as a brand earns a great reputation, they start using that brand to sell shite products (Look at TPU's latest be quiet PSU review)
Always focus on the product, not the brand

Seasonic are generally great, but so was be-quiet and corsair - all have some garbage tier products out now

Thermaltake are generally as much of a bomb as gigabyte, but those two have also released one or two great units each

 

[Avro Arrow]

I mean sure, but america is such a tiny part of the world and thermaltake are a global brand...

as soon as a brand earns a great reputation, they start using that brand to sell shite products (Look at TPU's latest be quiet PSU review)
Always focus on the product, not the brand

Oh I do. I wouldn't buy a bottom-end product from a major brand because you just know that it's not going to be as good as a low-level unit from a smaller brand because it doesn't have to be. If a PSU isn't at least 80+Gold, I don't even look at it, regardless of brand. If a PSU does have the 80+Gold certification but it's a brand I don't know or has a bad track-record, I read every review on it that I can with special attention paid to reviewers that I know have the right equipment for testing PSUs like Gamers Nexus and HardOCP. If I can't find any credible reviews, I don't buy it.

I'm extremely finicky when it comes to what PSUs I buy because the two that I personally use are essentially immortal. I have an OCZ Z1000M that's well over 10 years old but still had no issue running an FX-8350, an RX 5700 XT and an RX 6800 XT in a mining rig for 6 months and that's my backup PSU. The PSU in my main rig is an EVGA 1000 G2 Supernova. Both PSUs have effortlessly powered twin R9 Furies in benchmarking suites so I know that I chose well with them.

Seasonic are generally great, but so was be-quiet and corsair - all have some garbage tier products out now

I've always considered Corsair to be overrated because I know that Corsair is just a marketing company that doesn't actually MAKE anything. In most cases, I only buy PSUs that are either made by the brand that I'm buying or are PSUs made by a well-known OEM. With my OCZ, I knew that it was made by PC Power and Cooling (because OCZ bought them a couple years prior) and with my EVGA, I know that it's really a top-of-the-line Superflower PSU. Seasonic would be another brand that I would definitely buy because they actually MAKE their PSUs. With Antec and Be-Quiet! I don't know if they still make theirs or if they're out-sourced and if so, outsourced to whom.

Thermaltake are generally as much of a bomb as gigabyte, but those two have also released one or two great units each

Believe it or not, I think that a Gigabyte PSU these days would be one of the best PSU buys on the market. This is because after all of the horrible press that they received, there's no way that they'll allow that to happen again. Gigabyte has always been a competent company known for quality products. The Gigabyte brand took decades to build and I'd be willing to bet that those at the top were furious at their new PSU division for the damage that was done to the Gigabyte brand both by the deficient product that they sold and the unprofessional way they handled the situation after the fact. I'm sure that whoever was managing that division has been canned and replaced by someone who's mission is to repair the damage that was done. With Gigabyte, we're in a situation right now in which they'll be going overboard with quality to rebuild their tarnished name.

A great product for a great price has always been a hallmark of the Gigabyte name and aside from their first crack at selling PSUs, this image of the Gigabyte name has remained constant. Hell, that mining rig I built with the FX-8350 and the two cards was using my old Gigabyte 990FX motherboard. It still works flawlessly over a decade after I bought it. That's what I think about when I think of Gigabyte.

My Seasonic TX-1600 comes with two 12VHPWR cables, both rated at 600W. https://seasonic.com/prime-tx#

3090 Ti only requires one cable now and no 8-pin adapter, lot less clutter using the 12VHPWR cable.

Yeah, I don't think that anyone makes better PSUs than Seasonic and I say this as someone who has never actually owned one so there's no pride involved for me. My first high-end PSU purchase was my OCZ Z1000M because they had purchased PC Power and Cooling not long before (it still works flawlessly 13 years later). It's my backup PSU now and I was intending to supplant it with a Seasonic but Newegg had some insane sale on the EVGA 1000 G2 Supernova for like $180CAD with a ten year warranty. Now, I'd never had an EVGA video card (because I refuse to buy nVidia) but I was well aware of their legendary customer service and warranty support (from working at Tiger Direct) so I ended up buying that.

I have a Toughpower GF1 850W, the way the fan ramps up with even mild load from my GPU drives me insane even though I can feel the air coming out of the PSU is literally room temperatures. It’s TOUGH to tolerate and I’m considering going back to my 500W Seasonic which was silent. That’s why it’s called Toughpower.

Yeah, Thermaltake is essentially a cheap name that's decorated to look expensive. Thermaltake is a lot like Cooler Master that way. They make good cases and cooling solutions but their PSUs are average at best.

For some ODD reason, I just don't trust Thermaltake.

I'm with you on that one.

Yeah, Thermaltake should be named Copytake. I use to be a big Gigabyte fan but not these days, Cooler Master do make some nice keyboards but thats about it for them.

I think that right now, because of what happened, Gigabyte would be probably the best PSU to buy. There's no way that they'll skimp on quality after what has already occurred so their PSUs will be top-quality. The customer service level of their new PSU division was terrible (which is NOT what Gigabyte is known for) so they'll have great customer service. Last but not least, they now have a tarnished name in PSUs so they'll be priced lower.

Their products have definitely been pretty hit or miss over the years.

Their cases and cooling solutions have been good but their PSUs have been, at best, average.

I can see why some people might not like some of their product launches, like the Toughfan series being a straight knock-off of Noctua's NF-A series fans, but the actual end product is still pretty solid. It's a bit worse than Noctua's offering, but it is also cheaper.

Thermaltake fans are actually really good. As for being a knockoff of Noctua, there are only so many ways to make a fan. Is the Cooler Master Sickleflow:

a knockoff of the Hayden Radiator fan:

Of course not, it's a fan. Noctua's fans themselves are a knockoff of someone else's design because they didn't invent the case fan. Noctua's only design copyright that I know of when it comes to PC cooling fans is the vomit-inspired (and inspiring) colouration.

They have had other incidences of copycat behaviour before as well.

I'm sure that they have but let's not be hypocritical here. The entire PC market exists because companies like Compaq, Acer, Amstrad, Dell, Everex, Hewelett-Packard, Packard-Bell and Gateway 2000 were copycats of IBM back in the day. How many clones of the Cooler Master Hyper CPU cooler exist? These days, everybody copies everybody. Intel created x86 and AMD created x64, Hayes created the "AT" standard for modems which was copied by companies like US Robotics. AdLib invented the sound card and got 100% ripped off by "Creative" Labs for their Sound Blaster. Finally, Epson created the protocol for communication between computers and printers which was copied by EVERYONE ELSE.

In the PC market today, everything is a copy of something else and I do mean EVERYTHING. Expansion cards were invented by IBM so in that regard, all expansion cards that have use a SIMM slot design located at the bottom and are held in by a screw that fastens the top of a metal backplate to the case itself is a copy of IBM's design. That includes all sound cards, video cards, M.2 expansion cards, etc.

One of the worst things in the world that we have are IP laws. If you invent something that makes you a millionaire, good for you. If you're not satisfied with that and want to be a billionaire then I have no sympathy for you. The founder of Noctua isn't going to go broke if Thermaltake copied one of their products just like Cooler Master isn't going to go broke just because companies like Deepcool and Coolmax ripped off the Hyper.

 

[dirtyferret]

I've always considered Corsair to be overrated because I know that Corsair is just a marketing company that doesn't actually MAKE anything. In most cases, I only buy PSUs that are either made by the brand that I'm buying or are PSUs made by a well-known OEM. With my OCZ, I knew that it was made by PC Power and Cooling (because OCZ bought them a couple years prior) and with my EVGA, I know that it's really a top-of-the-line Superflower PSU. Seasonic would be another brand that I would definitely buy because they actually MAKE their PSUs. With Antec and Be-Quiet! I don't know if they still make theirs or if they're out-sourced and if so, outsourced to whom.

Not sure why you would consider Corsair over rated? Over priced? Sure, but not over rated. They are extremely hands on with design, testing, and quality assurance than any other pure brand out there. In fact they have several test labs at their in house facilities and one of only two pure brands with in house designers. They work Cybenetics in their designs. Aris has them as the top unit (or top five) in many of his best of tier lists. Also Corsair uses well know OEMs like CWT, Great Wall, and Chicony...even HEC on occasion although not up to par as the others.

OCZ bought the brand name PC Power and Cooling but PC P&C were made by seasonic (I owned a few of their units back in the day)

Antec, like EVGA, uses a number of different OEMs from Delta, FSP, Seasonic, CWT, and enhance on occasion

BQ mostly uses FSP but seems to be going with CWT more lately, they have used HEC and Seasonic in the past.

There is no pure benefit to buying from a pure brand or OEM/Brand. Possibly a lower cost with the OEM/Brand but not always. As long as the brand is reputable and the unit well built and performs well, that's all the matters. Also, many OEM/Brands don't have the warranty and in-house front end like a Corsair or EVGA. If anything happens to your unit under warranty, those are two brands I trust to honor your warranty and not have you jump through hoops. I know everyone has their personal horror stories and but two brands have a solid reputation.

 

[Mr. Chicken Plank]

The GF3 1650W *does* have OTP. It might be worth updating the review to reflect this.

According to the manual:

"Protection temperature is 55°C to 75°C at 115V and full load."