MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5

Product Information

MSI's real time power monitor works via the MSI Center app and is useful if you wish to monitor power supplied to the system. We feel this design is going to split opinion. The Asian community tend to love gold accented tech products, the European audience, not so much. It is nicely finished, but I am not a fan of the gold touches. MSI is claiming my idle/light internet browsing PSU temperatures (generally 43 - 47 C) are normal. Is that actually the case? If so, how does that make sense given the example image that I provided from someone else on this forum in which New World was being run? It might be worrying for the end user to see ~70°C there and the fan not coming to life, but if that's within the parameters they have set at the factory for this PSU model, and they provide 10 years warranty on it running like that, then it will probably do that. They used really high-quality components, including the capacitor models. That all doesn't explain the differences with other people's system using this PSU model, but as for MSI's parameters, it's still within the normal operating range, apparently. Had I kept Unigine Heaven running, would the fan have eventually started? That's still not clear to me.

Intel requires the PSUs to have a slew rate of at least 5 A/μS, so an electronic load must be at least as fast as that figure to be able to perform ATX 3.0 compliance testing. From a professional’s point of view, proper testing would require the testing equipment to be at least 30% faster than the absolute minimum required. This requires a highly advanced (and expensive)electronic load with multiple modules, like the Chroma Mainframe andHigh-Speed modulesIntel themselves is using, which has a total slew rate of 8 A/μS and it would need only 0.02 ms to get the load from 65 A all the way up to 215 A – and that still is 20% of the test’s required 0.1 mstime in our example, a figure that many expertswould find far too great for precise measurements. What we tested is also an extremely unlikely scenario for the moment, as no graphics card can currently be drawing 600 Watts constantly – it would itself melt. Even by taking the massive 3× power excursions into account, the average power drawof any cardover practical lengths of timeis significantly lower than 600 Watts – therefore, the cable should never reach temperatures that may become a concern. In light of the new ATX 3.0 standard, we took a shot at adding power excursion compliance testing into our articles. Given that this is the big addition to the ATX 3.0 specification– and indeed its very reason for being – it’s where we would like to see if PSUs are truly living up to the very high standards set by the new specification. The cables are a mixture of sleeved and custom sleeved to fit into a variety of builds. MSI also supply a MINI USB to USB cable as this power supply can be controlled via MSI software. The other side of the power supply houses the modular connectors. The power supply can support current generation graphics cards, and if you pay attention you can see the +12VHPWR connector top left which means you can also connect up a new Nvidia RTX 4000 series graphics card.The OEM behind the creation of the MSI MEG Ai1300P is Channel-Well Technologies, or CWT. They are a very popular and reputable manufacturer of mid-to-high-performance PC PSUs. This platform can be described as a hybrid, as it essentially is a standard analog platform but with extra digital electronics added to it. The digital electronics allow for the monitoring of the unit’s basic performance figures, as well as limited control (fan cooling profile, OCP limits, etc) via the USB interface. What really does stand out is the heatsinks, which do have plenty of dissipation surface but are also designed to be aesthetically appealing – an odd (but not unwelcome) design choice considering they should not be visible to the end user. Next we want to try Cross Loading. This basically means loads which are not balanced. If a PC for instance needs 500W on the +12V outputs but something like 30W via the combined 3.3V and +5V outputs then the voltage regulation can fluctuate badly. Cross Load Testing Instead of having a physical switch on the rear of the power supply to toggle between multi rail and single rail, you can control this via the software itself. A typical on/off switch can be seen at the rear side of the unit right next to the power connector. The front side of the unit is entirely covered by the numerous connectors for the modular cables. A golden legend is printed on the chassis. The tiny Mini-USB connector sits right above the large ATX 24-pin connectors, with the G.I. (i.e. Gaming Intelligence) legend printed right over it. It has an output port that is compliant with PCIe 5.0 and Intel PSDG (Power Supply Design Guide) ATX 3.0, also the power supply can hold up to 2x total power excursion and 3x GPU power excursion.

MSI call this ‘G.I' (Gaming Intelligence) support. I can't say I really have had great experiences with the MSI software in the past and sometimes it would crash on the test system I used, but the software for the power supply seems to show everything that MSI claim. Load regulation holds well across the board. Within 2%. This is a very good result for MSI. MSI MEG Ai1300PKitguru says: The MSI MEG Ai1300P is a high performing power supply with interesting software enhancements that will appease the high end enthusiast audience. This modern design adopts quality internal components with 105c rated Japanese capacitors to help justify the eye watering asking price. The electrical performance of the MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 1300W PSU is very good overall. Our instruments recorded a maximum ripple of 32 mV on the 12V line with a recommended design limit of 120 mV, an excellent figure for a PSU with that kind of power output. The filtering of the minor voltage lines is even better, with a maximum of 12 mV and 14 mV on the 3.3V and 5V lines respectively. Voltage regulation on the minor lines is very tight, with both lines staying within 0.8% across the load range. Strangely, especially for the CWT platform, the voltage regulation of the 12V line is much looser, at nearly 2%. This still is a very good figure but uncharacteristic of the particular OEM or class of this PSU. Inside the outer box is a bag of cables and accessories and the power supply itself, wrapped in a plastic bag, sandwiched between two pieces of foam. The passive components of the APFC circuitry are two beefy 400V/680μF APFC capacitors made by Nichicon, followed by two filtering coils. The active APFC components are on the longest heatsink of the unit. Four transistors can be found on their own heatsink and these form the full-bridge inversion topology at the primary side of the unit. The output of the main transformer is connected to six power MOSFETs that generate a single 12V rail. The 3.3V and 5V lines are being generated via the DC-to-DC conversion circuits. All of the secondary capacitors, electrolytic and polymer alike, are made by Rubycon and Nippon Chemi-Con. The unit has OCP, OVP, OPP, OTP, SCP and UVP protections and MSI claim 100% Japanese 105c Capacitors throughout – which we will look at later in the review.

Main Output Load (Watts) 264.41 W 659.2 W 975.71 W 1297.87 W Load (Percent) 20.34% 50.71% 75.05% 99.84% Amperes Volts Amperes Volts Amperes Volts Amperes Volts 3.3 V 2.32 3.37 5.79 3.37 8.68 3.36 11.58 3.35 5 V 2.32 5.06 5.79 5.05 8.68 5.03 11.58 5.02 12 V 20.07 12.2 50.16 12.17 75.24 12 100.33 11.97 What one can take away from the above table is the MSI MEG Ai1300P has everything you need for a powerful PC build. We don't have the means to measure ripple and other variations in power conversion, but we are able to monitor efficiency and how the power supply performs through use with a PC. I eventually stopped the software at around 68-69 C because I wasn't interested in seeing how hot it would get before it shut itself off. So why, i hear you ask, does it only feel this hot with this PSU? The only explanation can be airflow. We know the power draw of the attached components (it will not change between PSUs, if the other one is equally capable), we know the efficiency of the PSU because it shows it, and the efficiency is as high as you can get, more or less. So another PSU can't have lower losses than maybe 40W at that kind of power draw. One big variable that changed in regards to the heat radiating from the PC is therefore the PSU fan not spinning under such load. A spinning fan, even though the PSU a bit covered down there in the "PSU tunnel" (although i've since looked at a more detailed picture of the case, and it seems like there are lots of ventilation holes down there), can perhaps create a sort of "draft/vortex effect" when the air is accelerated out of the PSU, taking some hot air from further above in the PC with it more behind the PC. Something like that.The resistance of the MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 unit to adverse ambient conditions is astonishing, with the unit hardly affected at all while operating inside our hotbox. There is a practically negligible efficiency degradation of 0.2-0.3% depending on the load, a figure four to six times lower than other similar designs. There is very little additional degradation under heavy loads, suggesting that the components of the MSI MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 are not thermally stressed at all. My biggest issue is the Weekly consumption, as you can see it Skips some days and doesn't bother recording the data to the graph at all, even though my PC is on 24/7.

While I understand that is true - in terms of comparing temperature readings from different PSUs - what I can compare this PSU to, relative to other PSUs, is the fact that no others that I've used in my office (even in systems with similar specs) have made me feel physical heat in this way. And certainly not to the point where I'm investigating to this extent. I'd be lying if I said there wasn't some buyer's remorse in that respect. It was an unexpected byproduct of this build, though certainly my own fault for not investigating as much as I could've. From the chart below you can see that the MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 can safely achieve 2x total power excursion at 200% of the PSU wattage while meeting all the standards of Intel Testing Requirements at 120%, 160%, and 180% as well. The voltage of MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 can be controlled within the allowable voltage range when the current changes rapidly and violently to maintain the system stability and avoid system abnormalities. OPP and OCP TestsTo be fully compliant with ATX 3.0, there’s also a timing value that the power supply unit must meet. The MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 is fully compliant with that timing value as shown in the chart below. MSI MEG Ai1300P & MPG A1000G Gen5 PSUs Final Impressions That being said, please stop with the needless jabbing, the question falls onto the brand that sent the review sample out, not the person who opened up the unit to report what he'd seen. You're also talking about Aris, here. You're sneezing towards the wind. The efficiency of the MSI MEG Ai1300P does meet the 80Plus Platinum certification requirements when it is powered from an 115 VAC source. However, when the main’s voltage is 230 VAC, the efficiency is raised by an average of 1%, which is not enough to meet the 80Plus Platinum requirements for that input voltage. The average nominal load efficiency (20% to 100% of the unit's capacity) is 92.1% with the unit powered from a 230 VAC source, and drops down to 91.3% if the unit is powered by a 115 VAC source. It is also interesting to note that itsefficiency under very low loads is quite high, at above 83% for a 5% load. 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. Klarna Bank AB (publ) is Authorised by the Swedish Financial Services Authority (Finansinspektionen) and is subject to limited regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority.