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Corsair decided to withdraw its popular CX line because it was expensive to make while it addressed budget-oriented users. ASUS saw an opportunity there, grabbed the CX platform from Great Wall, and used it in its TUF Gaming PSUs.
The problem is that they were forced to use inferior components compared to the CX units to keep the cost down, which affected performance. The cost of electronic parts has hugely increased in the last years, primarily because of the pandemic, so it is not easy to use quality parts in budget PSUs.
The TUF 550 achieves good overall performance, which could be even higher with more tuning and changes in its design. Great Wall has to proceed with some changes at some point if it wants to keep up with the competition. Although this is the most modern platform in the low-cost category, it still cannot surpass, in overall performance, the less advanced CWT CSB platform used in the XPG Pylon 550, the Corsair CX550M, and the Thermaltake Smart BM2 550.
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Disclaimer: Aris Mpitziopoulos is Tom's Hardware's PSU reviewer. He is also the Chief Testing Engineer of Cybenetics and developed the Cybenetics certification methodologies apart from his role on Tom's Hardware. Neither Tom's Hardware nor its parent company, Future PLC, are financially involved with Cybenetics. Aris does not perform the actual certifications for Cybenetics.
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