Thermaltake Toughpower DPS G RGB 1500W PSU Review

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Ripple Measurements

To learn how we measure ripple, please click here.

The following table includes the ripple levels we measured on the TPG-1500D-T's rails. The limits, according to the ATX specification, are 120 mV (+12V) and 50 mV (5V, 3.3V and 5VSB).

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Test12V5V3.3V5VSBPass/Fail
10% Load27.8 mV10.0 mV15.4 mV6.4 mVPass
20% Load23.1 mV15.4 mV20.7 mV9.6 mVPass
30% Load19.2 mV15.3 mV23.7 mV11.1 mVPass
40% Load20.8 mV15.6 mV23.1 mV12.3 mVPass
50% Load22.5 mV15.4 mV22.8 mV12.1 mVPass
60% Load31.1 mV22.8 mV31.6 mV18.0 mVPass
70% Load36.0 mV31.0 mV51.5 mV27.5 mVFail
80% Load37.4 mV33.2 mV58.9 mV31.6 mVFail
90% Load38.4 mV24.8 mV41.7 mV23.1 mVPass
100% Load39.2 mV26.8 mV37.7 mV24.4 mVPass
110% Load39.3 mV25.7 mV35.3 mV21.8 mVPass
Cross-Load 123.2 mV13.9 mV16.1 mV8.8 mVPass
Cross-Load 237.9 mV23.5 mV34.1 mV21.7 mVPass

Ripple suppression at +12V might not be at Super Flower's levels, but it's still very good and among the best we have ever seen from an Enhance platform. The 5V and 5VSB rails demonstrate low enough ripple, though there seems to be a problem with the 3.3V rail. As you can see in the table above, ripple at 3.3V goes sky-high in the 70 to 80 percent load range. It's probably a design flaw, so Enhance should look into this as soon as possible. During the overload test, ripple is lower compared to the full load test because we had to run this benchmark using a lower ambient temperature (remember, over-temperature protection kicks in at around 49.5 °C).

Ripple Oscilloscope Screenshots

The following oscilloscope screenshots illustrate the AC ripple and noise registered on the main rails (+12V, 5V, 3.3V and 5VSB). The bigger the fluctuations on the screen, the bigger the ripple/noise. We set 0.01 V/Div (each vertical division/box equals 0.01 V) as the standard for all measurements.

Ripple At Full Load

Ripple At 110-Percent Load

Ripple At Cross-Load 1

Ripple At Cross-Load 2

Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

Aris Mpitziopoulos is a contributing editor at Tom's Hardware, covering PSUs.

  • spat55
    So basically a poor performing PSU at this price point and the only good thing is a RGB fan I won't see because my PSU is always face down and preferably under a PSU cover, okay got it.
    Reply
  • g-unit1111
    What's the point of having an RGB ring on a bottom mounted PSU where nobody will see the fan anyways? :??:

    Also those cables - the word "eyesore" comes to mind! I would be replacing those with some custom ones ASAP! :ouch:
    Reply
  • spat55
    18628558 said:
    What's the point of having an RGB ring on a bottom mounted PSU where nobody will see the fan anyways? :??:

    Also those cables - the word "eyesore" comes to mind! I would be replacing those with some custom ones ASAP! :ouch:

    Yeah it's just a crap unit which is hoping the kids orgasm over those RGB lighting, it's doing my head in but I'm sure it'll soon become mainstream then die.
    Reply
  • powernod
    Extremely dissapointed by Thermaltake.
    Only at the TPG-1250D-T they used the new & excellent CST platform by CWT.
    For all the other wattage models so far, ( 850 & 1500watt ) they used mediocre platforms by Enhance.
    I had high expectations for Tt's new line of PSUs, but they were proven futile.
    Reply
  • Virtual_Singularity
    Thanks for another thorough, excellent, psu review, great job Aris. Disappointed by TT, as well. That is one flawed, less than mediocre (esp for the price) unit, OEM'd to Enhance by another predictable 3rd party company. Some pretty lights on the fan and it's 1600 watt helm of their "flagship" series moniker is supposed to justify that $430 pricetag? Fails to meet minimum atx specs in several areas, hold up time for such an expensive unit is also unacceptable. Similar to the MasterWatt Maker, it can't hope to compete with similar units from their competitors, which are lower in price, better in efficiency and overall specs.
    Reply
  • vc9966
    almost every performance below average, but cheaper than CM 1200 worker
    Reply
  • Nuckles_56
    The 12V CL1 was certainly one of the more interesting waveforms I've seen in a while. But overall I'm pretty disappointed in Thermaltake for producing such a over priced under performing PSU
    Reply
  • Br1414
    Typo? 16 amps is the max legal load on a 20 amp 120v plug, thus option A apparently. Option B appears to be the old wall A/C style 20 amp 240 volt plug. Both a t slot styles. So maybe you rig something, but more or less you need an electrician just to use this thing safely! I guess you got the money...
    Reply
  • Valantar
    Individually sleeved cables in the traditional "ketchup and mustard" colours? Wow, that made me laugh. Out loud. Might be suitable to some kind of early 2000s retro theme build?

    Also, I love the pixelated 8-bit-ish thing you've got going on with the ripple graphs on page 9. Perhaps

    Otherwise, this was pretty much as expected. A useless product (the world does not need more 1000W+ PSUs), with useless features (RGB in a place where it'll be invisible in 90+% of modern cases), at a useless price point. That it performs badly as well just adds icing to the turd.
    Reply