Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1350W ATX v3.0 Power Supply Review

The Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1350W is a high-performance power supply.

Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1350W ATX v3.0
(Image: © Tom's Hardware)

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Protection Features

Check out our PSUs 101 article to learn more about PSU protection features.

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Protection FeaturesRow 0 - Cell 1
OCP (Cold @ 23°C)12V: 170A (151.11%), 11.913V 5V: 30.1A (125.42%), 5.014V 3.3V: 30.3A (126.25%), 3.357V 5VSB: 5.5A (183.33%), 4.937V
OCP (Hot @ 39°C)12V: 168A (149.33%), 11.926V 5V: 30.1A (125.42%), 5.015V 3.3V: 30.2A (125.83%), 3.361V 5VSB: 5.4A (180%), 4.938V
OPP (Cold @ 29°C)1893.27W (140.24%)
OPP (Hot @ 43°C)1710.23W (126.68%)
OTP✓ (171°C @ 12V Heat Sink)
SCP12V to Earth: ✓ 5V to Earth: ✓ 3.3V to Earth: ✓ 5VSB to Earth: ✓ -12V to Earth: ✓
PWR_OKProper operation
NLO
SIPSurge: MOV Inrush: NTC Thermistor & Bypass relay

The 12V rail has high OCP triggering points, and the same goes for OPP. The good thing is that the PSU shuts down at a notably lower load under hot conditions. There is also a difference between OCP and OPP triggering points, and this is because, during OPP, we increase the load on all rails simultaneously, while during OCP, we increase the load on a single rail while the load on the other rails remains stable. 

DC Power Sequencing

According to Intel’s most recent Power Supply Design Guide (revision 1.4), the +12V and 5V outputs must be equal to or greater than the 3.3V rail at all times. Unfortunately, Intel doesn't mention why it is so important to always keep the 3.3V rail's voltage lower than the levels of the other two outputs.

No problems here since the 3.3V rail is always lower than the other two. 

Cross Load Tests

To generate the following charts, we set our loaders to auto mode through custom-made software before trying more than 25,000 possible load combinations with the +12V, 5V, and 3.3V rails. 

The deviations in each of the charts below are calculated by taking the nominal values of the rails (12V, 5V, and 3.3V) as point zero. The ambient temperature during testing was between 30 to 32 degrees Celsius (86 to 89.6 degrees Fahrenheit).

Load Regulation Charts

Efficiency Graph

(Image credit: Tom's Hardware)

Ripple Graphs

The lower the power supply's ripple, the more stable the system will be and less stress will also be applied to its components.

Infrared Images

We apply a half-load for 10 minutes with the PSU's top cover and cooling fan removed before taking photos with a modified Fluke Ti480 PRO camera able to deliver an IR resolution of 640x480 (307,200 pixels).

A small ceramic cap right next to one of the bulk caps looks to get quite hot. The temperatures on the rest parts are kept in control. 

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Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

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