Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 850W ATX v3.0 Power Supply Review

The Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 850W is one of the first ATX v3.0 compatible PSUs.

Thermaltake GF3 850W ATX v3.0
(Image: © Thermaltake)

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Protection Features

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

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OCP (Cold @ 27°C)12V: 88.6A (125.15%), 11.978V 5V: 30.5A (138.64%), 4.997V 3.3V: 30.9A (140.45%), 3.256V 5VSB: 4.7A (156.67%), 5V
OCP (Hot @ 43°C)12V: 88.8A (125.44%), 12.025V 5V: 30.4A (138.18%), 4.999V 3.3V: 30.7A (139.55%), 3.251V 5VSB: 4.7A (156.67%), 4.995V
OPP (Cold @ 28°C)1061.34W (124.92%)
OPP (Hot @ 43°C)1067.91W (125.7%)
OTP✓ (131°C @ 12V Heat Sink)
SCP12V to Earth: ✓ 5V to Earth: ✓ 3.3V to Earth: ✓ 5VSB to Earth: ✓ -12V to Earth: ✓
PWR_OKAccurate but lower than 16ms
NLO
SIPSurge: MOV Inrush: NTC Thermistor & Bypass relay

OCP is correctly set at 12V, and the same goes for OPP. However, this is not the case for the minor rails, where OCP is way higher than 130%. Moreover, the power ok signal's hold-up time is slightly lower than 16ms, which the ATX sets as the minimum level. 

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, as 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).

As expected, the board holding the 12V FETs is the hottest part, given the lack of proper heat sinks. 

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Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

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