XFX XTR Series 850W PSU Review

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XFX cooperates closely with Seasonic for its PSU products. That's a major advantage, since Seasonic is a top OEM. The XTR line is XFX's second-best, after the XTS family, and today's review focuses on the 850W model.

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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 XTR 850W's rails. The limits, according to the ATX specification, are 120mV (+12V) and 50mV (5V, 3.3V and 5VSB).

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Test 12V 5V 3.3V 5VSB Pass/Fail
10% Load 12.0mV 10.3mV 11.4mV 4.5mV Pass
20% Load 18.0mV 12.1mV 10.7mV 5.0mV Pass
30% Load 21.5mV 12.3mV 11.4mV 5.6mV Pass
40% Load 21.5mV 12.6mV 12.5mV 5.7mV Pass
50% Load 20.4mV 12.0mV 13.8mV 6.6mV Pass
60% Load 23.1mV 12.8mV 13.9mV 7.1mV Pass
70% Load 25.3mV 13.6mV 13.8mV 8.1mV Pass
80% Load 26.7mV 13.1mV 14.7mV 8.9mV Pass
90% Load 28.6mV 14.1mV 15.3mV 9.6mV Pass
100% Load 32.9mV 16.3mV 17.9mV 11.7mV Pass
110% Load 34.8mV 17.9mV 18.0mV 13.2mV Pass
Cross-Load 1 18.3mV 14.2mV 15.8mV 26.8mV Pass
Cross-Load 2 31.3mV 13.6mV 14.3mV 11.7mV Pass

Ripple suppression on the minor rails is very good. We could easily praise the +12V rail's performance as well, if we hadn't already seen the EVGA G2/P2 and Corsair RMx and RMi units, which set the bar too high in this section. Under no circumstances can you call 33mV of ripple under full load a mediocre performance, that's for sure. However, when you have measured below 15mV under the same conditions in other PSUs, you have no other option but to expect more from an OEM like Seasonic.

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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 0.01V/Div (each vertical division/box equals 0.01V) 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
Aris Mpitziopoulos
Contributing Editor

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

13 Comments Comment from the forums
  • turkey3_scratch
    How come on the ripple page the 5VSB rail always stays under 15mv (except CL1) but on the crossloads page the 5VSB ripple graph is completely blue, hence greater than 30mv the entire time? Also, you have two "and"s in a row on Page 5. Anyway, what I love about Seasonic is they don't fall short in any category. This PSU excels everywhere, I guess except fan noise, of course.
    Reply
  • BadActor
    Nice. Any chance you might have a look at the budget XT's?
    Reply
  • turkey3_scratch
    18155380 said:
    Nice. Any chance you might have a look at the budget XT's?

    ^^ Yes please review one of these. Though he only reviews units that the companies actually send to him, so it could be they don't want the XT units to get reviewed, so it'd probably have to be bought retail.
    Reply
  • apazeus
    I've had the 550w version since around October. At one point it was powering an FX-8350 and a 290X with no hiccups. (Nowadays it's paired with a 6600K and a GTX 1080, uses was less juice.) Nice PSUs.
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    I cannot explain why ripple at 5VSB during the Crossload tests is higher than the high-temperature tests. This is strange indeed.

    As for the XTs I will try to find one.
    Reply
  • gofasterstripes
    Lol XTR and XT - Someone call Shimano and tell them their electric groupset is looking a big fat!
    Reply
  • Shankovich
    Excellent review. Could you guys possibly redo the Corsair HX 750i and up with the new review parameters? Really interested to see how it is in more detail now.
    Reply
  • damric
    "All XFX PSUs are made by Seasonic"

    Not quite. These are built by Hydance.

    http://www.orionpsudb.com/news/the-mystery-of-xfx-budget-xt-line-solved-oem-and-platform-discovered
    Reply
  • Aris_Mp
    When I state that a unit is made by Seasonic (or any other OEM) it doesn't necessary mean that it is made in its own factories. It is a common practice OEMs to outsource their products to other factories if they cannot meet demand (or in case they want a more affordable production line). However still the original design and the specs are set by the original designer.

    Many other models of various OEMs are also made in other factories but there is no safe way to know it without having info from the OEM itself.

    Finally, this specific article states about the XFX XT units: "If the available information is correct, XFX XT is designed by Seasonic, but the manufacturing is outsourced to Shenzhen Rui Sheng Yuan just like the Hydance. "

    As you can see there is an "if" at the beginning of the sentence. In any case, Seasonic is also behind the XT line. Given that this is an XTR review though, I thought it would be better to spare all above and just state that all XFX PSUs are made by Seasonic and not dive into such detail mentioning the outsourcing of XT line, for which there is no solid information.

    Given the opportunity I would like to mention the great work that Orion does and also thank him for the tip about the KM3S platform of the XTR-850 unit. I will try to find some details about the actual differences between the KM3 and KM3S platforms.
    Reply
  • Math Geek
    i got REAL happy for second there thinking this was one of the budget XTFR units. been waiting for someone, anyone out there to review one so we can see how it performs. they are priced awesome and if they perform even average, they will be worth the low cost for mainstream pc's

    either way, nice review :) always solid work
    Reply