ASUS ROG THOR III 1200W Platinum PSU Review
Power Efficiency and Ripple Testing
ASUS ROG THOR III Power Meter
One aspect of the ROG THOR III that interested us is the accuracy of its side-mounted power meter. After all, if it isn’t accurate, it’s a pointless feature. Note that in the image above, it is displaying 1310W. That’s because this PSU measures your PSU’s power draw from the wall, not the power it delivers to your PC. Additionally, note that our SunMoon PSU tester measures power input at 1315W. That’s within 5W of what the PSU is measuring. With this in mind, it’s pretty safe to say that this PSU’s power monitoring is very accurate.
Voltage Ripple and Efficiency Testing
When reviewing new power supplies at OC3D, we use our dedicated SunMoon PSU Tester, one of the most expensive (if not the most expensive) tools in the company’s arsenal. Here, we can see exactly how well a unit functions. We look at both a PSU’s efficiency and power stability. To do this, we utilise bespoke PSU testing equipment to give us an in-depth look at each power supply’s performance. This kind of data collection is impossible when using a PSU with standard PC components.
Power Efficiency
Efficiency-wise, the ASUS ROG THOR 1200W Platinum III delivers what we expect from an 80+/Cybenetics Platinum-rated power supply. The PSU was 92+% efficiency at all power levels, placing it amongst some of the best power supplies that we have tested. You would need to jump up another level to 80+/Cybenetic Titanium rated PSUs to get something notably more efficient than this.
Voltage Ripple
Voltage ripple is often overlooked by consumers. It is best described as the stability of specific voltages that the PSU delivers. A PSU with bad ripple will see voltages vary a lot more. In extreme cases, this can damage components or shorten their lifespans. Voltage ripple stability is one of the many reasons you should buy a high-quality power supply. That means buying from a reputable brand and avoiding anything that isn’t 80+ certified.
An important thing to note here is that none of the PSUs in this graph are “bad.” Even units with the highest ripple in our charts, like the original Corsair RM1000 (from 2014), are usable within your system without any issues. We used this specific power supply within one of our main workstations for years and had no trouble with it. As we said before, only extreme levels of voltage ripple are dangerous. Regardless, we feel that these results are important, as we do not want to see PSU manufacturers moving backwards with this metric. We do not want to see the return of PSUs with high levels of voltage ripple.
ASUS’ ROG THOR 1200W Platinum III sits in the middle of our performance charts. It’s a good result, but far from the best we have seen. This PSU excels when it comes to cooling and efficiency, but this is an area where this PSU isn’t top tier. Is this a problem? No, but it is an area that could be improved.
