When considering top-tier hardware, it’s important not to forget the one part that’ll power them all, aka., the humble PSU (Power Supply Unit). Not only will a bad pick cause issues ranging from random restarts to downright hardware failures, but you might also end up using a lot more power than needed.

Modern PSUs that adopt the ATX 3.0 standard are an excellent fit for those looking to build a top-tier gaming/work PC.

Need is a strong word. The new ATX 3.0 standards offer several improvements that directly benefit monster GPUs like GeForce RTX 4090. Although everyone won’t ‘need’ them, these improvements enhance ease of building and overall stability of your PC.

The ATX standard was developed by Intel, back in 1995, and dictates many design specifications for much of the hardware you know and love today. To keep up with new trends, it is updated and revised periodically.

ATX 3.0 is its latest iteration and offers a host of improvements for modern hardware like Nvidia’s RTX 40-series products.

A single 16-pin high power connector (12VHPWR) can now deliver up to 600W to your graphics card! Not only is this more stable and safer, but it also allows you to skip clunky adapters and reduce clutter in your PC build.

If you’re using an older PSU (non ATX 3.0 compliant) with, say, an RTX 4090, you’ll have to connect 3 PCIe power connectors to an adapter, which then plugs into your next-gen graphics card.

On the other hand, an ATX 3.0 compliant PSU only requires a single cable from your power supply to your brand-new GPU. It’ll deliver all the power your graphics card might need without missing a beat.

Graphics cards are prone to momentary spikes of power, called transients. Although this has always been the case, a mix of factors like higher power requirements, boost algorithms, and rapid energy management features combine to make it more of an issue.

The design specifications to meet the previous ATX standard just aren’t beefy enough to handle modern graphics cards (the minimum spec only requires manufacturers to accommodate 1.3x spikes). With power draw set so high (>350W), even a 2x spike would require a modern power supply to offer up 700W of power momentarily.

If your graphics card doesn’t get the power it needs at that instant, it’ll result in your system restarting/crashing/bluescreening. Don’t get me wrong, this occurrence, won’t be frequent. It just happens occasionally.

Although an occasional restart doesn’t bother most people, serious gamers and professionals just can’t afford them.

ATX 3.0 addresses this by ensuring that modern PSUs now must accommodate spikes of up to 3x for the PCIe power, and 2x for the entire system! So, a 450W RTX 4090 can have a transient spike of up to 1350W without overwhelming an ATX 3.0 compliant power supply.

Before we discuss wattage, please keep in mind that our wattage recommendations do leave a healthy amount of headroom to work with a broader range of hardware and peripheral combos.

MSI is proud to present a range of robust power supplies, specifically designed to meet the power requirements of next-gen hardware with ease. In addition to ATX 3.0 compliance and all its benefits, some also boast Gaming Intelligence (GI) features that elevate your user experience even further.

Please refer to individual product pages for more information –

Power Supply Lineup
MEG Ai1300P PCIE5
MEG Ai1000P PCIE5
MPG A1000G PCIE5
MPG A850G PCIE5
MPG A750G PCIE5