80 PLUS vs Cybenetics: PSU ratings explained

Contrary to popular belief, the shopping process of a new PSU doesn’t start and end with the wattage. Yes, making sure the PSU can handle the total power draw of all your components is vital, but there’s more at play here.

Once you’ve made sure the PSU is powerful enough, you must then consider how efficient it is. Basically, how much of the power coming from the wall to the PSU makes it out of the other end to your PC. The more efficient the power supply, the lower your electricity bill will be and of course the less electricity wasted, the better the PSU will be for the environment. It’s a win-win. Additionally, noise levels are very important for some people, too, which is measured by an additional certification from Cybenetics.

In light of these monetary and environmental benefits, various certification systems have popped up over the years, with 80 PLUS and Cybenetics being the two most common ones. So, today we’re going to explain how both of these certifications work, and why they’re important to consider.

The 80 PLUS certification is a product of CLEAResult, a company dedicated to helping sustainable energy become more ubiquitous. 80 PLUS certifies just the efficiency of a PSU, ranking every PSU submitted to them into 6 categories in ascending order of efficiency: Standard, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, and Titanium

The further down this list you find your PSU, the more efficient it is. In short, the fancier the metal on the sticker, the better the PSU. But what does each one mean exactly?

At time of writing, those are the efficiencies that a power supply needs to hit to achieve the corresponding certification. Typically, the higher the certification, the more expensive the PSU will be.

For a more detailed breakdown of the 80 PLUS certification system, there is a very comprehensive page that explains the intricacies far better than we have time to do here, including efficiencies for 230v inputs. Now, let’s take a look at the Cybenetics certification.

Cybenetics’ certifications for power supplies also rates noise levels, in addition to efficiency. These two characteristics are split into 2 certifications. Efficiency is measured similarly to 80 PLUS with a scale indicated by the perceived fanciness of metals. The noise levels are graded in a more traditional way. Standard to A++.

As you can see, these ratings work slightly differently to the 80 PLUS certification. Cybenetics don't rate PSUs according to different load percentages, instead they give a rating for different aspects:

• Overall Efficiency: This is the main headline to look at. The higher the percentage, the better.
• Overall PF (Power Factor): This expresses the ratio of power actually used in a circuit to the apparent power delivered to the circuit. Basically another way of describing efficiency. The higher, the better. (More details here).
• Overall 5VSB Efficiency: This is simply the efficiency of the 5VSB rail specifically. The higher, the better.
• Vampire Power: Finally, some levity in a world full of humourless analytics. This is a measure of how much electricity the PSU uses when it's in standby mode. The lower the better.

Now, here's the noise level ratings from Cybenetics:

Noise ratings are lot easier to understand. These are measured with an A-rated Decibel. This measures the relative loudness as perceived by the human ear. More information about A-weighted decibels, and the other decibel weighting systems can be found this this paper from Pierre, Jr., Richard L. St. and Maguire, Daniel J.

All you need to know right now is that a lower number means a quieter PSU.

Again, at time of writing, these are the noise and efficiency ratings power supplies must hit to achieve the corresponding awards. Those looking for more depth than we have time for today should check out the Cybenetics Efficiency & Noise level Certifications Database. Much like 80 PLUS, it’s broken down into efficiencies for 115V and 230V voltage inputs. If you’re a PSU enthusiast, there’ll be a lot of good data here to comb through.

It’s a difficult question to answer as it’s not really possible to directly compare them in an accurate way. Despite this, there are some things to be aware of.

Firstly, the Cybenetics certifications are overall stricter than those of 80 PLUS. This is especially true as you reach the very top of their certifications, where you find stringencies that 80 PLUS doesn’t account for. For example, the absolute best certification from 80 PLUS is the Titanium label. However, this only requires a PSU to top out at 90% at 100% load. However, the top level from Cybenetics, Diamond, requires equal or greater than 93%.

That being said, 80 PLUS and Cybenetics calculate efficiency in different ways, under different testing conditions. This means that there are too many variables at play to directly compare the two.

However, this doesn’t mean that you should disregard one in favor of the other. Both are helpful to determine the quality of any given power supply (if the power supply in question has been rated by both, of course).

If you’re a discerning PC builder, then you’ll be pleased to know that a lot of recent CORSAIR PSUs have been certified by both 80 PLUS and Cybenetics. It’s worth remembering, however, that Cybenetics has a certification for noise levels. At time of writing, 80 PLUS does not.