Why does CORSAIR use Cybenetics instead of 80 PLUS?

In early August 2024, we announced we would be switching from using the 80 PLUS PSU certification system to Cybenetics. This transition would be gradual, with many PSUs released a long time before that announcement carrying both certifications.

So, we thought we’d take a moment to explain why we decided to make this switch, and how it improves the consumer experience of shopping for a power supply.

Cybenetics offers a more comprehensive system for assessing the quality of any given power supply, including ours. Read our 80 PLUS vs Cybenetics page for a more detailed explanation of how the two compare. Here, we’re just going to explain why we have switched.

Efficiency is widely regarded as the most important metric for evaluating a PSU, and there are many good environmental and financial reasons for that. However, noise is a factor that is a lot more readily apparent to the end user.

While 80 PLUS currently does not offer a certification related to the noise output of power supplies, Cybenetics does. Given that noise is a very important concern, Cybenetics was a better fit for CORSAIR.

Going back to efficiency for a moment, Cybenetics’ methodology covers a lot more data points, which is handy because more data is always welcome. Additionally, the Cybenetics ratings are a lot more strict, especially when you’re getting closer to the top end. So, a power supply must be really incredible to hit those top marks. This is good for the consumer as it incentivises us to make better and better PSUs.

If the PSU was developed and initially released before we made the switch, but is still modern enough to be on sale, we aren’t going back and changing the packaging to remove the rating. Additionally, some revisions of power supplies simply have different cables, with no changes made to the internals, and thus they retain the original 80 PLUS ratings.