Gigabyte has announced it will replace defective power supplies it shipped to customers, but the company wants you to know it’s not happy about it. The company has released a statement in which it misrepresents what independent investigation uncovered about its products in the name of saving face. The company writes:
GIGABYTE is aware of certain media outfits casting doubt over the quality of Power Supply models GP-P850GM and GP-P750GM… We were made aware by third parties of concerns regarding potential issues of the GP-P850GM and GP-P750GM tripping at high wattages when tested via DC Electronic Load equipment for extended lengths of time repeatedly close to the 120% to 150% OPP trigger point. This level of extended testing could severely reduce the lifespan of the product and components of the GP-P850GM and GP-P750GM.
This fundamentally mischaracterizes the testing done by GamersNexus. The implication here is that the websites that reported this problem were testing in an inappropriate manner and that these tests are what caused failures. There are multiple reports of these power supplies either arriving dead on arrival or failing very shortly after being plugged in, long before they could’ve been subjected to heavy testing.
According to GamersNexus, it did not “repeatedly” push power supplies close to their OPP limit. OPP limits were approached once and the dead power supplies were killed the first time they hit it. From the video below: “Most of these units failed in two minutes or less. Nothing went more than 10.”
The dead power supplies are bad. What put the icing on this particular crap cake was the fact that plenty of consumers were forced to buy these PSUs if they wanted a new GPU from Newegg, thanks to the latter’s forced bundling policies. I don’t know how many people buy a new power supply when they buy a new GPU, but it isn’t unusual to see someone replace both, especially if they are upgrading an older system or an OEM rig. These are both units in the arguable sweet spot range for most users and Gigabyte is a trusted, long-known name. That fact makes the company’s attempt to dodge this issue worse. Instead of a deep dive into what went wrong, Gigabyte blamed the messenger and implied this entire kerfuffle was the result of inappropriate testing.
Newegg has not responded to requests for comment on whether it will modify its bundle policy. If your power supply falls within the serial number range given above, Gigabyte will replace the unit. The company is calling this a return and exchange service and does not mention refunds, so we’re assuming it’s replacing supplies.
ExtremeTech recommends you replace your power supply if the unit falls within the serial number range, even if your hardware is currently working properly. The power supply in your PC is easily the most dangerous component of your PC. A bad CPU is unlikely to kill a graphics card and a failed GPU won’t harm your SSD. A failing power supply may have the good grace to die quietly in a corner, but GamersNexus recorded multiple instances of these units throwing sparks. At least one failure killed the RTX 3080 hooked up to the unit. Not all of the units tested were bad, so hopefully, any serial numbers outside the range above can be trusted.
We have reviewed and liked Gigabyte enthusiast hardware in the past, but this was not the way to handle a serious and credible investigation. A company that misrepresents the investigation that uncovered a problem in its own house can’t be trusted to build reliable hardware. Reports of these failures and attempts to make Gigabyte aware of them go back over six months, but the company took no action until called out by enough people. That’s not how you build trust in your own hardware.
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