It is therefore not a label emanating from the manufacturers, but a certification raised by a third party with much higher levels of requirement. And we already know that those who make the law cheat and the fact that 80 PLUS does not measure certain parameters or does so with less precision is something that PC power supply manufacturers can take advantage of.
And what makes Cybenetics different from the 80 PLUS certification? The fact that they evaluate power supply efficiency using an extremely advanced and well-equipped laboratory for their measurements.
Efficiency
The efficiency level of a power supply is not only measured by Cybenetics over the entire power range, but they can perform up to 1450 different tests. This is important because in a power supply the level of efficiency can vary depending on the level of load and have very high performance at high power and much worse at low power. Keep in mind that the 80 PLUS only measures charge level at four different power levels, so a PSU can be very efficient at those levels, but have worse efficiency outside of them.
Cybenetics’ efficiency certification is called Eta, which refers to the Greek letter η, and has a nomenclature very similar to 80 PLUS to make it more understandable for users. Therefore, the Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Titanium certifications in Cybenetics are similar to their 80 PLUS counterparts and therefore measure their power factor, but there are two additional parameters that are measured in Cybenetics.
vampire power
This is the power your power supply can use when the system is off. Therefore, it is wasted energy. To be certified by Cybenetics, it is necessary that the power supply does not waste more than 0.25 W when the system has been turned off.
Rail 5VSB
The second element taken into account in the Cybenetics Eta certification is the 5VSB rail, which is one of the weak points of the power supplies. This power port is usually used to power a USB port to charge or power devices.
Noise
The Cybenetics noise certification is also named after a Greek letter, Lambda or λ, and is responsible for measuring the level of noise that the power supply can generate. For this, 7 noise levels have been created to measure the amount of noise that a power supply can generate. This is important for many users, as they can end up with a power supply that is as efficient as it is noisy.
Apart from the certification for power supply noise, they also have a test called Delta or Δ, responsible for measuring the level of noise that PC cases can tolerate. The reason is that there is a close relationship between thermal performance and the level of soundproofing an enclosure can provide, and although the Delta test does not give us the thermal performance, more and more people are aware of the need to soundproof your computer chassis as much as possible.
They also measure the efficiency and noise of graphics cards
Cybenetics maintains a database where they store the results in which they measure the same items as in the power supplies. Benchmarks are run on a PC running an overclocked i7-10700K at 4.8 GHz on all cores and running the Metro Exodus game at 2560 x 1440, with graphics on top, no Ray Tracing.
The test is not performed directly on the graphics card, but it is expected to be running for a while and reaching a temperature corresponding to normal performance. When this happens is when they measure noise and efficiency. At the moment there is no program assigned to this, but it is very possible that in the future graphics card manufacturers will start using a certification like that used in power supplies.
Cyberetics and its beta testing program
In this case, it is not a specific test, but a program that the folks at Cybenetics have for power supply manufacturers to send their new designs to undergo the corresponding quality tests and to be able to improve their products before to launch them on the market. When we speak of a quality product, we are not referring to its effectiveness or its performance, but rather to the fact that it must meet a series of satisfaction conditions before being put on sale and reaching the general public.
All companies have quality departments that ensure that the products reaching us meet a series of requirements. Many of them are granted by industry standards that must be followed by all manufacturers. Unfortunately in the case of 80 PLUS certification this does not follow any standard and although this is an important step forward there must be an impartial assessor who is the one giving the certification and does so under a parameter with a certain level of demand.
For a good power supply manufacturer, if its products are good, it will not be difficult to pass a more demanding certification than 80 PLUS. Changed for those who do not attach importance to it, because the thing is different. And this applies in particular to all those 80 PLUS White type power supplies with certain shortcomings in terms of efficiency and noise level that demonstrate the shortcomings of said certification.
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