80 PLUS vs Cybenetics: Power Supply Ratings Explained

Published 26th Mar 2025 - 5 minute read

Table of Contents
What is 80 PLUS?
- Minimum efficiency 80 PLUS ratings (230v)
What is Cybenetics?
- Cybenetics Efficiency ratings (230v)
- Cybenetics Noise Level ratings
Which rating system is superior?

When choosing a power supply, there's more to consider than just the wattage. Of course, ensuring the PSU has enough power for the combined need of your components is critical, but there's a few more aspects to ponder.

Once landing on the correct wattage, we can then decide on how efficient of a unit you want. Which is to say, how much of the power coming from the wall makes it out the other end and into your PC components. The higher the efficiency of your PSU, the less electricity wasted; the lower your electricity usage/bills will be – and better for the environment. Everybody wins in the long term.

For a long time, 80 PLUS was the unrivalled standard in providing a yardstick for PSU ratings, but it only went so far as explained above. The Cybenetics certification adds in noise measuring for an additional layer to their certification, which is a handy tool when selecting the right PSU.

What is 80 PLUS?

80 PLUS is a certification program of CLEAResult; recognized by ENERGY STAR and the European Union and has assisted manufacturers and customers alike in differentiating premium products and creating customer confidence.

80 PLUS ratings are split into 6 categories in ascending order of efficiency (lowest to highest): Standard/White, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, & Titanium.
The nicer the metal; the better efficiency the PSU has.

Minimum efficiency 80 PLUS ratings (230v)

	STANDARD	BRONZE	SILVER	GOLD	PLATINUM	TITANIUM
10% load	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	90%
20% load	82%	85%	87%	90%	92%	94%
50% load	85%	88%	90%	92%	94%	96%
100% load	82%	85%	87%	89%	90%	91%

It stands to reason that generally speaking, with all other factors being equal, the higher the certification; the more costly the PSU will be.

What is Cybenetics?

On the efficiency scale it works similarly to 80 PLUS, with the tiers being Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum, Titanium, & Diamond – with of course it being least to most efficient in ascending order.

Cybenetics Efficiency ratings (230v)

Efficiency Rating	Overall Efficiency	PF	5VSB Efficiency	Vampire Power
Bronze	≥84% to 87%	≥0.910	>70%	<0.25W
Silver	≥87% to 89%	≥0.920	>72%	<0.23W
Gold	≥89% to 91%	≥0.930	>74%	<0.20W
Platinum	≥91% to 93%	≥0.935	>75%	<0.18W
Titanium	≥93% to 95%	≥0.940	>76%	<0.15W
Diamond	≥95%	≥0.945	>78%	<0.12W

Here's a legend to help decipher the above information:

Overall Efficiency: This is the main factor to look at. The higher the percentage, the better.
PF (Power Factor): This conveys the ratio of power actually used in a circuit to the apparent power delivered to the circuit. Basically, an additional way of describing efficiency. Again, the higher; the better.
5VSB Efficiency: This is simply the efficiency of the 5VSB rail specifically. The higher the better.
Vampire Power: A measure of how much electricity the PSU uses when it's in standby mode. The lower the better.

Cybenetics' certifications also rate noise levels, in addition to efficiency.

Cybenetics Noise Level ratings

Cybenetics, along with their efficiency rating system, also works to validate & certify a PSU's overall noise output by averaging the noise measurements taken from the testing data.

Noise data averaging process isn't straightforward since decibels (dB) are based on logarithmic scales.
For example, if you have a PSU producing 40 dB, a doubling of the acoustic power sound intensity would not be 80 dB but 43 dB (and 50 dB for the volume loudness). This means converting first the dB values to sound pressure units (Pa), before averaging them, and then converting the result to dB again, to make it familiar to consumers. They call their noise measurements program Lambda; deriving from the Greek letter "Λ".

Noise Levels (230v)	Noise Requirements
Standard	≥40 dB(A) & <45 dB(A)
Standard +	≥35 dB(A) & <40 dB(A)
Standard ++	≥30 dB(A) & <35 dB(A)
A-	≥25 dB(A) & <30 dB(A)
A	≥20 dB(A) & <25 dB(A)
A+	≥15 dB(A) & <20 dB(A)
A++	<15 dB(A)

Which rating system is superior?

The Cybenetics platform appears to be more thorough given it's taking a multi-pronged approach to scrutinising power supplies.

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 91% at 100% load. However, the top level from Cybenetics, Diamond, requires equal or greater than 95%.

At the time of writing, it appears that most power supply manufacturers are seeking out both 80 PLUS & Cybenetics certifications for their new power supplies, and we'd have to imagine that will continue for a little while – but it does somewhat seem like a full & exclusive transition over to Cybenetics is likely, at which point 80 PLUS ratings will be abandoned, perhaps.

In the meantime, for power supplies that are rated by both systems, you can use both rating systems to get a more dialed-in understanding of the PSU's efficiency by understanding the robust testing methodologies that go into informing both ratings, and if the noise rating is available that is another informative purchasing decision.