SeaSonic's FOCUS PLUS PSUs May Have Issues with Certain GPUs

Megalith

Megalith

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SeaSonic has published a new support article confirming potential compatibility issues between their FOCUS PLUS line of PSUs and specific GPUs, which include the ASUS GTX970 STRIX and Vega 56/64. The company advises a “black screen may occur under heavy VGA usage” for the former due to “higher than normal ripple when under heavy load,” while “system shutdown may occur when the GPU is under heavy load” for Vega cards produced before January 2018.

We have been notified, in limited instances, where some issues may occur when a FOCUS power supply is used in conjunction with certain high-power consumption GPU or brand of VGA cards. If you experience possible compatibility issues, please check the below information and contact us for further assistance.
 
I have a SSR-550FM, so is that part of the problem power supplies? Cause I have a Seasonic Focus and my RX 480 will sometimes crash the driver when using FireFox or Tor, but only with those browsers. I've been using Chrome for weeks now and just avoid those web browsers cause I figure there's an issue with AMD's driver or FireFox. I of course play games at the same time when I leave the browser open.
 
Have a Focus + 750w for Vega 64 LC HTPC system - mined 8 months straight with no issues, game as well.

I Have a Focus+ 850 for SLI 1080 Ti's I was having issues - while gaming the computer will just shutoff and reboot - no power and then it restarts. I lowered ram speed from 3200mhz to 3100mhz and that has stopped so far. Changing the OC of the CPU made no difference, default CPU speed no change, ram speed did. Ram is Corsair DDR4 3200 and was using the default XMP profile. Did all the usual checks making sure everything was seated, nothing found out of place.
 
MMitch said:
How is that ? They even disclosed it... I like this fact. After that work with RMA...
Click to expand...
It's a pretty bad quality problem to have for a premium brand with premium prices. It's expected for them to replace the units. Have we fallen so low that the expected minimum is to be praised?
 
Probably because of putting capacitors on the wiring leads. Why would they do that?!
 
Meeho said:
It's a pretty bad quality problem to have for a premium brand with premium prices. It's expected for them to replace the units. Have we fallen so low that the expected minimum is to be praised?
Click to expand...

No, not at all, just that most OEM wouldn't even disclose it... hence the props. They still need to make it work for the screwed people.
Also, is FOCUS a flagship family or did you mean premium brand because of seasonic ? Because is so, every brand has lower tier... anyway glad they disclosed it now fix it.

I think seasonic is still in the top.
 
Meeho said:
It's a pretty bad quality problem to have for a premium brand with premium prices. It's expected for them to replace the units. Have we fallen so low that the expected minimum is to be praised?
Click to expand...

Uh, they've disclosed it and are correcting the issue. Nothing is perfect.

I'll point out that the Focus line isn't their high end line either, not that it matters much.
 
Both brand and product family, though that could depend on the specific Focus line.
 
Ripple in a power supply like that can happen if the power draw happens in surges; some things may cause it worse than others.

If you hit a harmonic of the switching frequency, it can be real bad, and really hard to fix.
 
noko said:
Have a Focus + 750w for Vega 64 LC HTPC system - mined 8 months straight with no issues, game as well.

I Have a Focus+ 850 for SLI 1080 Ti's I was having issues - while gaming the computer will just shutoff and reboot - no power and then it restarts. I lowered ram speed from 3200mhz to 3100mhz and that has stopped so far. Changing the OC of the CPU made no difference, default CPU speed no change, ram speed did. Ram is Corsair DDR4 3200 and was using the default XMP profile. Did all the usual checks making sure everything was seated, nothing found out of place.
Click to expand...
Are you running 4 sticks or 2.
I had to bump up the ram voltage just a smidge, because even at stock speeds (much less XMP profile speeds) my motherboard was notorious for not liking all slots populated.
Now I can run the ram overclocked with lower than spec CAS latencies and it's rock stable.

Plus i can fry an egg on my dimms, so it's a win win. ;)
 
years ago .. I could not run an ATI card with the particular Antec PSU .. system would boot up and run fine with an Nvidia card, but would not boot with an ATI card in..
 
`
Jim Kim said:
Are you running 4 sticks or 2.
I had to bump up the ram voltage just a smidge, because even at stock speeds (much less XMP profile speeds) my motherboard was notorious for not liking all slots populated.
Now I can run the ram overclocked with lower than spec CAS latencies and it's rock stable.

Plus i can fry an egg on my dimms, so it's a win win. ;)
Click to expand...
Just two sticks, OC to 4.4ghz 6700K ram at 3100mhz, no issue yet. Playing Shadow Of The Tomb Raider which really will push both 1080 Ti's. Will take her up to 4.6 ghz. The problem was it corrupted my game profile file making me loose most of my progress, did a save earlier (way earlier) in the game. Now I am about back where I was before. Saving in game more often. Interesting is I've operated for months with 3200mhz and played most of the game with CPU at 4.7ghz and then 4.8ghz with 3200mhz ram speed. I doubt the 6700K memory controller degraded but possible.
 
Running a Seasonic X-Series SS-850KM3 and an XFX Vega 64 LC. It regularly drops video when I'm running certain games. Finally RMA'ed the card, now I'm curious if the X-series (older higher end series) is handling the Vega better than the lower end Focus Plus but dropping the video instead of rebooting the whole machine...

Sent the notice along to XFX and asked Seasonic to let me know. The Vega was manufactured in November 2017 so maybe it will be as simple as getting a newer card (hopefully XFX will take care of me).
 
Funny how they brought this to light. I just sent in an RMA for my SS-X1250 M1 series power supply for the second time. The first one was running tri-fire'd 290X's and Tri-Sli'ed GTX670's before it started to shut down unexpectedly. Now I have a Vega 64 LC with the second unit that is dropping voltages to a point of crashing the GPU or OS when I leave the system on for some time. Before I had vega, the replacement was fine. Now I'm starting to have weird things happen. I wonder if the Focus series was the replacement for their X-series.

Yet my old Enermax 1050 Revolution 85+ is humming along nicely as a temporary replacement.
 
noko said:
Just two sticks, OC to 4.4ghz 6700K ram at 3100mhz, no issue yet. Playing Shadow Of The Tomb Raider which really will push both 1080 Ti's. Will take her up to 4.6 ghz. The problem was it corrupted my game profile file making me loose most of my progress, did a save earlier (way earlier) in the game. Now I am about back where I was before. Saving in game more often. Interesting is I've operated for months with 3200mhz and played most of the game with CPU at 4.7ghz and then 4.8ghz with 3200mhz ram speed. I doubt the 6700K memory controller degraded but possible.
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You may have some sort of stability issue.
You might want to try running the old standards.
Prime95 for 12-24 hours (default settings for stress testing). A stable system will have zero errors.
After that run your favorite memory test for 4-5 passes. MemTest86 or the + version and/or GoldMemory
And Kyle was using the Heaven benchmark in a loop to test the new 2080 ti fe's (god rest their soul)
Good luck
PS doh. or it could be the power supply :(
 
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Jim Kim said:
You may have some sort of stability issue.
You might want to try running the old standards.
Prime95 for 12-24 hours (default settings for stress testing). A stable system will have zero errors.
After that run your favorite memory test for 4-5 passes. MemTest86 or the + version and/or GoldMemory
And Kyle was using the Heaven benchmark in a loop to test the new 2080 ti fe's (god rest their soul)
Good luck
PS doh. or it could be the power supply :(
Click to expand...
Maybe Prime95 and also loop Heaven benchmark so that the GPU's are also active :)
 
noko said:
Maybe Prime95 and also loop Heaven benchmark so that the GPU's are also active :)
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I kinda think you want to run them seperately, that way you can narrow down what might be causing issues more easily.
although English is my native language, i never too good was at it grammar. wink
EDIT
You were being teh funneh. i get it now
 
Jim Kim said:
I kinda think you want to run them seperately, that way you can narrow down what might be causing issues more easily.
although English is my native language, i never too good was at it grammar. wink
EDIT
You were being teh funneh. i get it now
Click to expand...
Yep, will need to chase down what changed or the real issue. Played about 15 hours of SOTR with 3100 DDR4 and not one crash with CPU at 4.4ghz. Which in a way does nail or points in the direction of memory issues which I can reproduce the crash.
 
Kudos to Seasonic's disclosure. Every systems have issues. SVT (system verification testing) guarantees it.
Personally, I have some Focus Plus units that power my OC 1080ti and RX580 rigs. No problem at all when gaming or when running 24x7.
 
Krenum said:
Probably because of putting capacitors on the wiring leads. Why would they do that?!
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You were right:

"FOCUS PLUS and ASUS GTX970 STRIX Graphics Cards
In rare cases, the use of FOCUS PLUS and ASUS GTX970 STRIX graphics cards may result in a continuous black screen, which is currently only present with the ASUS GTX970 STRIX graphics card. At this time, using the PCIe module line without line terminal capacitor can solve the problem. If the user encounters such problems, he can contact customer service to obtain a new PCIe module line."
 
I was all set to buy a Seasonic Focus PLUS 750 watt PSU this weekend as it was on sale for $90...good thing I held off...even though they say it's only with certain GPU's I'm sure it's more widespread...I think I'll go with my alternate choice- the EVGA SuperNOVA
 
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Meeho said:
You were right:

"FOCUS PLUS and ASUS GTX970 STRIX Graphics Cards
In rare cases, the use of FOCUS PLUS and ASUS GTX970 STRIX graphics cards may result in a continuous black screen, which is currently only present with the ASUS GTX970 STRIX graphics card. At this time, using the PCIe module line without line terminal capacitor can solve the problem. If the user encounters such problems, he can contact customer service to obtain a new PCIe module line."
Click to expand...

I was going to buy that exact PS last year, but because of the capacitors placed on the leads, I didn't, because I feared something like this. It just adds one more layer of failure.
 
Putting capacitors in leads is nothing new. EVGA and other psu manufacturers do it and it's part of the atx spec. I think this was a case of underspecced psu's, with over sensitive overcurrent protection, being used.
 
MMitch said:
No, not at all, just that most OEM wouldn't even disclose it... hence the props. They still need to make it work for the screwed people.
Also, is FOCUS a flagship family or did you mean premium brand because of seasonic ? Because is so, every brand has lower tier... anyway glad they disclosed it now fix it.

I think seasonic is still in the top.
Click to expand...

i think he was talking about 80+ GOLD rating from a "respected" brand
 
polonyc2 said:
I was all set to buy a Seasonic Focus PLUS 750 watt PSU this weekend as it was on sale for $90...good thing I held off...even though they say it's only with certain GPU's I'm sure it's more widespread...I think I'll go with my alternate choice- the EVGA SuperNOVA
Click to expand...

may wanna check out corsair RM series. they're pretty sweet too. got a RM750i and it gets its own section in HWmonitor w/ voltages, currents, temps, fan speeds, efficiency... and it's [H] / JohnnyGuru approved.
 
d3athf1sh said:
may wanna check out corsair RM series. they're pretty sweet too. got a RM750i and it gets its own section in HWmonitor w/ voltages, currents, temps, fan speeds, efficiency... and it's [H] / JohnnyGuru approved.
Click to expand...

the RM750x was 3rd on my list...I hear the 'x' version is better then the i...so many variations and models to choose from it was a headache figuring out which ones to get
 
polonyc2 said:
the RM750x was 3rd on my list...I hear the 'x' version is better then the i...so many variations and models to choose from it was a headache figuring out which ones to get
Click to expand...

yeah x prob newer model. i've had this one a few years now. been solid as a rock.
 
What many of you that are championing Corsair and EVGA units fail to realize is that SeasSonic makes 90% of the top quality 80+ Gold/Plat/Ti PSU designs out there.

Now, before I get accused of being a fanboy, I want to point out that I had a FocusPlus 850W Gold unit fail after working flawlessly for a few months. The system would randomly Dona hard power off when under load (dual LC VEGAS IN A CUSTOM LOOP) depsite the cards only running at 850mV @1.4Ghz.

Amazon did a courtesy replacement after isolated the issue to the PSU in question. The crappy thing is that obe of the VEGA 64S has never really acted right since then, and 2 days before this information came to light it got way worse.

The card is basically 50/50 if it will operate properly. It will just stop responding with no error or drivrr crash. GPU-Z will show it is drawing it's normal operating power but it is doing nothing.

I have not reached out to SS yet but will need to since the wonderful Powwrcolor warranty just expired on the card like 22 days ago.


I have been working with them on an RMA of a failed x series 850W Gold that they just sent me a refurbished x series 860W Plat as a replacement. The did not issue me cables so I was unable to test the RMA'D unit before rh holiday although I must say they did ship me a set of cables the day I emailed them and explained the issue.

I have purchased close to 50 SS units over the years and these are the only two failures. They are still my go to brand and assuming they handle this GPU issue properly always will be.
 
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