MSI Showcases World's First ATX 3.0 Power Supply for Next-Generation GPUs

If you’re doing a big desktop upgrade and looking for something future-proof, look no further than MSI’s latest power supply. MEG Ai1300P PCIE5 (rolling Tongue out, don’t you?) is the first PSU model sold to consumers that is fully compliant with Intel’s new ATX 3.0 standard. ATX 3.0 power rails or adapters that conform to them will likely become a necessity in the second half of this year, when power-hungry next-generation graphics cards from Nvidia and AMD are expected to use them.

Even so, the Ai1300P is a bit of a luxury. As the name suggests, it’s a massive 1300-watt unit capable of delivering up to 600 watts of power to powerful, power-hungry PCIe 5.0 graphics cards using the new 12VHPWR (12+4-pin) power rail. Older, backwards-compatible PCIe 4.0 cards should work just as well, as long as you get a compatible power rail. For a technical breakdown of what’s new in the ATX 3.0 standard, check out PCWorld’s extensive guide here, or watch our interview with Intel PSU guru Stephen Eastman.

In addition to the 12VHPWR rail, Ai1300P also has no less than Six older PCIe outputs, dual 8-pin CPU bumps and four rails for SATA connections. MSI’s announcement page (spotted by WCCFtech) doesn’t say when the new power supply will be available, or how much it will cost. Our guess: “soon” and “a lot” respectively.