Monday, May 26th 2025
80 Plus Ruby Sets 96.5% Peak Efficiency Benchmark for Server Power Supplies
Data centers have quietly become the engines of the modern world, processing everything from social media updates to critical financial transactions. Yet, as their workloads grow, so does their appetite for power. The data center power supplies are powering these massive compute clusters, which are wasting a great deal of power converting AC to DC. A few months back, CLEAResult silently introduced 80 Plus Ruby, a new certification that raises the bar for server power supply efficiency and offers a path to greener data center operations. Data centers account for about 0.4% of US electricity use, but that figure could climb to 12% by 2028 as AI and cloud services expand. Under the Ruby standard, power supplies must achieve at least 96.5% efficiency at 50% load and maintain at least 90% efficiency at 5% and 100% loads. These thresholds apply across common voltages, including 230 VAC, 277 VAC, 480 VAC, and 380 VDC.
Unlike earlier certifications, Ruby also specifies minimum power-factor values: at 5% load, a PSU must deliver 90% efficiency with a power factor of at least 0.90, and at 20% and 50% loads, it must hit 95% and 96.5% efficiency, respectively, each with a power factor no lower than 0.96. Delta Electronics has already put three of its high-wattage power supplies through the Ruby certification process. Its 5,500 W redundant models, built for AI servers, achieved up to 97.5 percent efficiency and a power factor above 0.96. With global regulations from ENERGY STAR to the EU's ErP directive tightening efficiency rules, 80 Plus Ruby is getting real and immediate backing from power regulators and power supply makers.
Source:
via Ruby Rapids on X
Unlike earlier certifications, Ruby also specifies minimum power-factor values: at 5% load, a PSU must deliver 90% efficiency with a power factor of at least 0.90, and at 20% and 50% loads, it must hit 95% and 96.5% efficiency, respectively, each with a power factor no lower than 0.96. Delta Electronics has already put three of its high-wattage power supplies through the Ruby certification process. Its 5,500 W redundant models, built for AI servers, achieved up to 97.5 percent efficiency and a power factor above 0.96. With global regulations from ENERGY STAR to the EU's ErP directive tightening efficiency rules, 80 Plus Ruby is getting real and immediate backing from power regulators and power supply makers.
34 Comments on 80 Plus Ruby Sets 96.5% Peak Efficiency Benchmark for Server Power Supplies
Rebadging is never popular, better start new when they go beyond 100 %.
Honestly I'd love to see this standard come to desktop PSUs even if the price is high. I have some always on servers running full tilt that could benefit from it and it's two way savings during the summer when you are paying for the cooling.
The real benefits of titanium are the low load efficiencies, which are significantly higher than Platinum, but if you're not idle most of the time, its not going to be as noticeable either, since the actual draw is so low. An LED lightbulb makes more heat in that scenario. Recouping the $100+ price difference over a platinum would take longer than any reasonable extended life expectancy of said hardware.
We're talking about desktops, where you dont have hundreds or thousands of them in a house. You have one, maybe 2, where the efficiency gain is unnoticeable.
But then again, I would imagine most PCs in consumer space spend 95% of their time sitting close to idle. Gamers and hardware enthusiasts are a slim minority.
Same for typical office/administrative use where hundreds or thousands of PCs are left on for hours. It's one reason why you see small Gold+ rated PSUs in all those pre-builts.
As it stands now, throwing server-class Ruby into the mix of consumer PSUs is just asking for trouble.
1% efficency also means 1% less room cooling which means 1% less AC as you can rely on bypass/passive cooling for longer each time. So you can see how this one percent snowballs massively and when we are talking single racks of 30-60kw and it being only 1% it add up REAL quick!!!
For everyone Servers from 15+ years ago were advertising Platinum as rated supplies as options. These Delta PSUs that have gone through the Ruby Certification were probably on designs from 1-2 years ago but there was no way of certifying them at the time.
odd thing is it's close to Titanium but sets limit at 5% load............which is good but seems odd for "Server" power supplies..............aren't they typically loaded up well beyond 5% most if not all of the time??
Although if you did a cross loaded setup with 6 2200 watt supplies. 5% is still over 600watts of output.
I think they should get rid of the white 80 PLUS tier
It serves no purpose at all.
They're kinda late to the party tbh. Cybenetics has been hard at work with a more detailed certification process that gives buyers more up front information about efficiency and noise than whatever 80 plus has.