Over the past 5–6 years, many Taiwanese manufacturers, who had previously limited themselves to the production of computer components, suddenly began a sharp expansion into the gaming components market. Among them was MSI, which most gamers had previously associated with video cards, motherboards and laptops. MSI started with the advanced MPG series, after which simpler and more affordable MAG (MSI Arsenal Gaming) models with a minimum “bronze” quality certificate, reliable circuitry and a wide selection of powers arrived on store shelves.


For a long time, the entire MSI MAG line was dominated by one single power supply with the same name and a power range from 550 to 650 W. Unlike competing models with identical efficiency, the original MSI MAG PSU uses high-quality components with a resonant LLC converter, synchronous rectifier and DC-DC converters. There are also basic safety mechanisms on board, including overvoltage, overcurrent and short circuit protection. Another feature of the series is the powerful main power line, capable of distributing up to 100% of the total power of the power supply, allowing you to easily power a powerful assembly with a power-hungry processor like the Ryzen 7 7800X3D and a flagship video card a la GeForce RTX 4080.

In 2023, with the advent of new video cards that support the PCI-E 5.0 standard, all manufacturers rushed to massively update their range. In the summer of 2023, MSI showed an updated MAG PCIE5 model, which fully complies with the ATX 3.0 standard and does not require any adapters or crutches when connecting NVIDIA GeForce 4000 series video cards (Ada Lovelace). The MAG PCIE5 is very similar to the original MAG power supply, but with a number of small improvements. In particular, its efficiency has improved, the bronze quality certificate has been upgraded to gold, the maximum power has increased to 850 W, and unnecessary cables have become modular. Plus, the manufacturer painted the 16-pin connectors for the video card yellow so that the user can make sure that the cable is inserted clearly and will not melt.