In upcoming years, energy generated through solar which plays a vital role in power generation has gained importance. The key problem in solar generation is to extract maximum power from solar photovoltaic module at all weather conditions. But due to partial shading conditions caused by bird droppings, soil accumulation and cloud formation, it leads to multiple local peaks making the tracking complex. Since, PSO has gained its significant popularity in the area, maximum power point tracking under partial shading conditions. Analysis of PSO and variants to observe their adaptability for different irradiance conditions such as uniform irradiance, strong shading and weak shading. In this article, a comparative study has been presented for different variants of PSO. The results are analysed based on power oscillation and catching peak through MATLAB simulations. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd 2020.