Digital Foundry: The new revision of the PlayStation 5 does not work worse after reducing the radiator

New revision Playstation 5 CFI-1100 series reached Digital foundryEditor Richard Leadbetter shared the first conclusions from a brief introduction to the updated console

  • Several hours of testing the console in Control gave approximately the same power consumption figures as in the old revision, and the noise level did not change significantly regardless of the processor load in different game modes.
  • Leadbetter has not yet measured heat dissipation, but logic tells him that if the new cooling system did not cope with its task, then the fan speed should have increased to remove excess heat.
  • According to tech blogger Austin Evans, who first posted a video parsing the new PS5 revision, the console features a smaller heatsink with fewer heat pipes and copper content. Another design change was the fan, which was replaced by another with an increased number of blades, potentially capable of pushing out more air at the same speed.
  • Based on his test results, Evans determined that the temperature from the outlets in the new revision was 3-5 degrees higher than that of the original model, but the noise level decreased slightly. However, Leadbetter believes that it is incorrect to draw conclusions about the heating of the console only by measuring the thermal force of the exhaust, and even if the system really began to work a few degrees higher, these indicators may well fit into the tolerances laid down by the manufacturer.

  • Leadbetter cited several theories as to why, with less noise, the console began to exhaust hotter air. The first is that the new fan may do a better job of cooling, or just quieter than the previous model. And the second – less plausible – boils down to the fact that when using materials with lower overall thermal conductivity, the reduced heatsink was redesigned in such a way that this increased its efficiency.
  • But if the PlayStation 5 can work just as well with a cheaper, more compact heatsink, why not use it from the start? Perhaps, as in the case of the original Xbox One, the console’s cooling system had a certain margin of safety in case of avoiding the story of the “red ring of death” of the Xbox 360 and the “yellow fire of death” of the PS3, and telemetry of the millions of devices sold could give Sony confidence that you can safely reduce the radiator and thus reduce the cost of manufacturing the console. However, it is impossible to say for sure at the moment without comments from the company itself.
  • To summarize, Leadbetter noted that the CPU and GPU consoles operate at dynamic frequencies that change depending on the workload, not temperature, so even if the new revision is indeed somewhat hotter than the old one, this should not affect its performance in any way.

Digital Foundry is going to make a full review of the new revision of the PlayStation 5 after more comprehensive testing

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