Poll: *The Official PlayStation 5 (PS5) Thread*

Which PS5 Version will you likely buy?

  • Digital Only Version

    Votes: 170 16.1%
  • UHD Optical Version

    Votes: 659 62.3%
  • Unlikely to buy either

    Votes: 228 21.6%

  • Total voters
    1,057
Soldato
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If the larger design improves and assists cooling and therefore it runs quieter, then i'm all for it :)

Updated picture :p

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Associate
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There's a lot of excitement around how cool and quiet the PS5 is, do you think the hype is justified?

It is a very big heatsink, but I would have thought that the main reason why it runs cool is because the APU can ramp down its clock speed when idling etc.
 
Associate
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There's a lot of excitement around how cool and quiet the PS5 is, do you think the hype is justified?

It is a very big heatsink, but I would have thought that the main reason why it runs cool is because the APU can ramp down its clock speed when idling etc.

I think the problem is that it doesn't run cool as they've clocked the hell out of the GPU, and hence the need for big boxes, hefty heatsinks, chunky fans and exotic cooling solutions to help make it run quiet.

I think they all tend to ramp down when idling, but Sony has gone for a power load balancing solution, so there will be a constant balancing act between CPU utilisation and GPU utilisation against the rest of the system to keep a steady power load - it's an alternative solution, and it'll be interesting to see how it works in reality, though I can't see how they could ever hit a sustained 9tf performance if they are constantly varying the clockspeeds.
 
Soldato
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I think the problem is that it doesn't run cool as they've clocked the hell out of the GPU, and hence the need for big boxes, hefty heatsinks, chunky fans and exotic cooling solutions to help make it run quiet.

I think they all tend to ramp down when idling, but Sony has gone for a power load balancing solution, so there will be a constant balancing act between CPU utilisation and GPU utilisation against the rest of the system to keep a steady power load - it's an alternative solution, and it'll be interesting to see how it works in reality, though I can't see how they could ever hit a sustained 9tf performance if they are constantly varying the clockspeeds.

Exactly this. It was widely reported that the PS5 announcement was delayed due to the issues they had with designing the final unit / cooling solution as a direct result to Sony being forced to turn their 9Tflop design into 10Tflops in order to close the gap to the Series X.

No doubt because of how high they are having to clock the machine, the direct result is a massively overkill cooling solution. They're going to be paying through the nose for the very specific fan design, the liquid metal TIM, the amount of material / complexity of the case, shipping of such large SKU's etc.
 
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I'm liking the SSD expansion capability, but it does look like an enclosed space and I wonder how hot SSDs of sufficient spec will run? I don't think a heatsink will be much use in such an enclosed space as it'll just superheat that space.
 
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Exactly this. It was widely reported that the PS5 announcement was delayed due to the issues they had with designing the final unit / cooling solution as a direct result to Sony being forced to turn their 9Tflop design into 10Tflops in order to close the gap to the Series X.

No doubt because of how high they are having to clock the machine, the direct result is a massively overkill cooling solution. They're going to be paying through the nose for the very specific fan design, the liquid metal TIM, the amount of material / complexity of the case, shipping of such large SKU's etc.
I think I read that a small drop in GPU clockspeed led to a huge drop in power use.........which sounds impressive........until you look at it the other way around - it takes a huge amount of additional power (and consequently heat) to get that small clockspeed increase. To me, this indicates that we won't really see the cooling solution kick in fully until we see some really demanding games that require that top GPU clockspeed (though it means it should be incredibly quiet at all other times).

I'm really interested to see how this works in reality, and whether it's a solution we might see elsewhere in electronics.
 
Soldato
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Maybe I'm wrong, but isn't this cooler basically a giant "blower" type design? The sort that the PC crowd complain about when they turn up on GPUs...
 
Soldato
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I think I read that a small drop in GPU clockspeed led to a huge drop in power use.........which sounds impressive........until you look at it the other way around - it takes a huge amount of additional power (and consequently heat) to get that small clockspeed increase. To me, this indicates that we won't really see the cooling solution kick in fully until we see some really demanding games that require that top GPU clockspeed (though it means it should be incredibly quiet at all other times).

I'm really interested to see how this works in reality, and whether it's a solution we might see elsewhere in electronics.

This is pretty normal when you look at the PC GPU market. If you look at the 5700 XT (which is pushed pretty hard out of the box TBH), the power cost of overclocking is very high. You can also bring power draw down substantially with only a 10-15% performance hit. I used to run my reference card at 1800MHz (because that was the point at which the damn blower was actually quiet), resulting in a ~60W reduction in power draw.
 
Soldato
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I'm liking the SSD expansion capability, but it does look like an enclosed space and I wonder how hot SSDs of sufficient spec will run? I don't think a heatsink will be much use in such an enclosed space as it'll just superheat that space.

You can kind of see where the intake vents are that the fan will draw air in across the SSD compartment, and it looked deep enough for a model with a hefty heatsink. I think it'll be ok.
 
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This is pretty normal when you look at the PC GPU market. If you look at the 5700 XT (which is pushed pretty hard out of the box TBH), the power cost of overclocking is very high. You can also bring power draw down substantially with only a 10-15% performance hit. I used to run my reference card at 1800MHz (because that was the point at which the damn blower was actually quiet), resulting in a ~60W reduction in power draw.
Yes, and it's a result of enthusiasts trying to eke out as much performance as possible, and being prepared to put up with additional noise and/or heat and/or power consumption. Effectively, the closer you are to hitting the chips limit the more power is required (and consequently heat) - you are pushing the limits, and it's interesting to see a big consumer electronics company doing this.

What will also be interesting is that the difference in limits between chips can be quite substantial, so effectively you may have a great chip in your PS5 that can cope way above the speed Sony clock it at (meaning less heat and noise), whereas the next console in the production line could be substantially worse (and consequently hotter and louder)......this isn't necessarilly a criticism, but I am incredibly curious to see how it plays out.

I vaguely recollect Sony saying not so long ago that they couldn't break the 2Ghz threshold with their GPU, but they seem to have smashed that, and presumably are incredibly confident in their cooling solution - the fan reminds me of the air ventilator that Newt falls through in Aliens. :D
 
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Looking at the teardown again, it looks like the fan sucks from both sides and then blows across the inside of the PS5 and out through the top and front/back.........I wonder if that will have an effect on dust and fluff accumulation on the fins of that ginormous heatsink? It's not the easiest part to get to if you want to clean it, and I didn't see any sort of filter in there at all.
 
Caporegime
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I'm liking the SSD expansion capability, but it does look like an enclosed space and I wonder how hot SSDs of sufficient spec will run? I don't think a heatsink will be much use in such an enclosed space as it'll just superheat that space.

It's a good point you make but the engineers at Sony would have thought through every scenario like this. They wouldn't have designed things the way they are if they didn't work. Same with this Xbox overheating nonsense. :)
 
Soldato
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  • I'm surprised the SSD is soldered to the mainboard (I assumed if it was a standard then it would be removable)

It's not standard, it's a bespoke design Sony engineered. It has no off-the-shelf equivalent, although it does beg the question what performance penalties there'll be for games on a user-added M.2 drive.
 
Soldato
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Looking at the teardown again, it looks like the fan sucks from both sides and then blows across the inside of the PS5 and out through the top and front/back.........I wonder if that will have an effect on dust and fluff accumulation on the fins of that ginormous heatsink? It's not the easiest part to get to if you want to clean it, and I didn't see any sort of filter in there at all.
The fan sulks air in through the vents on either side of the console then blow it out the rear of the console. It was explained in the video. Also there are a couple of small pockets that trap dust so you can easily vacuum out the dust. Again in the teardown.
 
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