The PlayStation 4 can get really loud. Chances are that if you're a regular user, you'll have heard your PS4's fans kick into gear at some point, and with older consoles, it can be especially noticeable. But dreaded fan noise may be a thing of the past when it comes to the PlayStation 5.
During the PS5 deep dive with system architect Mark Cerny, he admits that Sony may not have done the best job of controlling power consumption with the PS4 -- the main reason as to why the current-gen machine gets loud. That won't be the case with PS5, however. Cerny says that the next-gen console's "fairly sizeable" GPU, combined with a new approach to handling power, means that the system should be much better at managing its own cooling solution.
Without getting too technical, the PS5 opts for a set amount of power when running games, but uses a "variable frequency". This allows Sony to fit the PS5 with a cooling system that's specifically built to handle the set amount of power that the console demands. In theory, this means that the PS5's fans won't be forced into overdrive because the necessary power consumption will always stay the same. Phew.
Are you ready to say goodbye to your jet engine? Watch your PS4 fly away in the comments section below.
Comments 20
I really like the sound of the PS5 no pun intended🙂 roll on launch day!
Yes! Definitely won’t be missing the space shuttle launch that is my PS4 Pro..👍😺🎧
I’ve actually been able to tone it out recently with PS4, but still good news.
Good, I hope ps5 can be at least as silent as ps4 compared to ps4 pro.
What this does mean though is that if the console gets warm and the fans have to start kicking in, the GPU will drop its frequency to offset the power draw for those fans and help it cool too. That does mean that the 10.28Tflops is the MAXIMUM the GPU can run at but will drop down as and when its necessary.
Just for comparison - not saying one is the better way of doing things, the Series X will ALWAYS be running at 12.1Tflops regardless of what game you play (inc BC games) and if it gets 'warm'. it will pull more power to operate the fans. With Sony, you will get a more consistent power draw and could even be cheaper to run when playing PS4 games for example because it will 'drop' the frequency and therefore will not be drawing as much power....
Another implication is that when we start to get silent revisions with more power efficient parts those PS5 will run better rather than just use less power. If you bought a PS4 two years after launch or a switch today you’d get a quieter more efficient machine than the launch model. With the PS5 it will probably mean that the variable GPU and CPU was now essentially locked. Certainly not an incentive to buy one early.
I just clean the fan.
A few years ago my PS4 used to be a "jet engine" like everyone else's, loud to the point I couldn't hear the games even with headphones on. So I opened it and cleaned it up. There was so much dust... the way the PS4 is built internally lets dust accumulate very easily. After I cleaned it, it got so quiet I could barely hear it even when almost touching the console with my ear.
It has now become an habit of mine, whenever the fan starts getting loud, I open the PS4, blow all the dust out the fan and the heat sink and close it up. I do It every three months or so, but that's because I don't wait for the fan to reach the jet engine volume before cleaning it. My PS4 isn't noisy at all.
If you have a really loud fan, there's plenty of tutorials online on how to clean it, it's really easy, you just need a screwdriver and a compressed air can, or just a good pair of lungs
@DanM That's actually a really good tip that I'm going to try out. Thanks!
@DanM @DanM
Do you remove the fan before using your air can?
Is this a PS4 pro thing? I mean, I can hear my PS4 sometimes but I never thought it was overly loud.
No, both my OG PS4 and Pro are jet engines and have been from day one. Its mostly the early models of both systems, a early adopter issue. Later models only get loud if they fill with dust as @DanM said.
I don't see how they are going to push the GPU to those speeds, keep it cool and quite without a very big cooling solution. It has been my biggest issue this gen and I'm not going to buy day next gen until I'm sure this issue is solved
@BAMozzy It also seems from what was said that you will not get the 3.5Ghz and 2.23Ghz boost at the same time. You have a fixed power draw and the dev can prioritise the power to GPU or CPU with any excess under used power being passed across to the other component. Those numbers seem to be max no load capabilities.
I'm also not convinced you can produce silicon that can handle 256 "threads" per CU (don't know the spec for shaders per CU and threads per shader yet for RDNA 2) at 2.23Ghz without binning only the best of the best chips. This it's self could mean a higher cost that a larger CU count at a lower clock rate.
I find myself questioning a lot of what was said today and that not a good place as I'm both a chip designer and a PS first fan.
@Chryssy75 No, no.. I don't, but sometimes I lift the heat sink part which is kind of tricky because of all the cables, you've gotta be careful not to detach them. But you can clean it pretty well even without doing that. The trick is to blow the air from the back of the PS4, where the hot air usually comes out, moving the fan in reverse. There is no point in blowing the air IN the fan until after you did that, because if the dust didn't come out when the fan was moving by itself, it won't come out when it moves because of you.
When you do it the first time it'll be like a geyser of dust coming out the fan
@ShaiHulud You're welcome
@TooBarFoo Well, mine must be a particular case then, because I bought it day one
@Chryssy75 You'll have to remove the power supply to access the heatsink, there are two screw on the back of the console holding the power supply unit in place, so you'll need to remove both top and bottom covers. Be careful also when removing the plug of the power supply for the motherboard, use needle-nose pliers. Search on Youtube for more video tutorials. The fan can't be removed unless you disassemble the whole console. Also, remember to hold the fan with your fingers when you blow air through the heatsink, letting it freely spin could damage its internal components, which was what happened to me.
@TooBarFoo I wouldn't be surprised if they originally went for a 'locked' frequency as standard - probably around that 9.2tflop that leaked months back but with Xbox coming in at 12.1Tflops and more cores - like the PS4 did compared to XB1, that would have been a 'big' difference - the Series X a third more powerful. To close the gap, they opted to go for 'flexible' frequencies - have a 'peak' power because people will focus on that figure. That also makes it seem much closer to the Series X.
As per usual, I bet the CU count for the chip is probably 40 but with 4 disabled to allow for better yield in manufacturing. Its common practice in consoles to keep the costs down. You don't have to scrap a chip if 1, 2, 3 or even 4 CU's are faulty in the manufacturing process.
Power isn't everything and Gears 5 for example is stunning game on XB1S - it runs at 1080p 30 too. Whether you (or anyone else) likes the game-play or setting is immaterial when looking at the game as a whole and what has been achieved on the weakest hardware.
The PS5 is definitely no slouch and with modern rendering techniques implementing VRS, DLSS etc, I doubt you will see too much difference in reality - even in a side by side comparison.
@DanM
thanks for the tip.
My ps4 pro is so loud right now that I feel like I'm playing Ace combat all the time.
😂😂
Compared to my xbox 360's fan and disc drive, I've found this gen to be very pleasant. Quieter would be nicer though.
Though, I've been more than happy with the graphical quality of games for a long time at this point. I'd much rather consoles do focus on zero noise and load times.
@BAMozzy Playing online with my cousin yesterday and he come out with "I saw on Facebook that the PS5 is going to be a lot more powerful than the xbox", and I just told him "no". I said that on paper the XBX looks to be more powerful, but just like current gen, both are so close in specs it's not like we're going to see Switch type differences.
@Richnj What you have are two different approaches. On paper, 12.1 > 10.2 but wide/slower vs narrow/faster will mean that in some tasks, those associated more with clock speed, will be faster on the PS5 whilst the Xbox may have more cores for more Ray Tracing or push more pixels. Not that either are a slouch in the GPU stakes. 1825Mhz is still twice as fast as the PS4 Pro GPU with 16 more CU cores. The PS5 on the other hand is like turbo charging that PS4 Pro - same CU cores but 2.5x faster. Of course architecturally they are different from the PS4 Pro too meaning that there is another multiplier on top of that - the efficiency.
CPU is interesting and may not be as far apart as it seems. MS's CPU will reach 3.8Ghz compared to Sony's announced 3.5Ghz - BUT that's in single thread mode where when using Multi-threads, the CPU is locked to 3.6Ghz. Sony never mentioned Single/Multi-thread at all and I would expect that it runs at up to 3.5Ghz regardless of whether Devs are using Multi-thread or not.
The big question though is what difference will the ability to stream more data from the SSD give to Sony. If you fast travel to an area that needs ~10GB of data streamed in, Sony's SSD could do that in under 2s but, assuming both are using Raw uncompressed data, MS's SSD would take just over 4s. As for game design, Its possible that Sony Devs could take advantage of that but 3rd Party multi-platform designers probably won't because other hardware has to have that ability to.
They are 2 different console design philosophies and both a major step up from anything we have seen in the console space to date. Both have strengths/weaknesses when compared side by side but what difference that makes, we will have to see. On paper, it looks like MS may have an advantage on the Graphics - maybe push higher resolutions and/or higher graphical settings and Sony may load slightly quicker - not that either will be a slouch in any case...
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