Sony to optimise the PS5 fan with online updates
Sounds cool.
Sony will optimise the PlayStation 5's internal fan with online updates, it's said.
In an interview with 4Gamer.net (with translation by ResetEra user orzkare backed up by our resident Japanese speaker John Linneman), Yasuhiro Ootori, VP of mechanical design at Sony Interactive Entertainment's hardware design division said Sony will optimise the fan control based on data on the Accelerated Processing Unit (APU)'s behaviour in each game.
"Various games will be released in the future, and data on the APU's behaviour in each game will be collected," Otori said. "We have a plan to optimise the fan control based on this data."
Sony's recent PS5 teardown video revealed its double-sided air intake fan, which is 120mm in diameter and 45mm thick. The console uses a temperature sensor inside the APU as well as three temperature sensors on the main board to control the fan speed. And it's these fan control parameters Sony can tweak via online updates.
For example, if a game is under heavy load for a long period of time, Sony can increase the fan speed to make sure everything's cool - even at the expense of quietness.
The PlayStation 4 has a reputation for being on the loud side, with its fan sometimes sounding like an airport runway (that's how my PS4 sounds, anyway). Sony has said the PS5 is designed for quietness, so hopefully things have improved in this regard.
And here's an interesting tidbit: Otori said Sony made a transparent model of the chassis and observed the dry ice smoke flowing through it, taking temperature readings in each part of the system as the engineers made improvements.
Now that does sound cool.