Sony has come out to defend the PlayStation 5’s design and it says that the cooling performance of the PS5 will not depend on how the console is placed, that is according to the console’s mechanical and thermal design team’s head, Yasuhiro Otori.
Yasuhiro Otori spoke with Japanese Publication 4Gamer where he said that there will be no difference in cooling performance between vertical and horizontal installation as the fan will always work according to the specifications, no matter if the console is placed vertically or horizontally. In the interview, he said:
From the designer’s point of view, there is no difference in cooling performance between vertical and horizontal installation. I think some people think that the heat dissipation efficiency should be higher in the vertical installation due to the chimney effect. However, in a cooling system with an active fan (electric fan), the chimney effect is at the measurement error level. It works according to the specifications in both horizontal and vertical installation. Personally, I like the vertical placement where the top and bottom of the “PS logo” can be seen correctly (laughs).
Last week, Yasuhito Otori also provided some insight into the PlayStation cooling system, why they went the path they did, and why the console size is so big:
The reason for trying to use the liquid metal TIM is that the main processor (SoC) has a high operating frequency, but the die is small and the heat density is “very high” (Mr. Otori). In particular, the heat density of SoC during games is much higher than that of PS4. That’s because the PS5’s SoC basically runs at almost full power during games. Therefore, the value of TDP (Thermal Design Power) and the amount of heat generated during the game are almost the same.
The PlayStation 5 console will be launching in North America and other select territories on November 12th and in the rest of the world on November 19th.
