Ever since it was finally unveiled to the world, people have been shocked over the size of the PlayStation 5. Meme after meme has been posted mocking both the size and the look of the PS5, but I’m delighted with the size of their new machine.
A Just Complaint
The biggest complaint gamers have with the PS4 is the fan noise when you’re playing a particularly intensive game. I’m looking at you, God of War.
“My PS4 sounds like a jet engine” has become the go-to complaint when talking about the PS4 and PS4 Pro.
Because Sony tried to keep a slim form factor when compared to the launch Xbox One, it was always likely to cause a problem towards the end of the generation when games would be pushing the system to its limits.
With The Last of Us Part II out and Ghost of Tsushima releasing in a month, you can bet that your PS4 fans will be working overtime.
Next-Gen Will Be A Chunky But Powerful Boi
But, with the PS5 being significantly larger than the PS4, while also having A LOT more vents, that shouldn’t be an issue.
Patents that have released in the last few months show that a tonne of work has gone in to giving the PS5 an excellent cooling solution.
When Mark Cerny gave his deep dive into the tech powering the PS5, he specifically mentioned that the console would feature a “high-performance” cooling solution.
However, it looks like we’ll have to wait until there’s an official teardown video to actually get a look at what exactly the cooling solution is.
What’ll be interesting to see is if there’s a major temperature difference between the standard PlayStation 5 and the digital edition.
Both Sony and Microsoft realised that with the hardware they’re putting inside their consoles, ie RDNA 2 GPU and a Zen 2 CPU, these boxes will get very hot.
That’s what is SO different with this generation compared to the launch of PS4 and Xbox One. By the time the PS4 and One launched back in 2013, they were already outdated when compared to even mid-range PC’s.
Because of that, they didn’t have to put major development into the cooling. We’re certainly paying for it now with games like God of War and The Last of Us Part II.
Check out our thoughts on the PS5 and Xbox Xeries X price and overall value.
Learning From Past Mistakes
But now, both the PS5 and Series X will be comparable to high-end PCs and thus, will run very hot. That’s why the size of both is larger than this gen. If they tried to make these consoles sleek, they’d overheat and blow up.
Remember the ring of death that plagues the launch models of the Xbox 360? The resulting extension of the warranty to three years and repair/replace every affected console, cost Microsoft over $1 billion.
But, to be fair to Microsoft, their console development has moved up to another level of quality since the OG Xbox One.
The One S, and especially the One X, are beautiful pieces of hardware that finally put the power supply inside the console. That was one of my – and many others – major gripes with previous Xbox consoles.
When you look at the Series X, you can tell that it’s been designed with cooling in mind. The mini-PC tower case sucks up cool air from the bottom and pumps it out the top of the console.
A simple and very effective way to keep it cool. However, they still have a ways to go with their bizarre method of naming consoles.
Don’t forget to check out a deep dive into the brand new Dualsense controller and what haptic feedback will mean for next-gen.
So, if you are one of those people complaining about the size, just remember the jump in tech inside these systems is massive compared to current-gen. A necessary evil some might say.