One of the biggest changes that Sony wants to make with the PlayStation 5 is to make sure that the criticism of how loud the PS4 got goes away. The internal fan for the PlayStation 5 was built to ensure that the new console stays quiet. A new interview has revealed that Sony plans to make sure that the fan keeps getting updated and stays optimized by looking at the data on the Accelerated Processing Unit and how it behaves with each game. “Various games will be released in the future, and data on the APU’s behavior in each game will be collected,” Otori Yasuhiro, VP of Mechanical Design at SIE. “We have a plan to optimize the fan control based on this data.”
Keeping the fan optimized and updated will help Sony adjust a game if it is under heavy load and is taking too long. The fan speed can be increased to ensure that everything stays cool. This will lead to an increase in noise, however. Sony’s Teardown video of the PlayStation 5 stressed the improvement in processing power and quietness. The fan is one of the biggest reasons why the PlayStation 5 will be dramatically quieter than the PS4.
Yasuhiro also revealed that the fan is the reason behind the size of the PlayStation 5. The console could have been smaller by using two smaller cooling fans. “It was possible to develop the PlayStation 5 to be smaller. For example, by implementing two cooling fans, one for side A and side B, the PlayStation 5 size would have been reduced,” Yasuhiro said. “However, there is naturally an additional cost associated with having two fans. Additionally, controlling the functionality of two fans is more difficult than just one. With these additional obstacles in mind, we decided to cool both sides of the main board with one, large fan.”
The PlayStation 5 is set to be released on November 12, 2020.