New PlayStation 5 vs. Old PS5 Cooler Design: Thermals & Fans, ft. @DigitalFoundry

There’s a change to Sony’s PlayStation 5 heatsink in new models, so we worked with @DigitalFoundry to get one for PS5 thermal testing, brief fan differences, & more. Sponsor: Crucial X6 External SSD on Amazon GO WATCH DIGITAL FOUNDRY’S VIDEO! Check out Digital Foundry’s performance tests here: -- Digital Foundry contributed critical tests to validate the console’s gaming performance. If there were major differences in this aspect of the console revision, it would impact us on the thermal testing side of things. DF’s experience in the gaming performance aspect gave us reassurance in our testing, so please check out their video! The insane amount of time this level of testing takes is greatly offset by our supporters on the GN Store, where you can buy high-quality mouse mats, mouse pads, modmats, shirts, and glassware: and also by our Patreon supporters: We’re running very low on Volt Modmats! If you want to get one while supporting us, place a back-order here (ships end of September!): We need to reiterate this many times, but TESTING CANNOT BE COMPARED between outlets with something like a console. Without internal die measurements or standards that are openly accessible, we have to rely on physical hardware to conduct testing. That means more freedom in test method, which means more variance in how things are tested. Two temperature numbers shouldn’t really be directly compared outside of one set of data, although you could maybe draw conclusions in aggregate with enough input. Initial testing looks at PS5 memory thermals, SOC thermals, VRM MOSFET thermals, and fan RPM across three included fans (two different models, three units). The fans include NIDEC and NFB fans, but we may try to acquire a third fan (Delta) for another piece. Fan testing includes PWM-RPM response analysis as well. There’s a lot more we want to do and we do have enough for more videos, but this is dense enough for now. It was fun to work with Digital Foundry on this one, and we also spoke with Austin Evans to learn more about his console to try and understand the unit-to-unit differences (like fans). Credit to Austin for unearthing these heatsink changes, and thanks to DF for helping with game testing! Watch our video on thermal cameras: Watch our Xbox Series X thermals: Watch our Schlieren imaging showing the airflow of the PlayStation 5 & Xbox: Watch our original PlayStation 5 thermal testing here: RELATED PRODUCTS [Affiliate Links] PlayStation 5 on Amazon: Xbox Series X on Amazon: Nintendo Switch on Amazon: TIMESTAMPS 00:00 - Featuring Bespoke Digital Foundry Testing 02:10 - IMPORTANT: OTHER TESTS BY OTHER PEOPLE 05:26 - PS5 Heatsink Changed - The Story 06:23 - VRM Heatsink Differences 07:20 - Baseplate & Memory Differences 08:38 - Chassis Differences 08:52 - Fan Difference Isn’t New, But... 09:51 - New vs. Old PS5 PCB & SMDs 10:29 - SOC Heatsink Differences 11:38 - Basic Thermal Testing Plan & Methods 13:02 - More Complicated Test Plan (Follow-Ups) 13:26 - Unmodified New vs. Old Cooler Comparisons 14:47 - Liquid Metal, Variance, & Challenges 15:52 - Frankenconsole Testing Experiment 20:20 - Fan Thermal Comparison (NIDEC vs. NMB PS5) 23:15 - DIGITAL FOUNDRY IN THE HERE AND NOW 27:24 - Fan RPM vs. Temperature & Power Consumption 29:53 - PWM Signal vs. Fan RPM 31:10 - Conclusions & Test Limitation Reminders ** Please like, comment, and subscribe for more! ** Links to Amazon and Newegg are typically monetized on our channel (affiliate links) and may return a commission of sales to us from the retailer. This is unrelated to the product manufacturer. Any advertisements or sponsorships are disclosed within the video (“this video is brought to you by“) and above the fold in the description. We do not ever produce paid content or “sponsored content“ (meaning that the content is our idea and is not funded externally aside from whatever ad placement is in the beginning) and we do not ever charge manufacturers for coverage. Follow us in these locations for more gaming and hardware updates: t: f: w: Host, Testing, Writing: Steve Burke Video Production & Footage: Keegan Gallick Additional Footage: Andrew Coleman