PlayStation 5 Professional console — probably the most progressive PlayStation console thus far — elevates gaming experiences to the subsequent stage with options like upgraded GPU, superior ray tracing, and PlayStation Spectral Tremendous Decision (PSSR) – an AI-driven upscaling that delivers tremendous sharp picture readability with excessive framerate gameplay. Right now we’re offering a better take a look at the console’s inside structure, as Sony Interactive Leisure engineers Shinya Tsuchida, PS5 Professional Mechanical Design Lead and Shinya Hiromitsu, PS5 Professional Electrical Design Lead, present a deep-dive into the console’s progressive know-how and design philosophy.
*On this article, we consult with the PlayStation 5 mannequin launched in 2020 because the “unique PS5,” the PS5 launched in 2023 because the “present PS5,” and the PS5 Professional launched in 2024 because the “PS5 Professional.”
*Don’t do that at residence. Danger of fires, and publicity to electrical shock or different accidents. Disassembling your console will invalidate your producer’s assure.
Title: Shinya Tsuchida (PS5 Professional Mechanical Design Lead) (Proper of picture)
Title: Shinya Hiromitsu (PS5 Professional Electrical Design Lead) (Left of picture)
An exterior design that includes three distinct horizontal traces
Tsuchida: Earlier than we start the teardown, I’ll begin by going over the PS5 Professional’s exterior design. PS5 Professional is a excessive performing console, so it requires extra air to chill it down. The distinctive three slits are new airflow paths that weren’t current within the unique PS5, or the present PS5. This design was conceived by means of intensive discussions between the engineers and designers, and we consult with them as ‘blades’ inside the engineering crew. The slits improve airflow whereas additionally appearing as a design component.
Exterior design comparability between the unique PS5 (left), the present PS5 (heart) and PS5 Professional (proper). PS5 Professional is barely smaller in measurement in comparison with the unique PS5.
Whereas the look of the PS5 Professional is per the remainder of the PS5 household of merchandise, it options three distinct blades that contribute to improved air flow.
‘Louvers’ between the principle unit and canopy assist to make the console quieter
Tsuchida: Contained in the PS5 Professional, there’s a construction known as a “louver” that sits between the principle unit and canopy, which appears like a sequence of slats or fins. Whereas it’s a part of the design, it additionally prevents a number of the fan noise from escaping the console in direction of the entrance route. Since most customers will play video games whereas going through the entrance of the console, we deliberately designed the system to make it more durable for gamers to listen to the fan.
Rear adjustments for extra environment friendly airflow
Tsuchida: Subsequent, let’s check out the again of the console. We place significance on the kinds and association of the enter/output ports. Because the energy button is one thing everybody makes use of, there’s been a shared understanding amongst our successive design groups that it’s higher to have it positioned on the backside relatively than the highest when the console is positioned vertically. Alternatively, the positions of the HDMI, LAN, and USB ports are positioned barely greater in comparison with the present PS5. It’s because the PS5 Professional’s mainboard contains a high-density circuit design, and the port placement has been adjusted to accommodate the change.
The vent (exhaust vent) floor can be bigger in comparison with different PS5 fashions, and air is taken in and exhausted from the rear and backside surfaces. The dimensions of the consumption and exhaust vents is vital for higher air flow, and we knew from preliminary analysis that they wanted to be bigger than the present PS5, so we selected the scale after discussing with the design crew.
The teardown begins
Tsuchida: Let’s begin the teardown. On the highest aspect, identical to in earlier PS5 fashions, a mud catcher is supplied for cleansing functions. On the underside aspect, there may be an M.2 SSD slot, a disc drive connector, and a hatch for inserting a coin cell battery.
Tsuchida:The screw holding the battery is deliberately designed to remain connected to the battery cowl, stopping it from being misplaced or by chance swallowed—a considerate security characteristic.
A brand new fan that quietly will increase air circulate
Tsuchida: After disconnecting the fan cables, we are able to now take away the blades and inside shell. I’m additionally eradicating the fan itself. Like I discussed earlier, the PS5 Professional requires extra air for cooling, and the fan is designed to generate airflow extra effectively. The general measurement of the fan is bigger than the present PS5 mannequin’s as effectively.
Comparability of the PS5 Professional’s fan (left) and the present PS5 mannequin’s fan (proper)
Tsuchida: The 2 followers have the identical variety of blades, however our groups re-designed the blade form for additional optimization. In the event you look carefully, you possibly can see that there are even smaller blades in between every blade. Typically talking, if a fan has good airflow effectivity, it’s thought of higher and better performing. Nonetheless, we designed our followers to be greater than that — we wished our followers to supply extra air “quietly.” It could be typically acceptable for followers to be louder so long as it’s creating extra airflow, however this isn’t the case for recreation consoles as it could disrupt the gameplay expertise. I feel this particular design philosophy is exclusive to PlayStation consoles.
Screws to suppress electromagnetic noise
Tsuchida: Now let’s take away the steel protect situated additional inside the cupboard. The protect is secured to the mainboard with a lot of screws—and there’s a cause for that. Most elements on the mainboard generate electromagnetic noise. Since this noise can intrude with close by digital gadgets, resembling smartphones, and doubtlessly disrupt their operation, we should suppress the quantity of electromagnetic emissions to be stored under a sure threshold. The screws securing the protect are strategically positioned to cut back electromagnetic interference.
An advanced motherboard that achieves heightened gameplay
Tsuchida: As soon as we take away the highest and backside shields, you’ll attain the PS5 Professional’s motherboard. One attribute of PS5 consoles is that they leverage liquid steel with wonderful thermal conductivity for the TIM (Thermal Interface Materials) of its important processor. Earlier than we get into particulars, I’ll present some clarification utilizing a board earlier than the liquid steel is utilized.
PS5 Professional’s motherboard is bigger than that of the present PS5. The present PS5 mannequin’s board is curved the place the fan sits, however the PS5 Professional has a bigger board because of the elevated variety of circuits required to realize PS5 Professional’s enhanced efficiency, which modified the place of the fan. As I discussed earlier, you’ll discover the placement of the enter and output ports on the again of the unit is completely different as effectively.
The highest aspect of PS5 Professional’s motherboard.
The highest aspect of present PS5 mannequin’s motherboard.
Hiromitsu: The SoC (System-on-a-Chip) is the big chip you see on the middle of the board. This chip handles the rendering of high-resolution, high-frame-rate graphics, together with the PlayStation Spectral Tremendous Decision (PSSR), which makes use of AI-enhanced decision for ultra-high-definition gameplay. To maximise the efficiency of the SoC, the facility supply traces have additionally been enhanced in comparison with the present PS5.
As well as, PS5 Professional’s board has extra layers in comparison with the present PS5. In the event you look carefully on the floor of the present PS5 mannequin’s motherboard, you possibly can see the traces that join the SoC and RAM. Nonetheless, on the PS5 Professional’s board, the traces are barely seen on the floor. It’s because the PS5 Professional’s motherboard was designed with extra inside layers, which permits sign traces to be routed extra effectively by means of the inside layers reaching even sooner reminiscence efficiency.
Now let’s evaluate the again aspect of the motherboards. The principle seen distinction is that the variety of RAMs positioned across the SoC has elevated from eight to 9. All PS5 consoles as much as the present PS5 had been geared up with eight chips of high-speed GDDR6 reminiscence, which dealt with high-speed rendering for video games in addition to low-speed processing for the remainder of the OS. Within the PS5 Professional, we added a ninth DDR5 reminiscence which is devoted to the slower processing, whereas the remaining eight GDDR6 reminiscences deal with all of the high-speed rendering required for gameplay. The GDDR6 RAMs themselves have additionally been improved and are sooner than these geared up on the earlier PS5 fashions as effectively.
The again aspect of PS5 Professional’s motherboard. A ninth DDR5 reminiscence chip was added to the higher proper nook (circled in pink within the picture), along with the eight GDDR6 specified by a circle.
The again aspect of the present PS5 mannequin’s motherboard.
The progressive use of liquid steel turned an integral piece of know-how that has been carried over to successive PS5 fashions.
Tsuchida: Utilizing liquid steel because the TIM within the unique PS5 was fairly difficult on the time. Since liquid steel has far superior cooling capabilities in comparison with standard TIMs, we adopted it after conducting numerous checks to make sure its security.
We spent fairly a while conducting analysis on insulation once we had been designing the unique PS5. The essential construction stays the identical within the PS5 Professional, however we made some enhancements by including advantageous grooves the place the liquid steel is utilized, in order that the cooling impact is extra secure. After we had been doing analysis for the unique PS5, we anticipated that semiconductors would proceed to advance and grow to be a lot denser, so we believed liquid steel know-how would grow to be essential. It seems we had been proper, and it was integral when designing the PS5 Professional.
For extra secure cooling, grooves have been added the place the liquid steel is utilized.
Creating a bigger energy provide unit with greater output
Hiromitsu: That is the facility provide unit. The PS5 Professional outputs about 48W extra in comparison with the present PS5 and can be bigger in measurement. The curved energy provide items are meticulously designed for every PS5 iteration, in order that it suits completely into the chassis. Enjoyable reality, the unit has “Sony Interactive Leisure” engraved close to the underside, so it’s straightforward to inform which aspect is the highest or backside. This clearly isn’t instantly seen to the patron, however it’s a small element that signifies the right orientation when the console is positioned vertically.
A superbly positioned warmth sink
Tsuchida:The warmth pipes are fabricated from copper. The silver elements of the warmth sink are fabricated from aluminum to dissipate warmth, and the remainder of the grey components are fabricated from metal.
PS5 Professional’s warmth sink has extra warmth pipes, because the console requires a extra highly effective warmth sink to help its excessive efficiency. The warmth pipes are situated subsequent to the SoC, and the fins that switch warmth from the warmth pipes are divided into two sections. A warmth sink’s cooling capabilities fluctuate tremendously relying on its placement, so we put a variety of effort into discovering the right structure.
Adopting Wi-Fi 7 for even sooner connectivity
Hiromitsu: On the highest aspect of the mainboard, you’ll discover the Wi-Fi 7 module. Wi-Fi 7 is a brand new commonplace launched in 2024, and we selected to undertake it for the PS5 Professional primarily based on its excessive efficiency and future potential.
Through the improvement of the PS5 Professional, Wi-Fi 7 had not but been formally launched, which made the validation course of fairly difficult. However we had been glad we had been in a position to grow to be early adopters for a gaming console once we bought it licensed in time for launch in areas that supported Wi-Fi 7.
The white part seen on the backside proper of the highest aspect of the board is the Wi-Fi 7 module. An antenna can be situated simply beneath it.
And that’s a wrap! We hope you loved getting an inside take a look at the inner structure of the PS5 Professional. Every element works collectively in concord to appreciate the console’s progressive options, like gorgeous graphics and clean gameplay.
