PlayStation 5 Pro console — the most revolutionary PlayStation console to date — elevates gaming experiences to the subsequent stage with options like upgraded GPU, advanced 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 more in-depth look at the console’s inner 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 revolutionary expertise and design philosophy.
*On this article, we refer to the PlayStation 5 mannequin launched in 2020 as the “authentic PS5,” the PS5 launched in 2023 as the “present PS5,” and the PS5 Professional launched in 2024 as the “PS5 Professional.”
*Don’t do this at house. 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 strains
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 cool it down. The distinctive three slits are new airflow paths that weren’t current in the authentic PS5, or the present PS5. This design was conceived via in depth discussions between the engineers and designers, and we refer to them as ‘blades’ inside the engineering workforce. The slits improve airflow whereas additionally appearing as a design aspect.
Exterior design comparability between the authentic PS5 (left), the present PS5 (heart) and PS5 Professional (proper). PS5 Professional is barely smaller in dimension in contrast to the authentic PS5.
Whereas the look of the PS5 Professional is in line with the remainder of the PS5 household of merchandise, it options three distinct blades that contribute to improved air flow.
‘Louvers’ between the essential unit and canopy assist to make the console quieter
Tsuchida: Inside the PS5 Professional, there’s a construction known as a “louver” that sits between the essential unit and canopy, which appears to be like like a sequence of slats or fins. Whereas it’s a part of the design, it additionally prevents a few of the fan noise from escaping the console in direction of the entrance route. Since most customers will play video games whereas dealing with the entrance of the console, we deliberately designed the system to make it tougher for gamers to hear the fan.
Rear modifications for extra environment friendly airflow
Tsuchida: Subsequent, let’s take a look at the again of the console. We place significance on the varieties and association of the enter/output ports. Since 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 at the backside moderately than the prime when the console is positioned vertically. On the different hand, the positions of the HDMI, LAN, and USB ports are positioned barely increased in contrast to the present PS5. It is because the PS5 Professional’s mainboard encompasses a high-density circuit design, and the port placement has been adjusted to accommodate the change.
The vent (exhaust vent) floor can also be bigger in contrast to 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 dimension after discussing with the design workforce.
The teardown begins
Tsuchida: Let’s begin the teardown. On the prime facet, similar to in earlier PS5 fashions, a mud catcher is supplied for cleansing functions. On the backside facet, 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 keep hooked up to the battery cowl, stopping it from being misplaced or unintentionally swallowed—a considerate security characteristic.
A brand new fan that quietly will increase air stream
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 dimension 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 similar variety of blades, however our groups re-designed the blade form for additional optimization. Should you look intently, you’ll be able to see that there are even smaller blades in between every blade. Usually 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 needed our followers to produce extra air “quietly.” It might be usually 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 possibly 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 metallic defend situated additional inside the cupboard. The defend is secured to the mainboard with numerous screws—and there’s a purpose for that. Most parts on the mainboard generate electromagnetic noise. Since this noise can intervene with close by digital units, equivalent to smartphones, and probably disrupt their operation, we should suppress the quantity of electromagnetic emissions to be saved under a sure threshold. The screws securing the defend are strategically positioned to cut back electromagnetic interference.
An advanced motherboard that achieves heightened gameplay
Tsuchida: As soon as we take away the prime and backside shields, you’ll attain the PS5 Professional’s motherboard. One attribute of PS5 consoles is that they leverage liquid metallic with wonderful thermal conductivity for the TIM (Thermal Interface Materials) of its essential processor. Earlier than we get into particulars, I’ll present some clarification utilizing a board earlier than the liquid metallic 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 due to the elevated variety of circuits required to obtain PS5 Professional’s enhanced efficiency, which modified the place of the fan. As I discussed earlier, you’ll discover the location of the enter and output ports on the again of the unit is completely different as effectively.
The highest facet of PS5 Professional’s motherboard.
The highest facet of present PS5 mannequin’s motherboard.
Hiromitsu: The SoC (System-on-a-Chip) is the massive chip you see on the heart 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 energy supply strains have additionally been enhanced in contrast to the present PS5.
As well as, PS5 Professional’s board has extra layers in contrast to the present PS5. Should you look intently at the floor of the present PS5 mannequin’s motherboard, you’ll be able to 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 is because the PS5 Professional’s motherboard was designed with extra inner layers, which permits sign traces to be routed extra effectively via the inside layers reaching even sooner reminiscence efficiency.
Now let’s examine the again facet of the motherboards. The principle seen distinction is that the variety of RAMs positioned round the SoC has elevated from eight to 9. All PS5 consoles up to 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. In 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 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 facet of PS5 Professional’s motherboard. A ninth DDR5 reminiscence chip was added to the higher proper nook (circled in crimson in the picture), as well as to the eight GDDR6 specified by a circle.
The again facet of the present PS5 mannequin’s motherboard.
The revolutionary use of liquid metallic grew to become an integral piece of expertise that has been carried over to successive PS5 fashions.
Tsuchida: Utilizing liquid metallic as the TIM in the authentic PS5 was fairly difficult at the time. Since liquid metallic has far superior cooling capabilities in contrast to typical TIMs, we adopted it after conducting varied assessments to guarantee its security.
We spent fairly a while conducting analysis on insulation once we had been designing the authentic PS5. The fundamental construction stays the similar in the PS5 Professional, however we made some enhancements by including fantastic grooves the place the liquid metallic is utilized, in order that the cooling impact is extra steady. After we had been doing analysis for the authentic PS5, we anticipated that semiconductors would proceed to advance and turn out to be a lot denser, so we believed liquid metallic expertise would turn out to be essential. It seems we had been proper, and it was integral when designing the PS5 Professional.
For extra steady cooling, grooves have been added the place the liquid metallic is utilized.
Creating a bigger energy provide unit with increased output
Hiromitsu: That is the energy provide unit. The PS5 Professional outputs about 48W extra in contrast to the present PS5 and can also be bigger in dimension. The curved energy provide models 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 backside, so it’s straightforward to inform which facet is the prime or backside. This clearly isn’t instantly seen to the client, however it’s a small element that signifies the right orientation when the console is positioned vertically.
A wonderfully positioned warmth sink
Tsuchida:The warmth pipes are fabricated from copper. The silver parts 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, as the console requires a extra highly effective warmth sink to assist 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 significantly relying on its placement, so we put a number of effort into discovering the excellent format.
Adopting Wi-Fi 7 for even sooner connectivity
Hiromitsu: On the prime facet of the mainboard, you’ll discover the Wi-Fi 7 module. Wi-Fi 7 is a brand new normal launched in 2024, and we selected to undertake it for the PS5 Professional primarily based on its excessive efficiency and future potential.
Throughout the growth 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 turn out to be early adopters for a gaming console once we acquired it licensed in time for launch in areas that supported Wi-Fi 7.
The white part seen at the backside proper of the prime facet of the board is the Wi-Fi 7 module. An antenna can also be situated simply beneath it.
And that’s a wrap! We hope you loved getting an inside look at the inner structure of the PS5 Professional. Every part works collectively in concord to understand the console’s revolutionary options, like gorgeous graphics and easy gameplay.