This Is What Happens When The PlayStation 5 Overheats

The PlayStation 5 has a specific feature which tries to prevent overheating and therefore damage to the hardware: a pop up message telling the player to stop playing.

Discovered in a Best Buy, the console will stop whatever software the user is running at that moment, and state that it is overheating to a substantial degree (pun not intended). It advises the user to turn the PlayStation 5 off, and wait until the temperature has cooled. As we saw in the official teardown video, the console has a hefty cooling system in order to ensure that the performance of next-generation gaming isn't affected by the astounding processing power of the PlayStation 5.

In fact, the fan inside the PlayStation 5 is genuinely ginormous compared to the industry standard, and mechanical engineer Yasuhiro Otori revealed that two fans were once on the cards. However, controlling two fans is more complex than controlling only one, so Sony opted for an innovative large fan which will actually respond to the game that's playing on the console. "Various games will be released in the future, and data on the APU's behavior in each game will be collected," said Otori in a separate interview. "We have a plan to optimize the fan control based on this data."

So, with this novel system all arranged, it's interesting to see that the console will fall back onto analogue methods of getting the player's attention if the hardware is too hot. One might wonder why this message is needed if the cooling features are so revolutionary, but the answer boils down to the reality of playing a console.

If you're sat down somewhere away from the console, like the sofa or the floor, you might not feel the heat that's radiating from the PlayStation 5 from where you are. Secondly, it's possible the user won't feel how hot the console is inside when they touch the panels, due to the effectiveness of the cooling mechanisms. Ergo, the PlayStation 5 will alert the user if this happens, and to be honest, it's more sensible than purely relying on the fan to control the console's heat dissipation when other factors like ventilation, position, room temperature and more are added to the mix.

The PlayStation 5 launches in the middle of this month, and the hype is extraordinary. With titles like Astro's Playroom, Demon's Souls, Godfall, and Observer: System Redux, the next generation of gaming is looking very, very good, and it's even better to learn that the hardware itself is balancing power and efficiency.

Featured Image Credit: Sony

Topics: PlayStation 5, Next-Gen, News