First impressions of the PlayStation 5’s fan noise are promising, as Japanese publications Dengeki Online and 4Gamer have both suggested that the console runs extremely quietly. This is despite the system powering demanding next-gen titles like Godfall and Astro’s Playroom under hot studio lights for over an hour.
Sony’s range of PlayStation 4 consoles have been roundly criticised for their operation volume, with titles like God of War famously kicking the various formats’ fans into overdrive. But according to Dengeki Online, the volume was so quiet during its recent hands on that it was left pondering whether the console was even turned on.
4Gamer made similar remarks, explaining that while it could feel the warm air being emitted from the system, it could barely hear the operation of the fans. Exactly how the console’s cooling solution works is still unclear, but the publication added that it was particularly impressed with performance considering the console was placed in a 30-degree environment.
Obviously we’ll need to wait for further evidence before praising PlayStation’s engineers too much; the PS4 Pro can also be pretty quiet when new, but its volume increases dramatically after a few months of use. Let’s hope that Sony has implemented a more efficient and effective solution here, and that we learn more about how it works soon.
[source dengekionline.com, via 4gamer.net]
Comments 64
Not sure we can call any of the launch titles “demanding”. I think we’ll be waiting til God of War to see a game that could make the fan loud.
But still encouraging news.
@ztpayne7 My point is that these are proper next-gen games, not backwards compatible titles. Godfall has raytracing, etc, so it's definitely pushing the hardware.
If it ever gets as loud as my PS4 Pro its going the f**k back! Not putting up with that again
It can be as quiet as a mouse now, but when I put my disc of God of War into the PS5 I still expect my console to start hovering when it's in the menu screens. Never had so good a game been so compromised by the hardware I played it on. Every nice quiet moment with Atreus was ruined by me having to whack my volume up over the console sound. It's not launch games that worry me with the PS5 but when developers inevitably push the hardware to its limits in a few years time as to how it copes then... The PS4 launched without fan noises at first as well... And I'm not giving benefit of the doubt on this issue.
The Jet noise is terrible indeed. Fortunately quick clean and new thermal pase reduces it for at least 6 months, otherwise I'd kill myself from that rampage
@Arugula I have a day 1 PS4 and until about 6 to 8 months ago I had zero problems with fan noise. Then all of a sudden it decided it wanted to emulate a 747 taking off while watching Netflix. Took it apart a reapplied some thermal paste, but it didn't seem to make much difference. It's clear though that many Pepe have had issues with fan noise, so if Sony have solved that with the PS5 it's good news.
I’ve never heard the fan on my PS4 pro! I bought mine day one
It's good to hear ps5 is a quiet console
I hope ps5 stay quiet at least like my launch ps4, it's my ps4 pro that has loud fan when playing games (usually when seeing the map or go to ps4 home ui while playing games).
@ztpayne7 Godfall and dmc5 has RT which is very taxing on the console.
Big Navi speeds leaked around 2,3ghz ... I think Sony is more on par with rdna2 cores than Microsoft judging by the speeds for their GPUs. Maybe that's why all the silence from Sony's side. Maybe we will still be surprised by Sony on the performance side.
Edit: 2050 - 2500 MHz
https://www.google.ro/amp/s/www.techradar.com/amp/news/amds-radeon-rx-6000-series-gpus-may-have-just-leaked-in-full
@Arugula thanks.
As others have said though, the proof of the whisper quiet PS5 pudding will come a few years down the line when God of 16 or whatever is released. However a few Sony patents have me convinced they've taken heat dissipation very, very seriously this time, and I am eager to see their actual solution.
@Arugula
Me neither. Other than when first putting in a disc for some reason. Even when playing late at night it wasn’t an issue. Well, this is only good I guess
I don't really notice my PS4 Pro's fan noise since it gets drowned out by my surround sound and my PC's fans.
@Kidfried it means the dust gets inside. My Pro is now 1.5 years old, no noise whatever the games. Some first batch has loud noise and it gets exaggerated later.
My pro has never been the noticeable since I clean it out every few month
@Arugula I never really had any problems with the fan on my Pro... until TONY HAWK'S PRO SKATER 1+2! My God. It reached the point where it was so loud I was genuinely worried it was about to explode.
I literally couldn't play TLOU2 on my base PS4 without headphones, as the fan noise was so loud and annoying when the console was pushed that hard. Having said that, my PS4 was pretty silent at launch too - come back and ask me in 2026 whether my PS5 is still silent, not now at launch
@Arugula It was very odd - in any level, even when paused it was incredibly loud. But as soon as I quit to the menu it was fine.
@AJDarkstar you can click the top of a pro off to clean the fan as well without voiding the warranty.
Thank god. I am hating my PS4 Pro more and more for the noise. Xbox One S does close to 0 sounds...
Will it be the same once it becomes really demanding?
@SilkySmile89 I made the point on here a few weeks back that AMD historically have left performance on the table with their GPU clocks, and that RDNA2 was targeting far higher clocks this time around. Rumours from tech sites were that they hadn't quite hit the 2.5GHz they had planned for, but I said I didn't think the PS5's clocks fell outside of AMDs stated targets. I still don't.
@TheIdleCritic menu's for some reason hit the PS4 hard. You can see it in analysers, I have no idea why, I know Cerny has mentioned it a few times at tech talks. I should probably go listen as to why.
@pip_muzz ill be honest I think what you said is true launch is quiet but give it a few years and it might be loud can't guarantee it will always be quiet nor has it had months of play to notice anything.
@pip_muzz actually shenmue 3 also send my PS4 pro to lift off, so I guess it's more a question of optimization rather than demand. It stayed mostly quiet during Spiderman and death stranding. Dreams also send it into overdrive.
Build in a quiet replacement fan since things got unbearable running the projector, the AC and the pro in summer.
Without a cleanable filtering system or the ability to use caned air spray to clean internal heat sink fins its doomed to be louder over time.
Never had a fan noise problem with my base PS4... My Xbox 360 on the the other hand... I needed some good noise-cancelling headphones.
Good to hear the PS5 is sounding stealthy though.
@JohnKarnes I have been told that you can actually get at both the fan and the heatsink, although that wasn't the word they used, easily for cleaning. The idea is that it should be easy to maintain. However, given some of their parents I'm not sure that reapplying thermal paste will be possible.
@AJDarkstar yeah i nearly lost my finger tips doing mine
I have a pro, I would say 90% of the time it runs quietly, but in certain games and also just at certain times in those games my pro sounds like its about to take off, out of a good few list of games, doom 2016 is one that springs to mind as when you played the game itself it wasn't to bad minute you were in a ui menu, or a multilayer lobby fans going mental. Tbh fan noise generally just makes me paranoid something not right and my machine is about to die so is ps5 has less of that then great
@AJDarkstar PS4 PRO lid is easy to remove to clean the fan ect and it doesn't do anything to the warranty
I just want to clarify something: 4Gamer remarks about the air coming from the PS5 is not that “they could feel the warm air” but that the “air came out softly and it didn’t feel hot at all”
There’s always something “lost in translation”
@pip_muzz you need to watch Cernys talk on it. the PS4 way of cooling is the complete opposite of the PS5s way. they have made sure the most taxing game will never be an issue.
@David187 The proof is in the pudding as they say. I'll wait and see what happens but I won't be celebrating the end to noisy fan noises just yet. The games to be developed in 3-4 years will barely have been in production by the time Cerny gave his talk. Also, Mark Cerny is hardly the most unbiased opinion when it comes to what PlayStation issues there may be. He's hardly going to say his new console is going to have any issues is he....?
This is really good news, one of the things I was most concerned with.
@Falkirk4life to be fair, it doesn't really make any difference to the fan noise, although it is good practice to keep it clean.
I can hear the fan rise and fall even with headphones on. The fan rises volume more when checking the map in red dead 2.
I've recently been playing some games on a Dell G7 laptop. Trust me, the PS4 really isn't that loud.
With the pro i used an air compressor to blow off the heat sink you find a little behind the fan. After i got a TON of dust blown out of the machine it was silent again
@SirAngry Did you not go further and clean the fan and heat sink at the same time? That was mistake I made when I did mine. Did again and the amount of dust and fluff around fan was crazy, half heat sink was blocked as well. Once those cleaned was like brand new.
god I hope so, my PS4 is ridiculous.
if they can match my One X fan noise that would be amazing. literally no noise from that at all.
@pip_muzz why would he lie he is the lead system architect. like I say if you watch how they talk about why the PS4 makes that noise & why the PS5 won't you would get a good understanding of it.
@Jeanhenry if I'm reapplying thermal paste I've already cleaned the heatsink and fan. I might sound like an idiot, but I'm not one.
@Arugula You have a slim model though. Earlier PS4 and pro models are prone to having loud fans. My dad bought his ps4 12 -18 months after launch and is much quieter than mine, which was bought within 6 months of launch. Mystery solved.
@David187 Not accusing him of lying. It's more that unforeseen things could crop up a couple of years later. I don't doubt that the PS5 will be quieter than the PS4. The question for me is, by how much and for how long? The poor fan noise from the PS4 makes these valid questions that despite being the lead architect, need proof and evidence to show otherwise.
Some great Hi-Res shots on the 4gamer site. Looks like it's pretty easy to get at the clips holding the sides on. Should make it fairly simple to blow out any accumulated dust on a regular basis.
I'm getting a good feeling about the cooling but quite a few questions still to be answered.
No fan noise means games aren't pushed to their limits. I want to feel like I'm boarding a jet engine when I turn the system on.
My PS4 slim never really had an issue when it came to the fan except the first time I loaded RDR2, lol. It sounded like a jet engine that night
After watching these "first impression" videos I'm very concerned and disappointed. I hope we get some real game impressions and some much needed information about this console sometime in the next 4 weeks before launch.
My day 1 PS4 is still quiet as a mouse!
@HMazzy111 I hear this a lot and my Pro barely makes that much noise. Had it since 2018. Weird.
@get2sammyb I have a sneaky feeling......... Thats the reason why there are different modes for there games?
4K 30Fps, 4K ray tracing and 1440p 60 - 120 Fps?
Trying to keep the performance levels down to avoid over heating???
IF the Ps5 was capable of Native 4K with Ray Tracing at 60-120Fps......... You would certainly hear it
@Boxmonkey Same here.
Agree with everyone who is suggesting opening up and cleaning the fan, heatsink etc. I didn't go the full hog when I opened up the PS4's in our house. Hoovered out and gave the covers a wipe down. Got into the fan blades a bit. OMG what a difference. I will do it every 6 months or 12 months max from now on. Anyone complaining about loud fans. please please please give them a bit of a clean. Sorted
@AJDarkstar Hard to say since I doubt most who own a Pro report it. I've had very few issues with mine, and barely hear anything while playing demanding games. Perhaps it has something to do with dust build up, but who really knows for sure.
The PS5 is one of the largest consoles ever made in terms of dimensions. If this means that it's quiet at launch, and still pretty quiet a few years later when titles are pushing that hardware to the brink, this is absolutely fine by me.
@get2sammyb true looks amazing, im only hoping that they add like a performance mode, maybe give us a 1440p 60fps
We'll see how it goes once we get 5 years into the generation and the games are pushing the hardware to its limit...
Still running with my launch PS4 and it's barely noticeable, basic maintenance goes a long way. As someone who ran a repair shop you'd be surprised what a few puffs of air every month or so will do.
Current games that make my fan go off:
1.Wolfstein
2.Kingdom hearts 3
3. Call of Duty Modern Warfare
@SirAngry not at all. You can replace thermal paste without going down to the fan. Like said, that's what I did hence the question!
I still think something has changed in the "performance improvements" released for the Pro as sometimes if you're running in 4K/supersampling mode you get a lot of fan noise ( Genshin Impact, I'm looking at you!!) but run it in 1080p/non-supersampled mode, and it's quiet.
@BKNets.... Yeah something very wrong with the cpu in the Ps4. MY PRO Actually runs quiet when playing RDR2 but become a fighter jet when playing Pes 2020...iys weird.....
I'm hoping on a noctua fan mod lol
Still not won over with liquid metal soon as the year warranty is up that's out completely.
@SirAngry You can on the PS4 and I sure you will be able to on PS5 also. but its not something I would recommend for most console owners to attempt. I have cleaned my PS4 Pros fan several times. Thermal paste should last 3-4 years. I will put some Artic Silver paste and do another cleaning on my PS4 Pro when I move it to another room.
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