We’ve seen how the PS4 handles heat from external sources, but how good is it at handling its own, self-generated hotness? That’s what thermal cameras are for.
Planet Extech’s Vatche Arabian fired up his new PS4 and aimed a FLIR E8 thermal camera at it to measure the distribution of heat in the console. His tests were first conducted with the unit standing vertically, however, readers of the site requested snaps of it sitting horizontally and Arabian was kind enough to oblige.
Over the course of updating the firmware, creating a profile and then leaving the unit on standby to let the controller charge, the console hit 30.2°C at its hottest — the measurement taken from the “top side” of the unit. Of course, what we want to see is how the console performs when playing games and for that, Arabian loads up Killzone: Shadow Fall.
After 30 minutes of play, the top registers 45.5°C at its peak, while the bottom clocks in at 49.4°C. Finally, a measurement is taken of the vents, which come in at 61.6°C.
As for the horizontal readings… the difference is only a couple of degrees with the biggest variance being the vents — 56°C. Note that this measurement was taken after three hours of play.
If you’d like to check out the images yourself, as well as Arabian’s observations, hit up the link below.
Playstation 4 Thermal Images [Planet Extech]
Images: Planet Extech
Comments
24 responses to “Thermal Photos Of The PS4 Show How Hot Sony’s New Console Gets”
That’s not that bad considering that most gaming PC’s graphics cards run any where between 45-90 degrees under load (and that’s normal with good ventilation). With all that hardware jammed into a tiny box I’m actually impressed its not hotter.
I agree – most high-end PC’s will run at 80 or so. Which I totally expect from the steam boxes.
Well if your computer is running at 80+ deg you are in serious trouble haha. I think people are confusing core temps with actual temps. By the time the heat is dissipated by the cooler its about half the core temp.. then while the case is drawing in air and expelling the hot stuff yeah I think you would be hard pressed getting your pc over 50 deg on a 40 deg day.. maybe 60 tops but at 80 or 90 your case would be nearly glowing. Go touch your kettle when its close to boiling, I highly doubt your pc is that hot even above the exhaust.
Lewl, I should have clarified – it’s mainly video cards that can reach those temps, especially SLi/xfire rigs. But as you suggest if you have sufficient cooling methods the entire system shouldn’t experience such temps.
As I was reading this article I was wondering exactly how normal or safe these temperatures were. Thank you for taking the time to share some extra facts that probably should have been in the article.
My old pentium d 3.6 used to crack over 90 at times.
I used to worry with my very first 360, that the damn thing was going to melt, it used to get that hot. The Slim doesn’t have that issue any more, but DAMN that original model, had to keep it super ventilated…
this is measuring the distribution of heat across the entire console, PC Graphics Cards and CPU’s get hotter, but the distribution of heat across the entire PC wouldnt be that bad, Laptops would get the same but PC’s should be overall much cooler imo.
Actually curious bout the temperatures for current (previous gen) consoles
A quick look around suggests that the 360 CPU was supposed to have a CPU temp of around 40C idle, but actual tests mostly seem to sit around the 80C mark. It’s little wonder they tended to melt their own hardware.
I’m guessing heat isn’t going to be a major problem for the PS4, although from the sounds of things they might have their share of other problems.
Thanks – I was curious how hot the 360 gets in relation to this!
The results seem really good to me considering it’s AMD and all.
Edit: Yes, I do realise exhaust temperatures != CPU temperatures in case anyone picks up on that.
My thoughts exactly. AMD chips have always run hot, hence the old PC “joke”: buy an AMD, get a free pizza oven.
(I do tend to run AMD hardware myself, but Intel runs cooler, AMD are designed to run hotter, and will automatically shut down on overheat – I once had a faulty CPU cooler fan, PC shut down a few minutes after starting, fixed it and all was good)
I still think that with those massive exhaust ports out the back placing it in a well ventilated spot is a good idea here in Oz. I have cleared a spot in my entertainment unit for it but keep thinking that it may get hot in there. The only ventilation is from the front with a small hole at the back for cables. It is pretty open and none to crowded but I suppose time will tell.
I’m building a new entertainment unit soon and thinking I should leave the back open with all this beefy new heat shedding hardware coming out these days.
Agreed, that’s actually not that bad. Sony just needs to iron out the kinks with the launch batch of consoles.
They’d save themselves a lot of problems by placing the power as an external power brick.
Perhaps? But there isn’t really a problem here so far with numbers being in a safe range. It might be worth a test here in Australia though with a hot summer ahead in the books. My PS3 is a first gen and it only started having overheating problems when playing some of the more demanding end of gen titles when the temp in my lounge got over 30. (Lots of dust in the poor old girl doesn’t help either)
An efficient correctly rated power supply of the modern switch mode type doesn’t produce great amounts of heat especially when compared to CPUs or GPUs.
Didn’t seem to help Microsoft much with their first few models of 360?
News flash: microwaves aren’t a heat source
An AMD chip at 61 degrees?!? Since when does this ever happen?!?!!
Since Jaguar is AMD’s small form factor x86 tablet CPU much like Intel Atom.
30C max at idle? That’s extremely low, and I’d wager that the ambient temp is very close to or below 20C. 60C is still pretty good but I wonder how much throttling is going on.