A teardown by tech YouTuber Austin Evans first revealed where Sony shed most of the weight — by using a significantly smaller cooling system. The 1,639g heatsink with six heat pipes on the original PS5 has been replaced with a 1,368g unit with four heat pipes. In addition, there is a new fan with more blades that could potentially provide better cooling. Another change is a new Wi-Fi module, although details on this remain unclear. The image below shows the different heatsinks used by the original and new models.

There has been some controversy around whether the smaller heatsink will result in higher running temperatures, leading to degraded performance. This was after Evans’ concluded that the revised PS5 was worse because its exhausts produced temperatures around 5 degrees celsius higher than the original model. However, this method has been criticised by other hardware experts, with many pointing out that the only way to see if the system was really running hotter would be to measure the temperatures of the chip. Higher temperatures on the exhaust could, in fact, be an indication that the system is better at getting rid of the heat.

Digital Foundry technology editor Richard Leadbetter also measured around the same power draw on the new and old models, suggesting similar performance levels. Leadbetter also said the fact that the system was running slightly quieter meant that it was not struggling to keep up with the heat. “If the central chip is running too hot, you’d expect the fan to spin up. That seemingly didn’t happen on Austin Evans’ unit, and it’s not happening on mine either,” said Leadbetter. He explained that even if the machine was running hotter, it could still be within the manufacturer’s tolerance to ensure undegraded performance. “Performance on the new model should be tested, but I find it extremely unlikely that the new PS5 will perform any differently even if it were hotter than the old one,” Leadbetter stated.

With the heatsink using much less copper, which is expensive and difficult to source under current supply chain constraints, Sony can save production time and costs and make more PS5 units available to customers. The console has been in huge demand since its launch in November 2020, with South African stock of the console repeatedly selling out within minutes. One local store which currently has stock of the console is Expert, which is selling it bundled with Returnal and Spider-Man: Miles Morales for R14,599.