@Foxi4 may be able to explain it. I don't know all the specifics. he has the original model himself, so we were both talking about the cooling in both systems. I think he knows exactly why it cools more efficiently.
You flatter me. In any case, I wouldn’t necessarily say that it “cools better”, it distributes heat differently due to a different distribution of fin stacks.
Hasty conclusion on the part of Hardware Busters. In order to measure the new design fairly you have to use the exact same fan and PCB, which GN has done in their testing. To my eye it looks like the SOC temperature has increased, which is an expected consequence of reducing thermal mass of the heat sink, *but* the temperature has also decreased in other areas of interest such as the VRM and the memory, which shows that overall placement of fin arrays and heat pipes is more optimal. Whether that’s good or not remains to be seen, however I will point out that both memory and VRM’s are quite happy running at very high temps whereas the SOC is not. It’s also not particularly representative in console since Sony favours noise level over temperature in software, so both sinks will run more or less within margin of error regardless.
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Most people make the (in my opinion) incorrect assumption that lower exhaust temperature = lower system temperature. That’s not how it works - the reason why exhaust air is hot is precisely because the heat was removed from the component and transferred into the air. In order to check if the component is cooler, you have to measure the component, with a thermocouple, not with thermal imaging. Moreover, you have to test the same board with the same fan, not two different systems, to control for other variables when testing a heatsink’s performance. GN did all of that, so their conclusion seems more accurate to me. The SOC runs hotter, other components run cooler, but the differences are minimal. For all we know they could be standard variability between different systems. Personally I think either is fine.
Didn't nexusgamers just test the exhaust heat?
"Look how bad this cooling system is, it's able to remove more heat that the old one" wait....
Your skepticism about measuring air temps is warranted. Hotter exhaust air means that heat was removed from the board, which is what you want - that’s the cooler’s job.
People associate cooler exhaust air with a cooler system, but that’s not correct - exhaust air must be hot if the board is supposed to be cool, the heat needs to go somewhere.
GN used thermocouples on the back of the PCB in critical areas which gives a much better picture, but even that measurement isn’t perfect since they had to re-apply the liquid metal between board swaps, so it’s entirely possible they just did a better job than Sony did at the factory - they admit as much themselves.
If I were to hazard a guess, the old cooler does cool the SOC better due to denser fin stacks in that area whereas the new cooler sacrifices SOC temps in favour of cooling other components and reducing overall weight. We have to give some allowance for variability between systems as well - different silicon and different fans can account for a few degrees up or down, we can only look at general trends. Ultimately it’s a smaller, lighter cooler that does an adequate job. I see it as a cost cutting measure - it uses less material to do more or less the same thing.
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Skelletonike:
