Review

PlayStation 6 : Refroidissement par métal liquide ou pâte ?

  • Updated December 13, 2025
  • Chiharu Murayama
  • 21 comments

En regardant vers l'avenir avec la PlayStation 6, une question clé émerge concernant son système de gestion thermique : continuera-t-il d'utiliser le métal liquide, comme c'est le cas avec la PS5, ou reviendra-t-il à des solutions plus traditionnelles telles que les coussinets thermiques ou la pâte thermique ? Cette décision aura un impact significatif sur l'efficacité de refroidissement de la console et sa performance globale, en faisant une considération cruciale pour les ingénieurs en conception ainsi que pour les utilisateurs futurs.

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21 Comments

  1. The most efficient design would be the best choice.

    The PS5’s cooling system worked well, and with the PS5 Pro, they seem to have perfected it. It’s likely they’ll carry that design over to the PS6.

    Alternatively, they might use a vapor chamber, similar to modern high-end phones or the Xbox Series X.

    1. Water cooling is too expensive. With component costs already rising, Sony should focus on reducing expenses to reach a reasonable retail price. This approach won’t help achieve that.

      1. Water cooling components likely aren’t that expensive when mass-produced, but there are other issues with water cooling. Its benefits over standard air cooling are surprisingly minimal, and air cooling could probably be improved further.

    1. Cooling doesn’t determine how much heat the console generates. To reduce heat output, the console needs to be more efficient and use less energy.

      Cooling simply draws heat away from the SoC as quickly as possible.

  2. The next GPU may not be clocked as high. Sony opted for a high-clocked RDNA2 GPU in the PS5 to compete with the larger Series X GPU, which led them to use liquid metal and a large heatsink instead of a more expensive vapor chamber. This design contributed significantly to the PS5’s size and weight, increasing shipping costs over the console’s lifecycle.

    Moving forward, a narrow, high-clock design is unlikely, especially with the need for more silicon dedicated to machine learning and ray tracing. A wider, slower die is more probable. Since PlayStation has confirmed that backward compatibility no longer requires matching clock speeds (starting with the PS5 Pro), there’s little incentive to push clocks high again. As a result, the liquid metal and large heatsink may not be necessary.

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