How can this be true? If I put the PS5 within a small enclosed case with a poor ability to dissipate heat, it should overheat / throttle down thus making the throttling variable, no?
Apparently they have a really good cooling solution (which they haven't disclosed yet) so that even in a (almost) worst case scenario, developers can rely on the performance specs.
Re:PlayStation 5: the specs and the tech
by leetcrew on Thursday March 19, 2020 @06:51PM
(#22632608)
if true, this is kind of sad. would it be so hard to make a "dev mode" where the device pretends to be severely thermally throttled, target that performance for development, and then let everyone who isn't a complete idiot enjoy the full performance of the hardware?
We're talking about running the hardware within its ambient spec. For example, PC turbo implementations might run faster at 10C than 20C ambient but the PS5 won't.
current systems throttle down when things start to overheat, this is "non-deterministic" and depends on environmental factors etc. this is harder for developers to optimise for
whereas the PS5 knows it's own power use and power budget, as long as it stays within that budget then it won't overheat. and this means the throttling is 'deterministic' - the same code running will always throttle in the same way at the same time, so this is easier for developers to test and optimise for