Sony’s latest PlayStation 5 Pro has quietly shaken things up with a fascinating tweak in its heatsink design. The team over at the popular console repair channel, TronicsFix, noticed something intriguing: the PS5 Pro’s heatsink sports a unique rectangular spiral surface rather than a slick, glossy one.
According to TronicsFix’s analysis, this specific pattern doesn’t just look cool—it has a practical purpose. The design is meant to curb the formation of dry spots and prevent surface oxidation, which can occur when liquid metal thermal interface material (TIM) moves across the heatsink. Additionally, they note that this pattern might enhance the contact surface area, even if just slightly.
For those who’ve had hands-on experience with liquid metal, you might know that it tends to gather into pools and is far more prone to wandering away from where it’s supposed to stay, unlike traditional thermal pastes. To combat this, systems designed for liquid metal heatsinks incorporate seals or barriers to prevent this conductive material from escaping and potentially harming other components in the system.
Moreover, TronicsFix suggests that the shift of liquid metal is particularly problematic for PlayStations used in a vertical position. Given the breadth of consoles Steve from TronicsFix has repaired, it’s likely he’s onto something credible.
What’s really compelling here is how Sony’s approach with these ‘spiral grooves’ challenges conventional wisdom in cooling. Extreme overclockers usually go to great lengths to polish and perfect their processor surfaces, achieving that mirror-flat finish. However, with liquid metal in the picture, Sony seems to have rewritten the rules. They probably tested this grooved heatsink against a smoother version and concluded that this design change was beneficial.
Considering the PS5 Pro’s enhanced capabilities, especially with its more robust GPU, it makes sense that these heatsink modifications aim to prevent thermal throttling.
Though the PS5 Pro was revealed to the world in early September, it only started reaching the hands of gamers earlier this month. Enthusiasts are still taking them apart to uncover all the nuances of the design, but we got most of the juicy details from the launch livestream hosted by lead architect Mark Cerny.
