Can you overclock the PS5?
Is it possible to overclock the PS5? If so, how?
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Sony released the PS5 back in 2020, and ever since it has taken the world by storm. The PS5 is now present in an estimated 30 Million homes worldwide. However, whilst many are impressed with the performance of the PS5, we have a select few asking: Can you overclock the PS5?
Now read: PS5 Vs PC
The PS5 is the most advanced console to date, arguably more powerful than the Xbox series X. However, the more tech savvy users are asking if there’s a way to boost the performance of the console further by overclocking it.
PS5 technical specifications
Here are the full technical specifications of the PS5:
- CPU: 8-core AMD Zen 2 Variable frequency up to 3.5 GHz
- Memory: 16 GB GDDR6 SDRAM
- Storage: Custom 825 GB PCIe 4.0 NVME SSD
- GPU: Custom AMD RDNA 2 36 CUs Variable frequency up to 2.23 GHz
That’s all we really need to know for this article, and as you can see the CPU and GPU are both fairly advanced, running off recently developed hardware. You might be tempted to turn your nose up at this spec of hardware, considering we’re on Zen 4 and RDNA 3 now, but you have to remember that consoles are highly optimized.
Consoles are purpose built to play games, and those games are optimized for that specific set of hardware. This means that the games are purpose built for that specific system, making it run very well. on PC it;s a different story, developers create the game to be mostly compatible with a wide-range of hardware, meaning we don’t get the same level of optimization on PC.
That’s why some people may be tempted away from PS5, and some people may be left wondering if we can overclock a PS5.
Can you overclock a PS5?
Unfortunatley, we cannot overclock the PS5, and we don’t think you will be able to any time soon either.
The PS5 has a specific set of hardware that is designed to operate in a certain way, this is to ease the development process of games, and to keep temperatures as low as possible inside the PS5. This is why the PS5 has a variable frequency cores inside of the CPU and GPU, the PS5 needs to be able to turn down the clock when the heat gets too much.
If we allowed the PS5 to be overclocked, this would introduce a whole mannor of instabilities and thermal issues within the PS5, possibly causing irreparable damage to the system. As overclocking is something that almost always voids any warranty you may have on the product.
As standard, the PS5 is already pretty powerful, even without all the precise optimizations present in the console. The reason things like PCs are so innefiecent and benefit more from overclocking, is that PC doesn’t have the same level of game and hardware optimization. We’re not even sure if overclocking a PS5 will make much of a difference.
