Throttling provides a great benefit to the user. It saves your CPU from burning up. I'm glad they thought of it. I guess I'm a dumb happy user because I don't know when the CPU is throttling or if it ever has done it. As a matter of fact, I've never heard a fan since I've owned my first Surface RT.
Surface Pro 4 I5 4gb Throttle Results
- Thread starter XCESSIVEFORCE
- Start date
That's because of good engineering, I assure you it's came on, likely more times than you think. In fact, the people that keep saying " my fan never comes on " , are just happy idiots as well
The fan is on way more than you would imagine, you just can't hear it, because it doesn't take much to pull air out of such a small chassis. Overall, the device performs well, and you CAN limit the throttling, their are actually a few ways. go into your registry, and change the 0 to a 1 under power configuration ( i forget the exact path, but their is aguide on these forums somewhere ). Create a profile called " gaming ". ( Make sure you create the proile before you make the registry edit, if created while using this method, it will be gone when you make the change back ), anyways, once you have it, go in and edit it, set graphics to MAX performance, and set CPU to 99% instead of 100%, this will prevent the CPU from going into turbo boost, thus, eliminating much of the heat it creates, and the 25W of power, which will save on battery. Youl max out at 2.4Ghz, which is fine for a game like battlefield. Moreover, once you do that, just stick a USB fan on the corner, and bam, no more throttling. Yes , this is a dramatic method, but at the same time, you're trying to do something with the device it wasn't intended to do. your welcome
PotatoHole
New Member
There is no way I would play a FPS on this Surface Pro 4 (i5, 8Gb RAM). I have played some turn based squad style games on Steam and it was ok with medium graphics. Civ5 was also ok at a lower resolution, hidden object games and low end stuff are no problem as well, but they are pretty much just browser level games. I found in the house I can stream a game from my main PC (i7 4790k, 980Ti etc) to my Surface with Steam and there seems to be no lag. To be honest it was just for testing and not worthwhile as I could just as easily use my PC with proper gaming keyboard and mouse etc. But thank you for the info anyway. For drawing/painting this thing is a game changer. I knew it would be good, but it turned out way better than expected.
While I respect your idea on the matter, you have to at the very least come to the conclusion that the device can game. This thing gets better frame rates than my macbook pro retina with a 750M with 2GB dedicated ram for graphics... it's a shame really, because the tablet CAN play some games decently. you should give CSGO a try, 40-50FPS all day long.
PotatoHole
New Member
It's good that we have got to the point we can game on something the size of a small magazine, I honestly could never have hoped to do this in my lifetime. I remember sitting on my bed in the summer sun reading old sci-fi books and dreaming that one day there would be something about the size of a book that you could read more than one book with. I also imagined being able to play Fighting Fantasy games with full colored pictures on it and maybe in the distant future a page with moving images and a book holder you could role dice in. But now I have the furthest future already in my hand. And yes you are right we can play FPS games on these games if we want to and I wonder what I will see in 5 years from now. What I was trying to say in my previous post was that there are IMO more complex and fun games that are not FPS. But that is maybe because I'm getting old. I just think that playing anything less than 60fps would ruin my overall gameplay. Plus I'm very drunk right now so sorry if I've rambled and also missed the point. But I appreciate the experiment that you have done and always encourage pushing things to limits for testing.
My thought is that the standard speed of the CPU in these devices is for everything and the top 'boost' speed is only meant to be used for sudden and fast very short bits of time, like when you are using a photoshop/paintshop style program so it can work/render faster. Or you need to compile something and so it goes to boost speed for a few minutes. I'm pretty sure that tiny fan is not meant to be engaged more than a minute or two at time, which i think you might have been getting at. Anyway, 2 cans of Special Brew and a Guinness have made me ramble even more than when I started. Mods please feel free to move or remove this post.
My thought is that the standard speed of the CPU in these devices is for everything and the top 'boost' speed is only meant to be used for sudden and fast very short bits of time, like when you are using a photoshop/paintshop style program so it can work/render faster. Or you need to compile something and so it goes to boost speed for a few minutes. I'm pretty sure that tiny fan is not meant to be engaged more than a minute or two at time, which i think you might have been getting at. Anyway, 2 cans of Special Brew and a Guinness have made me ramble even more than when I started. Mods please feel free to move or remove this post.
OP
XCESSIVEFORCE
New Member
Some games you can easily attain 60fps. World of Warcraft (installed and tried to get some results) gets over 60fps on "good" settings at 1280 x800. That's with the USB fan and no config file tuning or anything like that. Yes, I know its old but its also one of the most popular games with still over 5 million subs. The point here is that The tablet is amazing, even for lite gaming on the go. Would I use it for professional gaming, probably not. For me it does what I need it to do and can game in my lap if I get bored.
Thanks Microsoft for superb Tablet.
Thanks Microsoft for superb Tablet.
Silly question but is your fan that you refer to just an ordinary USB fan which you've presumably pointed at the chassis?
EDIT: Found this for SP3; is the placement the same for SP4 or did you change it?
Keep your Surface Pro 3 Cool • Love My Surface
I'm glad I fall into the "Happy Idiot" category of users. I enjoy using my Surface for a wide variety of tasks, without constantly worrying about all of the stuff a that a lot of people worry about. Can't wait until I retire at the end of the year and take my Surfaces on the road in my RV. I plan on full-timing and will be boon docking quite a bit so I'll find out how well my solar handles power requirements for my Surface and 44" TV. Arizona to the Alcan highway will be my locations. When that happens, I might be asking what games work well on my SP3 I7 512g/8g. If MS has and SP5 that looks great, I'll by soloing with it.
leeshor
Well-Known Member
With all this discussion surrounding fans, I suggest (strongly) that nobody actually point a fan at the vents. If you insist on using a fan place it in a position to blow across the vents from the side not at the vents. It's trying to push air out!
If the fan blows on the internal fan directly at some point you will burn up the internal fan or otherwise destroy it.
If the fan blows on the internal fan directly at some point you will burn up the internal fan or otherwise destroy it.
OP
XCESSIVEFORCE
New Member
I can't take credit for finding this but many others use it as well. Tried, tested and True. I use it daily now. Temps were monitored by both HWinfo and Intel Xtreme and runs nice and cool. I also use a mini USB dual port hub to allow it to reach around the back better and not lose a port.
http://amzn.com/B003XN24GY
http://amzn.com/B003XN24GY
