Surface Pro 3 Throttling Solution?

Hello,

I have an issue with my Surface Pro. Whenever I play a game or run a benchmark, CPU works well for the first 20 minutes and then drops to 0.8Ghz frequency. Surface is connected to power (not running on battery), and for example, when I was playing a game it didn't get hotter than 75c but after about 20 minutes frequency on CPU dropped to 0.8Ghz and game was not playable after that. This happens both on balanced and high power plan (hyper-v enabled). Is there a work around for this because what is the point of having i7 processor if it is going to be running at 0.8Ghz speed only after 20 minutes of load, which by the way was only about 60% at 2.49Ghz.

Just giving an update after I ran more tests on my i7 Surface Pro 3. The USB fan workaround is not a joke. However, it works so well you may find yourself laughing anyway. I ran a furmark graphics torture benchmark for 10 minutes and around 4 minutes in I saw the cpu get pegged to 800MHz as usual. Point my $8 Arctic Breeze usb fan at the top right corner and within 10 seconds it went back to 2.0GHz. Indefinitely. With the fan pointed at the corner the CPU gets up to mid 80C without throttling. My gut is telling me that somehow this little fan is cooling the temperature sensor that is cueing the throttling directly due to how fast the Surface stops throttling after the fan is added. The thing is too small to actually cool down the metal of the Surface that fast, but it works hilariously well. It does move a good amount of air though, so after a couple minutes the Surface's internal fan actually spins down a bit and the back is cooler to the touch even while running the torture test. In synthetic Furmark benchmarks I am seeing a difference of 2668 points without the fan and 3553 points with it.

This is the fan I am talking about: http://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-USB-Powered-Portable-Cooling-Solution/dp/B003XN24GY/ref=sr\_1\_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408860969&sr=8-1&keywords=arctic+breeze

It does take the only USB port which is fine if you're using bluetooth connections, but I actually had the Arctic Breeze Pro just laying around as well which is the same thing except has a built in 4 port USB hub at the bottom. It works just as well at stopping the throttling.

Hello,

I have an issue with my Surface Pro. Whenever I play a game or run a benchmark, CPU works well for the first 20 minutes and then drops to 0.8Ghz frequency. Surface is connected to power (not running on battery), and for example, when I was playing a game it didn't get hotter than 75c but after about 20 minutes frequency on CPU dropped to 0.8Ghz and game was not playable after that. This happens both on balanced and high power plan (hyper-v enabled). Is there a work around for this because what is the point of having i7 processor if it is going to be running at 0.8Ghz speed only after 20 minutes of load, which by the way was only about 60% at 2.49Ghz.

On Mon, 4 Aug 2014 11:57:19 +0000, Cothek wrote:

|The August update may be tomorrow

It's the SEcoND Tuesday of each month... 8/12 is the next one.

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Barb

Windows Entertainment and Connected Home MVP

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Please mark as answered if this answers your question

Greetings Manueldaviid,

Welcome to the Microsoft community. We are glad about the opportunity your giving us to help. I'm sorry to hear about your Surface Pro 3 performance when playing games. I can only imagine how this is irritating and embarrassing for you. I want to thank you for letting us know. We will do our best to help solving this problem.

We'd like you to provide few more details so that we can better assist?

1. When did it start?
2. Do you have all updates installed for Windows?
3. Is this a random or persistent issue?
4. Is the device getting hot?
5. Have you tried uninstalling and re installing these games?

Please get back to us with details.

Cheers,

Sure! thank you so much :)

1. It started since day one but I came to realize it was an issue after I changed all the possible settings(graphics, resolution, etc.) and also looked at various forums.
2. I check for any updates on the matter at least three times a day and install every other update that appears. Mostly of windows defender. 
3. It is persistent. No matter which game or how well it runs at first, it will severely hit performance.
4. The device gets significantly hot. I ran a program to read the temp and while I play it will reach temperatures of 70-80 degrees. At around 75(only about 3 minutes after I start playing) throttling starts and forces the processor to go back to LESS THAN 60 DEGREES. That is when frames start dropping until the games are nearly unplayable. Personally, I think less than 60 degrees is too drastic. The device should be able to run at a higher temperature.
5. I have also tried re installing and the issue still persists...

Awaiting reply! Hope this helps to solve the issue.

Greetings Manueldaviid,

Welcome to the Microsoft community. We are glad about the opportunity your giving us to help. I'm sorry to hear about your Surface Pro 3 performance when playing games. I can only imagine how this is irritating and embarrassing for you. I want to thank you for letting us know. We will do our best to help solving this problem.

We'd like you to provide few more details so that we can better assist?

1. When did it start?
2. Do you have all updates installed for Windows?
3. Is this a random or persistent issue?
4. Is the device getting hot?
5. Have you tried uninstalling and re installing these games?

Please get back to us with details.

Cheers,