Thermal Imaging "map" of i7-based Surface Pro 3

[graye]

Here is another shot while installing software, but running off the battery. I am using WiFi and nothing plugged into the USB port. The previous example had the charger plugged in and both a USB mouse and USB Ethernet adapter plugged in.

Same pattern as before, but significantly lower temperatures (113F vs. 96.8F)
Note: The heat at spot 4 was probably left over from where I was resting my hand

 

[Moonsurface]

I was about to go crazy, but then I realized you are showing Fahrenheit (hate that unit as it doesn't scale linearly). 113F = 45C. Not too bad.

I was a bit worried as well as I have absolutely no clue about Fahrenheit except that it was a unit my parents used before I was born...Lol.

 

[bkydcmpr]

It was likely downloading windows updates... something most people overlook when apparently doing nothing. on another thread a user noted his free storage was mysteriously decreasing... again windows updates.

not really. there was only one "Window 8.1 Update" when I manually checked it after connected, I installed that update then the big update list shown up. if it got hot for just "trying to check for updates", it's not a good sign. I'm running a "real world" video compression stress test right now, seems it's going to take around 20 hours to finish, I'll post the result and comparison to my thinkpad and sp1 once finished.

 

[BillsCarnage]

Install and run Asphalt 8, and then make a heat map while its running. That should give you some egg cooking temps ;-)

 

[GreyFox7]

Install and run Asphalt 8, and then make a heat map while its running. That should give you some egg cooking temps ;-)

It wont matter what you do... once thermal throttling kicks in it backs off an maintains itself below thermal throttling threshold. Which is a wise thing to do as you don't want thermal throttling per se ... some have opined that the back-off is too great and they could reduce the back-off and run a little hotter with better performance others think its too hot already... or just want to squawk.

The undervolting idea is interesting and may have legs but that's not for everyone.

MS may further tune the system which I think is what would be best overall. I don't know what you'd get if you tweak it and then MS makes changes ... perhaps an MS update would override what you did or vice versa or perhaps it would turn ugly.