Question regarding playing games from the store on a SP3

[Loc Ngo]

I've got my baby SP3 for 2 months and I'm so pleased with it. Everything goes smoothly and is lightning fast. But a problem that has been bugging me since the start is that my SP3 gets hot so quickly and the battery gets depleted like there's no tomorrow whenever I play a game from the store, for instance Dragon Mania Legends, Plague Inc.,.... I have those games on my 1520 and they work alright and drain my phone's juice normally. I suppose that those game must be less demanding since they are for ARM processor. I haven't tried out any desktop game on my SP3 yet. I wonder if this also happens to you guys? And how do you cope with it? Or it's my device that is the culprit here?
P/S: Mine is a core i5 with 4GB RAM model

 

[v0lum3]

I have wondered just the same! My take is that Windows Store Apps are designed to work on a vast amount of different devices, therefore they are designed to utilized the hardware in the device to the fullest.

On a device like an ARM Phone or an ATOM tablet, the chip and the CPU/GPU, are not super powerful, and they can't draw very much power even if pushed to the maximum, maybe only 2-4W. The Surface Pro 3 with a Core i-chip, (Or for that matter any other laptop with a high powered CPU) are very versatile since they can draw very little power when only doing simple tasks, but when tasked with heavy tasks they can amp up and use a lot of power. I think the Core i5 can draw between 2-15W.
So when the Store apps are designed to take full advantage, they will tasks the system to its max, not dynamically limiting their power usage. It would be very useful if Microsoft would implement a feature that could limit apps utilizations of hardware based on a power profile or something, because I don't really need my core i5 CPU to run at full power when playing for example card games or puzzles. But I guess this is what you pay for having such a versatile hybrid device.

As for a possible solution, i think there is a way to get the old Windows power profiles back on the Surface, you would wanna Google that. Since a Power saving mode potentially could limit the CPU to save power and reduce heat. But as far as I know, enabling this, also removes the possibility for connected standby, aka. The fast resume mode, so you would have to live with your tablet going into hibernation every time you close the cover or hit the power button!

Hope this helps!

 

[BGrewer]

I've also been wondering the same thing!
When compared to my RT asphalt 8 drains the battery really quickly on my Pro 3, and the fan kicks in making the top right-hand side of the tablet really warm

 

[Loc Ngo]

It sucks that there is no feature to limit the power used by ARM apps such as those games. MS should really implement it in Windows 10. Because non-tech people just like me use their computers and might wonder just the same thing: Why does such a game from the store, which is supposedly much lighter, use so much power from the computer with a full-fledged core i? I can't believe how poorly optimised those games are for Windows.