Surface 4 Pro (i5) - Poor performance

[Ariello]

Hello Guys,
I was trying to reach MS support team via the Surface feedback option but I have not received any reply.
I have bought the MS Surface 4 Pro (i5 version) and I was really happy with it till the beginning of the 2016. I have observed (with a kind of a proof) that updates introduced in January/February have decreased the performance of the tablet and introduced mini-freezes (throttling?). Also the tablet gets warm faster that before updating the device.
My observations are related to the WoW game. Before updates I was able to play the game smooth with settings 3/5 and after updates I had to set settings to 2/5 because the device was dropping FPS drastically and starting to freeze the device for 0.5-1s every few minutes.
In order to make sure that updates are the issue I made a backup and I have restored it and after that I was able to play on higher setting without any problem.
Just to let you know I have tried most of the "recommended solutions" for optimizing the tablet including: restarting, factory reset, SFC, Chkdsk, Antivirus (on/off).
Could you tell me if there is any other solution than keeping the state of the tablet from the January and disabling all Windows Update services? I have bought the table to replace my laptop but is even more problematic (I thought that MS branded device will have more reliable updates). I can skip playing games on the device but it should not get very warm when browsing the internet as it wasn't before.
Thanks for any replies.

PS: I will not even comment the update behaviour... during the meeting when I want to present data from the tablet and I wake it up the device thinks that it is the perfect time for the must-install updates...

 

[Chintan Gohel]

did you consider reinstalling the game and also checking for updates for the game?

 

[anon(5327127)]

Concentrate on the graphics driver. Be selective.

You can only install the driver by updating straight from within device manager and not a straight install.

 

[Ariello]

@Chintan Gohel, As I mentioned I have tried to reinstall the whole system therefore I had to download and install the game again (fresh files, latest updates).

@excalibur1814, No driver was installed manually. The "faster" version of the driver was provided via Windows updates and then the performance decreasement was caused also by Windows updates.

There was no manual input from my side regarding drivers or Windows components. Everything was controlled by the OS itself. All I have done was to stop all update services in order to prevent from installing worse drivers.
I am just curious why the device developed by Microsoft itself has that kind of problems with drivers (There are also problems with graphic drivers in Microsoft Book, but this does not affect the machine that much).

 

[anon(5327127)]

You might find that Intel drivers are basically a big load of pants. Hit and miss. I jumped on the fifth gen Intel NUC, when it first appeared, which suffered terrible sata performance for months. Sigh.

Please re-read what I put above. I didn't say that you'd installed it in any fashion... I stated that you might want to install a NEW driver, straight from intel, via the suggested method (I wasn't being clear sorry).

 

[anon(5327127)]

"I am just curious why the device developed by (Add company name) has that kind of problems with drivers."

Welcome to computing 2016.

 

[Axeelant]

I have exactly the same SP4 as you do, and I have observed something similar. Remember the problem we had some time ago when the processor speed wouldn't drop bellow 2,27 ghz, even on desktop with everything closed? Then they tried fixing that, and now this happens. If you keep task manager open and look at the CPU speeds, you will soon notice how it sometimes drops to 0.50 ghz or even less. This will happen even when the high speed is needed (running multiple apps, heavy tasks), or when just moving the mouse over an empty desktop screen. This is the time the Surface will freeze for a couple of seconds, and then things will go back to normal. I have no idea why this happens or if this will get fixed anytime soon.

 

[drmodify]

Originally posted by Axeelant
I have exactly the same SP4 as you do, and I have observed something similar. Remember the problem we had some time ago when the processor speed wouldn't drop bellow 2,27 ghz, even on desktop with everything closed? Then they tried fixing that, and now this happens. If you keep task manager open and look at the CPU speeds, you will soon notice how it sometimes drops to 0.50 ghz or even less. This will happen even when the high speed is needed (running multiple apps, heavy tasks), or when just moving the mouse over an empty desktop screen. This is the time the Surface will freeze for a couple of seconds, and then things will go back to normal. I have no idea why this happens or if this will get fixed anytime soon.

I noticed that too in my device... hmm how come??!! I'd like to know so the problem could be fixed

 

[Axeelant]

I noticed that too in my device... hmm how come??!! I'd like to know so the problem could be fixed

Hmm sorry but like i said, i have no idea why it happens... It's since the last big update, perhaps even Anniversary if I remember correct...