Source
r/Surface•
atwright147

Surface Pro 4 i7 (16Gb RAM, 256Gb HDD) - PhotoShop Fan Noise?

Hey all,

I am new to Reddit but really love what I have seen so far.

I have seen mention that this question comes up a lot but cannot seem to find a definitive answer either here or on the wider internet.

I would like to buy a Surface Pro 4 i7 (16Gb RAM, 256Gb HDD) for image manipulation in PhotoShop and sketching in SketchBook Pro.

In PhotoShop, I am usually working on photos from my Canon 700D (18MP at 8-Bit Colour with probably 20 layers max). I am based in the UK.

  1. In a normal house, at normal ambient temperatures, does the fan kick in whilst using PhotoShop? If so, is it very noisy e.g. will my girlfriend get annoyed by it whilst we are sitting on the sofa watching TV?
  2. Same question for SketchBook Pro?
  3. Does the external fan pointing at top right corner trick plicate the noise?

Many, many thanks for any help you can offer :)

Posted Jan 21, 2016, 12:03 PM UTC

34
consequencegamerSP3 I7 512GB•

setup some power profiles that limit the CPU. You should be able to get away with for your usage it sounds like around 50%. Save this for when you are on the sofa and the fan should come on less. That or get a new GF...whichever is easiest for you.

2
jackzenjamesSP4 i7/16gb/512gb•
  1. At full power yes, personally the noise doesn't bother me one bit.
  2. At full power probably.
  3. Haven't tried any but I imagine the noise would be similar or worse.
  4. When I'm drawing (Clip Studio Pro) I typically run at 50-99% cpu, and the fan rarely turns on and I get pretty damn good battery life too. Haven't noticed any slowdown but I keep my layers to a minimum (usually under 15).
1
RandomhkkidSP4 i7 16GB 256 •

  1. Depends, with your use I'd expect so. For me it doesn't unless I use it for prolonged periods of time (12MP DNG editing, ~2 or 3 layers).

  2. Don't have experience with it.

  3. Yes it does, though I don't find the internal fan distracting as it doesn't spin very fast.

1
atwright147OP•

Thank you for your responses, it sounds very promising :)

What percentage CPU usage does the fan generally kick in at?

1
atwright147OP•

Hey all,

I got my Surface Pro 4 i7 512Gb last week, from John Lewis (I'm in the UK). I chose John Lewis because they offer a 90 day no quibbles return policy.

This Surface seems to be one of the refreshed ones as it only required one set of updates and was up and running within an hour.

I have been using Photoshop CC 2015 (fully updated) for the last week and whilst the fan does occasionally kick in it is really quiet and definitely acceptable.

I 100% recommend this to any artists out there.

Things to watch out for:

  1. The hidpi screen does make some software look bad (Sketchbook Pro and Mischief do not seem to support hidpi so you can see pixels -- though they are still very much usable).
  2. Adobe Bridge is completely UNUSABLE on hidpi screens-- even the external manifest does not fix it.

Overall, I am very happy.

1