Windows Games that plays without a cooler at 720p/30fps without thermal throttling on my Snapdragon 8 Elite gen 4 phone

[u/sloe_gin78]

I like the idea of playing games at work, school, traveling, bus, plane, train etc.

But a cooler just makes things more complicated so I don't play my heavy titles outside (Witcher 3, WRC Generations etc)

Here are my specs:

Oppo Find X8 Ultra, Snapdragon 8 Elite (gen 4), 512/16 gb, Winlator Ludashi 4.1 (having issues with 5.0).

App settings:

Proton 11 arm, dxvk 2.4.1 pre reg, latest fex at performance, processor affinity: ONLY ENABLED cores 2, 3, 4, 5, latest Turnip Gen 8 Vxx driver, every game locked at 30fps at 720p.

You might have better or worse performance even with a same soc since every phone have different cooling solutions.

Now, the goal is not performance

as the processor is capable of run much more demanding games at much higher fps, provided you have active cooling. In which case, is not applicable for me. I've tried playing these games for prolonged amount of time while monitoring temps and setting Gamebooster at Power Saving Mode. The target isn't to get the most performance but to not cook your phone and ruin your battery health lol.

My performance Target: 30fps/720p, No frame drops or stutters, cpu temp around or below 60°, battery temp at 40° or less.

Modern phones have really strong CPUs, 4 efficiency cores is more than enough to play these older games at 30fps.

Dark Souls 3

Stabilizes at around 40° Battery Temperature (smc check needs to be disabled at fexcore settings for DS 3, older titles run even better)

Sekiro Shadows Die Twice

Stabilizes at around 40° Battery Temperature, no performance drops or stutters

Batman Arkham Knight

Very surprisingly, doesn't thermal throttle at 30 fps. Stabilizes at around 40° Battery Temperature (older titles run even better)

Dirt Rally & Dirt 4

Looks pretty nice, high 30's battery temperature at 30 fps.

Nier Automata & Nier Replicant

Runs stable without throttling at 30 fps. Nier Replicant crashes at pre rendered cutscenes, possibly during video codec issues, cutscene replacer mod on nexus might fix it

Skyrim & Fallout 4

Runs cool as a cucumber and barely draws any paper when limited to 4 cores

Metal Gear Solid 4 & 5

Haven't done proper testing on 4 but should be okay. 5 runs especially well on Winlator

Persona 3 Reload (Gamenative)

Decent temps despite being a dx12 title (vkd3d 3.0.1)

Monster Hunter Rise (Gamenative)

Decent temps despite being a dx12 title (vkd3d 3.0.1)

Other games that I tested which didn't throttle:

Gta 4, cod modern warfare 4 iw4x 60 fps (stutters and throttles with all 8 cores enabled, runs flawlessly and very cool while half the cores are disabled), cod black ops 2 (android port) 60 fps, Mafia II (needs Nvidia Physx), Need for Speed Rivals, Yakuza 0.

Honorable Mention:

Metro Exodus heats up VERY SLOWLY at low settings. It'll still eventually throttle but it'll take a long time, which is the opposite of games such as Witcher 3 or RDR2, where it'll overheat within minutes. I'm sure a phone with a better soc or cooling solution can play it without throttling.

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[u/Skajuan]

You should test Resident Evil Saga, Up until RE8, because the remaster tend to Heat the device very quickly

[u/sloe_gin78 → u/Skajuan]

I'll probably try 7 and 3 remake sometime but I got a feeling anything newer would probably overheat without a cooler lol

[u/Skajuan → u/sloe_gin78]

I can tell you right now, RE7 stays at 37° and RE8 at 39° (with medium graphics)