Should You Increase Thermal Throttling on your Android Device?

Should You Increase Thermal Throttling on your Android Device

In this guide, we will be discussing whether you should increase the Thermal Throttling on your Android device or not. Moreover, we will also do a detailed inspection on what are the pros and more importantly the cons of doing increasing limit. So without any further ado, let’s get started.

Should You Increase Thermal Throttling on Your Android Device?

The smartphone of today’s generation has been pushed up to its peak potential as most of the work is directly carried out on these pocket devices. For instance, many video editors have started RAW video recording and rendering apps on their devices instead of on their PCs. And if we turn our attention towards the gaming domains, then the likes of Call of Duty and Genshit Impact push your device’s prowess to its maximum capacity.

Continuously running these tasks at full throttle will give you maximum FPS and a snappy lag-free usage experiment, however, in the long run, it will end up having an adverse impact on your device. While the likes of devices getting abnormally hot is quite a common scenario, in rare cases, it might even lead to the chipset “meltdown”.

To overcome these issues, smartphone manufacturers tend to put a throttling limit on their devices. This throttling limit, also known as the Virtual-SKIN-based throttling threshold, usually comes into the picture when the device’s temperature reaches the 39-degree Celsius mark or a specific TjMax value. As soon as these values are reached, quite a few restrictive measures are imposed on the system.

For instance, some non-essential background processes a closed, display brightness is reduced [by decreasing the total number of active pixels on the screen], and the frames per second [FPS] are decreased. So it goes without saying that it will have an adverse impact on resource-intensive apps and games.

To overcome this, many users root their devices and flash a custom kernel to remove this throttling limit [there are some Magisk modules that are specifically designed for this task as well]. After implementing these tweaks, the maximum temperature and the TjMax values will now both be increased, with the former being stretched to 48 degrees Celsius in some cases. So isn’t it great that you now have a larger leverage period to push your device to its absolute limits? Let’s find out.

Benefits of Increasing Thermal Throttling Limit

In hindsight, increasing the absolute limit on the thermal throttling would give you a bigger buffer period to enjoy your resource-hungry games at full capacity for a longer duration. There will be no FPS drops the brightness wouldn’t drop, and your other apps will still be functioning in the backend. All in all, the apps will have more leeway to operate without being hindered by the thermal throttling limit. However, this is where the perks end and things begin to go south.

Drawbacks of Increasing Thermal Throttling Limit

Should You Increase Thermal Throttling on your Android Device

There are a plethora of issues associated with increasing this limit. First and foremost, and also the most concerning one, your device will start getting warmer too quickly due to additional burdens being put on the system. And it might not be long before its impact is felt on other components of your device, such as the SoC. This in turn will lead to the device degradation much faster than is the usual case.

Your device will also undergo sudden thermal shutdowns to prevent any further damage. In rare cases, when the device is pushed to its limit, it becomes so warm that you might not be able to hold it in your hands. Moreover, the battery temperature will be reaching new heights which would not lo negatively impact the battery but the device as a whole.

So Should You Increase Thermal Throttling?

No, you should not increase the thermal throttling limit on your Android device as it tends to negatively impact your phone, with the likes of the device overheating leading to numerous issues, including a rare chance of the chipset getting damaged in the long run. Just keep in mind to respect the limit set by the OEM and stick within that confinement.

What about the Peltier Cooler Kit?

While there do exist the likes of the Peltier Cooler Kit, USB Semiconductor Thermoelectric Cooler, and Peltier Cooling System that can be attached to the back of your smartphone and claims to prevent your device from overheating after long-term operation, however, there’s no concrete evidence that it will come in handy for the long run. For short sessions of extensive workloads on your device, they might be a handy alternative, but not otherwise. 

Concluding Remarks

While you would have got the gist, still, just to round it all off, you should try and maintain a safe distance from increasing the thermal limit. If you are an avid game and tend slot push your device to the maximum capacity more often than not, then getting your hands on a gaming phone, such as the ones from the Asus ROG series, will be your best bet [though you might have to shell out some hefty bucks for the same].

On that note, we conclude this write-up. What are your views on the same? Are you still considering pushing the device to the maximum limit without giving a second thought to the adverse impact as the system will automatically implement the thermal cooldown and power off the device as and when required? Or you take a safe approach and wish to remain within the boundaries set up by the OEM. Or you are the third group of users who use or are planning to use the Peltier Cooling System? Do share your valuable opinions with us in the comments section below.

Featured Image Credits: Phone | Fire


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