Forum Discussion
Teams Performance
pstone7 Just to mention we are noticing this problem too, sometimes Teams can take up 1GB+ of memory, and our whole system slows down.
dhymeri Teams makes my Surface Pro 4 Core i7 16GB device almost unusable sometimes.
The fan goes like crazy all the time and typing in any program can be delayed and things stop responding and the Surface is red hot. It is always much worse when in a call too. Trying to access files on Teams whilst in the call barely works it takes that long.
They really need to re-develop in a more performant framework that doesn't need to run its own webserver.
robinwilson16 hi. I have the same experience with an identical surface. Strange that this does not happen on my Lenovo Yoga i5 8GB. Did you manage to solve the issue on your Surface? Regards Brad
Hello Brad Adler
The only thing that helped was to disable hardware acceleration in Outlook as at least I could still type emails whilst Teams was open without having to wait for the text I typed to appear although if throttling becomes too bad then everything can still grind to a halt. My Surface Device was also overheating badly and it was replaced but the replacement device seems to be going the same way.
It's not really satisfactory.
Thanks robinwilson16
My Surface lasts about 15 minutes on a Teams call before it heads south. This has only happened since early Dec 2020 even though I have had this surface since Nov 2019.
Also, we're in mid-summer now so it might explain the Surface overheating. I don't run the aircon in my office much but might give it try.
I found this: https://surfacetip.com/disable-turbo-boost-on-surface/ . I recall using this with my Surface Pro 3 and 4 when they overheated. Microsoft replaced these till I ended up with the current Surface Pro 5 which I expected that the heating issue was resolved. Do you recommend this approach in the link?
Brad Adler So I think this issue goes beyond Teams.
When the Surface Pro 7 i5 runs at high load, forced by video calls, Teams, Zoom or whatever, the CPU is throttled.
Observe this by running task manager, and keeping the performance tab open. You will notice the GPU fires up to 100%, but after a few minutes, you CPU utilisation will only be at 30%, BUT the Speed will be stuck to 0.18Ghz or there abouts.
Compare this with when you are working normally, maybe surfing websites, opening 365 apps etc, the CPU will often turbo boost to 100% utilisation and go to 3Ghz to give you that speed boost.
I've sent my surface back to my supplier for testing, they have sent me loaner, identical in spec. This one doesn't throttle as much on video calls, but it still does - I get 0.4Ghz instead. Still awful. Waiting to see what my supplier recommends.
By comparison, I ran Teams and video calls on my 2021 Mac Mini the other day, no problem multi tasking.
This is a massive issue for Microsoft Surface devices, that no one at Microsoft is acknowledging.
Do some searching online, around 'Surface Pro 7 - CPU throttling' you will find lots of threads about this, with no resolution.
Thanks 24Plimlico.
What is really strange is that my Surface worked fine till early Dec 2020 (the unit I have is 12 months old). Based on this I find it hard to believe it is a hardware problem and rather a software issue introduced during an update.
I have noticed that the Teams call works as expected for approximately 15 minutes before the performance issue brings the Surface to its knees.
My current workaround is to use a Lenovo Yoga only for Teams calls (works fine, same as your Mac Mini) whilst using the Surface for everything else. Not a great solution trying to juggle a call across 2 devices.
Question: Would reinstalling the latest Win10 image onto the Surface fix this problem? Trying to avoid this option due to the time involved and on the basis that it won't fix the issue.
Brad
