Do I have the thermal throttling? I dont know yet. But realize you're running a 1.7Ghz processor in something slightly thicker than a ball point pen. Look in ANY desktop or laptop computer of equivalent speed (yes, I know x86 and ARM are not directly comparable, but go with it for this) and you'll find a massive heatsink and fan. The Nexus 10 does not have a fan because nobody would buy a tablet with such, and the heatsink is quite thin to keep the dimensions down. You still have one of the fastest tablets on the market. Think of the 1.7Ghz not as a top sustainable speed, but like the "Turboboost" mode on modern Intel i3/5/7 CPUs where it'll ramp up to that speed to complete a task as quickly as possible and then dial back to something more easily sustainable. I'll admit that Google should add something to Android where if it knows a game is running it limits its top speed to prevent this very throttling, but that's on Android and not the device itself. Throttle the CPU back yourself, live with it, or realize that tablet computers are NOT for you.
There's slightly weaker processors on other tablets that don't throttle under "general" (I would consider any kind of gaming general) use. I'm somewhat certain my Nexus 7 didn't even have an issue of throttling (none that was noticeable anyway). Does the iPad 4 throttle? (not that this would be easy to find out regardless)
What's the point in having a 1.7GHz processor, if you can't use 1.7GHz for extended periods of time? 1GHz is what the device ramps up to on touch (interactive gov) and a game I tried worked fine at 1GHz (well, it was smooth anyway; really wish game developers would put FPS counters in games...).
It would be almost like me advertising a CPU for having 5GHz, but the part I left out is you can only use the 5GHz frequency for 1 minute, and after that minute, your clock frequency will drop. Would you buy a processor without question that mentions that? I guess a non-technical person might look at that and see the high frequency and buy it regardless, but a stable, non-changing frequency is better for performance.
I do realize that there is no heatsink on the chip itself, but I would think throttling to only occur under extreme conditions (sitting in the desert somewhere with a heater pointed at the N10 back and trying to run a game at 1.7GHz) or when overclocking. In other words, it should be something a normal user
shouldn't ever experience.
My graphics card is advertised to have a speed of 950MHz on the core clock. It keeps a 950MHz on the core clock through general use and gaming. Therefore, it is meeting expectation. Taking off the heatsink on my GPU would cause temperatures to reach critical levels, and cause the clock speed to drop to 450MHz. This is an extreme situation, and is in no way something that a normal user should consider doing.
TLDR: Your not getting the 1.7GHz of performance Google is advertising for an actual "useful" period of time, and if you buy the Nexus 10 and expect to, your going to be disappointed (for now anyway).
Edit: It should also be noted that there is no temperature sensor for the processor. A user reportedly did tests by having the CPU at a cold temperature, and throttling still occurred. Temperatures are generated based on an algorithm, that is based on voltage, frequency, load, and time (I think). In other words, if you put a giant heatsink on the processor and/or pour liquid nitrogen all over it, you'll still throttle.
Don't get me wrong though, I do like my Nexus 10 tablet
Just knowing it won't reach "full" potential (currently) is a bit frustrating...
