I continued to see the Pi 4 throttle regularly. Since the official Raspberry Pi 4 case was basically worthless I decided to use my 1” hole saw to poke a hole in the top. Normally fans are placed inside the case but since the fan needed a 1 1/8” opening and I didn’t have that size hole saw I installed the fan on top of the case.
This setup prevented throttling under my real-world loads which was good news. I then disconnected the fan and ran some of the same applications. Even without the fan running the Pi didn’t throttle. That is good news but it confirms my opinion that the Pi Foundation was foolish to produce an official case with no passive ventilation. Such a simple change would improve OOTB user experience.
I plan to post some more general observations on the Pi 4’s performance in the near future.