A three-dimensional thermal simulation for analysis of heat dissipation of graphene resistors on silicon carbide substrates is presented. We investigate the effect of parameters such as graphene-substrate interface thermal resistance, device size and source-to-drain contact spacing, to quantify lateral as well as vertical heat spreading. Pulsed I-V measurements were performed at different temperatures and pulse widths to extract device thermal resistance for comparison with simulation results. Due to small heat capacitance of the device, self-heating occurs even at the shortest pulse time of 200 ns. The effective thermal resistance of epitaxial graphene resistors on SiC was estimated as 8 x 10(-5) K cm(2) W-1, by comparison between measurement and simulation results. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.