*** The Official Microsoft Surface Pro Thread ***

Trig said:
I dont get the business use for the iPad tbh, the number of people I've sat in meetings with where they show you a product catalog on an iPad and as soon as you get down to the numbers a laptop comes out, the RT wins hands down there...
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We have ipad users and i've yet to see it used for anything other surfing the net and checking email and most have laptops they can do this on.

MW
 
Glaucus said:
Kind of depends what you mean by sell well.
They are not a mass market product, in the same way something like ipad is.

But I Do think they'll do pretty well with us enthusiasts/gamers and in the business world. If w8 pro tablets can replace say 20%+ of the ultra book market in its first year, I'll consider them a success.
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Can't honestly see anyone gaming on the HD4000 at 1920x1080.

It won't be the proper HD4000 you see in desktop chips, my 17W CPU's HD4000 struggles to push 1366x768.

Razers Windows 8 gaming tablet will be a much better option for gaming, depending on the price.
 
I think it will be fine for gaming, especially non FPS or older stuff, I don't even game at 1900x1080 on my desktop, screen doesn't even support that res.
It's a 10" screen also, so absolutely no need for that res.

But does depends on the games, no one would suggest crysis or other FPS but I'm sure it'll work absolutely fine for rts and other games.

Even the CPU is faster than my desktop, even the i3 in the bottom w700s are faster. Gfx a is lower though. People get to hung up on playing stuff at high settings.

The razor how ever sucks as a tablet, have you seen the size of it?
A nice all round tablet, that I can play things like sins of a solar empire, GSB, civ5 and similar on when at work or stuck ina hotel when I'm working away.
 
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Not yet :( still only got. About £500 saved up though. Keep spending, Xbox and new tv on the way.
And I really need to replace my 12year old av receiver with something hdmi comparable and preferably dlna comparable as well.
See what prices are I am tempted by the acer w700 i3 just due to price.
 
Glaucus said:
Not yet :( still only got. About £500 saved up though. Keep spending, Xbox and new tv on the way.
And I really need to replace my 12year old av receiver with something hdmi comparable and preferably dlna comparable as well.
See what prices are I am tempted by the acer w700 i3 just due to price.
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ahh man. I would have liked for the Surface to have 3G but its not the end of the world as I could tether it with my L920. I was also going to wait for the haswell model but I am unsure now. However, how is the Surface Pro compared to the likes of a Sony Vaio Duo 11 or other Win8 Pro tablet?
 
Sony isn't a tablet, it's a convertible. It's an ultra book, with a 180degree rotating screen.

All the win8 pro tablets other than razer seem to have basically the same specs.
Also interested in the kupa x15, but that's even more expensive. Screen size and aspect ration on the surface is also a strong selling point IMO. Less black bars on videos.
 
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Glaucus said:
I think it will be fine for gaming, especially non FPS or older stuff, I don't even game at 1900x1080 on my desktop, screen doesn't even support that res.
It's a 10" screen also, so absolutely no need for that res.

But does depends on the games, no one would suggest crysis or other FPS but I'm sure it'll work absolutely fine for rts and other games.

Even the CPU is faster than my desktop, even the i3 in the bottom w700s are faster. Gfx a is lower though. People get to hung up on playing stuff at high settings.

The razor how ever sucks as a tablet, have you seen the size of it?
A nice all round tablet, that I can play things like sins of a solar empire, GSB, civ5 and similar on when at work or stuck ina hotel when I'm working away.
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The CPU in surface is just a dual core with HT and Turbo, it's just a glorified i3, but it's in a different league entirely when it comes to binning.

The HD4000 in my laptop will be pretty much the same as the HD4000 in the Surface Pro, and that struggles, if that struggles, why would the Surface Pro be any better?

Older games from PS2/Xbox generation it'd handle fine, although probably not at native resolution.

EDIT : http://ark.intel.com/products/65697/Intel-Core-i3-3217U-Processor-3M-Cache-1_80-GHz
Against
http://ark.intel.com/products/65707

Interestingly they're priced the same.

EDIT : 2 Name me a benchmark/game to try and I will.
 
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Martini1991 said:
snip.
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The CPU is fine were talking about GPU grunt or lack off.
However hd4000 and hd3000 is capable of playing games.

Hd3000 (using that rather than hd4000) as the M chips are cut down, can play skyrim for example. We need some actual game benchmarks for these CPUs, but I can't see it being as bad as you say. I just think your trying to play FPS or similar at high res/detail.

It's hard finding actual benchmarks. But found this for the acer w700
I had a chance to load up Batman Arkham Asylum the other day and was pleasantly surprised by the performance. The tablet was able to run the game in 720p (1360x768) at medium graphics settings with no trouble. I had v-sync on and noticed a few dropped frames occasionally but the game played smoothly. Running the built in benchmark in Batman yielded a minimum FPS of 15, maximum of 71 and an average of 39. Pretty impressive for such a small device.
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In terms of battery life I was able to play Civ 5 with Skype App running right next to it through the awesome multi task feature of Windows 8, and running this through a thumb drive (which consumes a lot of power) for about 3 hours on medium brightness. The heat was noticable, but what you would expect with all the work I was putting on the GPU.
I loaded steam (onto a USB 3.0 Patriot thumb drive) and was playing a few games that I thought would work well with tablets without a problem they were snappy and didnt notice any lag even though playing on a thumb drive
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Either way I'm sure it'll be enough grunt for me, when I'm sat in a hotel all evening with nothing to do. It really does depend on what games you play and at what settings.
My desktop monitor doesn't even support full hd and I'm not a detail junkie.

As for CPU power, it'll be a big upgrade.

E6400 1271 (although I'm on e6200 but no benchmark for that)
I5 3317u 3096
 
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DMC struggled to run at lowest at 1366x768, it was like 15FPS.

And how can I be trying to play at high res when my device is only 1366x768 in the first place?
Walking Dead can play lowest at 1366x768 around 23-30FPS, it's rather playable.

The fog affect in the Assassins Creed 1 menu brings the IGP to its knees.
That could probably be playable at 1366x768 if you avoid crowds/heavy scenes (Impossible)

Dawn of War II Retribution averaged 22 FPS with minimum of 10.

Tell me to run a benchmark and I will.
I can't see the i5 in Surface Pro having a faster IGP than my i3's HD4000, their TDP is the same.

And as I said, the TDP of these chips are 17W. The TDP difference between Ivy and Haswell is almost that, and that's all in the IGP, so we're talking about small amounts of power here.

EDIT : The only thing that could change performance a fair chunk would be the IGP's memory speed, if it has dedicated memory, etc.
 
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Nothing that I've seen, its changed from coming soon to coming in early 2013...

In theory the 128Gb Pro should be faster than the 64Gb version due to increase in write speeds on the 128Gb SSD, shame it looks like such a PITA to upgrade the drive though, personally 64Gb will do me (I'll get the 128Gb eitherway) but there are people out there that wouldnt manage on that space..
 
Yeah, for work users here there will be a handful of apps installed as well as office, then an ost file that can hit 25gb...
64gb a no go for us as a work device...
 
Website has changed again, now says "Coming soon, starting at £"

Talk about taking the ****...
 
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