Microsoft need to boost the graphics capability in the next Surface Pro

[Grant Butler]

Intels built in chip is just crap, so crap in fact that the Tegra K1 and whatever is inside the iPad are almost as powerful. It is useless and cannot do anything, it even struggles with playing CS:GO which is a game based on a 10 year old engine. Microsoft need to either put an Nvidia chip inside the Surface Pro 4 or add a port for external GPU support like I've seen on some ultrabooks.

They say this is meant to be a Laptop replacement, but really it isn't for the price range it is appealing to.

 

[realwarder]

Every one of your very few posts here are basically trolling and to trying to cause conflict.

Oh well

 

[GoodThings2Life]

I beg to differ. If it can power several 4K monitors at once it's got plenty of horsepower for most tasks. Then again, you are looking for a gaming system, you're probably not looking at Surface.

Now that said, if they could include and cool an Nvidia chip, that would be awesome! But not worth the battery hit overall, I think.

PS-- as realwarder suggested, stop trolling for conflict.

 

[Ed Boland]

The Tegra chips are Nvidia chips lol..

But yeah, I'd love to see a "gaming edition" Surface Pro, but as GoodThing mentioned, battery life would suck!

 

[Ed Boland]

The Tegra chips are Nvidia chips lol..

But yeah, I'd love to see a "gaming edition" Surface Pro, but as GoodThing mentioned, battery life would suck!

Edit: Idk what chipset the S3 pro has, but I know my Surface 2 RT has Nvidia's Tegra 4 which does pretty good considering.. hell I can play Modern Combat 5: Blackout nice and smooth.

Edit #2: I also recently sold my S2 RT.. so I'm now in the market for a pro.. waiting for the new Win10 tablets. S4 PRO?

 

[Grant Butler]

PS-- as realwarder suggested, stop trolling for conflict.

Valid posts are trolling? Just because you disagree doesn't make someone else's opinion to be worthless trolling.

People say the excuse of "this isn't a gaming device"... well why shouldn't it be able to play games for the price it costs? The built in Haswell chip is garbage, it cannot do anything on x86 and is totally inadequate for the device it is on.

 

[Grant Butler]

The Tegra chips are Nvidia chips lol..

But yeah, I'd love to see a "gaming edition" Surface Pro, but as GoodThing mentioned, battery life would suck!

Did I say it wasn't Nvidia? I said the K1 and then whatever is inside the iPad, I never coupled these together. Nvidia also make GPUs designed for x86 operating systems coupled with Intel CPUs where it disables the on board.

Battery life wont be decreased much more than using the one built into the Haswell chip, Nvidia have gotten really great at using as little power as possible these days, besides what is to stop the hardware from switching automatically when needed? Any battery device doing intensive gaming will not last long, but people don't complain because they know why.

Why shouldn't I be able to play games on this if I want? I mean Source based games isn't much to ask for.

 

[WillysJeepMan]

Did I say it wasn't Nvidia? I said the K1 and then whatever is inside the iPad, I never coupled these together. Nvidia also make GPUs designed for x86 operating systems coupled with Intel CPUs where it disables the on board.

Battery life wont be decreased much more than using the one built into the Haswell chip, Nvidia have gotten really great at using as little power as possible these days, besides what is to stop the hardware from switching automatically when needed? Any battery device doing intensive gaming will not last long, but people don't complain because they know why.

Why shouldn't I be able to play games on this if I want? I mean Source based games isn't much to ask for.

One of the worst things about the Surface 2 and Surface RT is that they use NVidia chips. I've yet to see a quality device put out by Microsoft that contains one. Many of the Surface 2/RT issues were caused by poor drivers. Some of the deficiencies of the Zune HD were due to NVidia's poor support of their chip. Hopefully Microsoft will learn. I will never buy another Microsoft device that contains an NVidia chip.

 

[xandros9]

People say the excuse of "this isn't a gaming device"... well why shouldn't it be able to play games for the price it costs? The built in Haswell chip is garbage, it cannot do anything on x86 and is totally inadequate for the device it is on.

It isn't a gaming device. It has integrated graphics, just like pretty much any device in its class.

MacBook Air? No discrete option.
Most other ultrabooks? Intel HD whatever, 4400, 5000, whatevs.

The money is going towards the design, the compact design and other non-gaming things.
I/You wouldn't purchase a more gaming oriented laptop and proceed to complain about how its not as svelte as a Surface or MacBook now would we?

Sorry, but there is no miracle device that can do literally everything, maybe in the future, but there's no running Crysis maxed out at native resolution in a dinky tablet just yet.

My Surface works just fine for what I need. Starcraft II? Ready to rollout. Planetside 2? Deploying. Minecraft? Break out the blocks. Halo 2? I need a weapon.
At max settings? Well... no.
The hardware is not the most powerful (what can you expect, this class of device prioritizes size and efficiency rather than raw horsepower since it has a more limited thermal/power budget than, say, a desktop.) but by no means is it garbage. (I can show you actual garbage if you'd like though.)

Dial back the hyperbole a few hundred notches too.

As for your CS:GO being based on a 10 year old engine, are you saying that engine hasn't been upgraded in 10 years? 10+ year old games (Halo, Half-Life, Half-Life 2 & Episodes) worked flawlessly on systems I've had that are weaker than the Surface Pro. (Halo 2 was playable, flys on the Pro.)
GO does not look like a 10 year old game.

Also, the display has a lot of pixels, don't run it native resolution. Kick the resolution down in the settings, it'll run better. Same for any similar computer.

 

[muneshyne21]

My Surface Pro 2 can actually handle Revit 2014. Thats ridiculous considering its not meant for such usage. Haswell is probably the first good power sipping x86 cpu family made. Complaining that a Prius doesnt have the speed and power of a Corvette is kind of stupid. The Razor tablet showed how bulky and crappy your battery life could be with a dedicated graphics card in a tablet. Plus it heated up like crazy.

 

[JamesPTao]

My Surface Pro 2 can actually handle Revit 2014. Thats ridiculous considering its not meant for such usage. Haswell is probably the first good power sipping x86 cpu family made. Complaining that a Prius doesnt have the speed and power of a Corvette is kind of stupid. The Razor tablet showed how bulky and crappy your battery life could be with a dedicated graphics card in a tablet. Plus it heated up like crazy.

Thank you! No matter how good it gets small form factor will always have sacrifices the same as a laptop vs desktop. You want a powerhouse buy a lager laptop meant for it. You need more power buy a workstation with a zeon class chip.

 

[emiel1976]

As you want a gaming tablet with windows 8, get the razer tablet. Best gaming tablet that there is with some nice extra things.
The desktop games run better on a decent gaming PC. The tablets aren't made for it. The games in the windows store run great on mist tablets. Those games are made for it just like the games in ios.

 

[Geodude074]

If you expect an ultrabook with integrated graphics to perform like a gaming laptop, you're gonna have a bad time.

 

[xandros9]

If you expect an ultrabook with integrated graphics to perform like a gaming laptop, you're gonna have a bad time.