Light gaming - How light are we talking?

[LazyEvul]

I was eyeing the Surface Pro 2 quite a bit before Microsoft dropped the bomb that is the Pro 3. Needless to say, I pre-ordered immediately - took advantage of my student discount to grab the 256GB i5. However, I've been thinking a fair bit about how I might end up using my SP3, and I have just one concern - light gaming.

You see, I'm a bit of a gamer. Not a huge one, but I do enjoy a good game, especially if it's multiplayer with some friends. Now, I fully realize the Surface Pro 3 is not a gaming machine, but I'm wondering the extent of light gaming that might be possible on it. The game that most concerns me is actually League of Legends - it's the only vaguely nice-looking game I might like to play sometimes. I've seen the Surface Pro 2 deal beautifully with this game (60 FPS on pretty decent settings), but the i5 Pro 3 has the same GPU with a lot more pixels to push around - and I'm a little too OCD to drop the resolution below native.

So, my question is, does anyone think (or perhaps know someone who could try/has tried) the i5 SP3 could handle League of Legends or similar games? I'm not expecting high settings, but I would like to run it at native resolution as I've said. Everything else I might consider playing is far too lightweight to be an issue I'd imagine (i.e. FTL, Papers Please, Prison Architect), so if LoL can run, they should too. I'd love to buy the i7 version to stay on the safe side with a better GPU, but I'm already putting down a small fortune for the 256GB i5 just to get the extra RAM - unless someone knows some magical $250 discount code, I don't really think that's an option

 

[TheJoester09]

I don't know a lot about League of Legends, but I'm able to play SWTOR on my Surface Pro 1 with medium settings. I think you'll be fine. Take a look around YouTube and find some videos of older gen Pros running some games. That should be a good gauge for you.

 

[gpmic]

I've never owned a Surface device so I can't comment on it's actual gaming ability, but I will give a thumbs up to Steam's new in-home streaming. When I first tried it the games were unplayable due to lag, but after upgrading my router (there was also a Steam update last week) it's been awesome. I'm able to play all my Windows games on my rMBP and I imagine the Surface would even be superior with it's 802.11ac wifi (if you have an ac router). Definitely worth checking out.

Also, I believe someone on reddit mentioned they were able to play LoL on their Surface with the lowest settings.

 

[StevoPhilo]

LoL isn't a graphics intensive game. You should be able to play it fine. It wouldn't be on the highest settings but probably on medium or low.

 

[garak0410]

Well, what is "light?" I played Skyrim, Portal 2 and a TON of desktop games on my Surface Pro 2 just fine. Mind you, lower settings and they do look better on my desktop PC but it was more than adequate for gaming. I imagine the SP3 will be as well.

 

[LazyEvul]

I don't know a lot about League of Legends, but I'm able to play SWTOR on my Surface Pro 1 with medium settings. I think you'll be fine. Take a look around YouTube and find some videos of older gen Pros running some games. That should be a good gauge for you.

The Pro 2 deals very impressively well with League from what I've seen - with most settings on high it holds a steady 60 FPS. I'm just concerned that the higher resolution Pro 3 with an identical GPU will struggle with it.

I've never owned a Surface device so I can't comment on it's actual gaming ability, but I will give a thumbs up to Steam's new in-home streaming. When I first tried it the games were unplayable due to lag, but after upgrading my router (there was also a Steam update last week) it's been awesome. I'm able to play all my Windows games on my rMBP and I imagine the Surface would even be superior with it's 802.11ac wifi (if you have an ac router). Definitely worth checking out.

Also, I believe someone on reddit mentioned they were able to play LoL on their Surface with the lowest settings.

I had a look around the reddit, only seem to have confirmation from owners of older Surfaces. Thanks for mentioning Steam in-home streaming though, that looks really cool and I will definitely give it a try. Shame that it doesn't work on the go though.

Well, what is "light?" I played Skyrim, Portal 2 and a TON of desktop games on my Surface Pro 2 just fine. Mind you, lower settings and they do look better on my desktop PC but it was more than adequate for gaming. I imagine the SP3 will be as well.

League of Legends is probably the most intensive game I'd like to play on it, and as far as I know it's considered pretty lightweight. Heck it works well on the Pro 2, but the few benchmarks I've seen so far seem to suggest that the higher resolution has taken its toll on the GPU in the Pro 3. These are benchmarks, however, so I'm curious what they translate to in actual gaming.

 

[MoggSquad]

I had my SP2 (i5 / 4gb) with me on a trip last month. Played plenty of LOL on it. I can't recall the settings as I let the game determine, but I'd imagine at least medium. Also, I load in the game much quicker than 75% of the people during the load screen. (I can't check to verify as I just sold it.)

My debate is the i5/8gb/hd4400 vs the i7/8gb/hd5000. I know the i5 would play any of my steam games just fine, but would be nice to have the option to play a multiplayer game such as BF4 when I travel. I should look up how the SP2 handled BF4 multi.

​Anyone with good knowledge of hd4400 vs hd5000 feel free to chime in.

 

[LazyEvul]

I had my SP2 (i5 / 4gb) with me on a trip last month. Played plenty of LOL on it. I can't recall the settings as I let the game determine, but I'd imagine at least medium. Also, I load in the game much quicker than 75% of the people during the load screen. (I can't check to verify as I just sold it.)

My debate is the i5/8gb/hd4400 vs the i7/8gb/hd5000. I know the i5 would play any of my steam games just fine, but would be nice to have the option to play a multiplayer game such as BF4 when I travel. I should look up how the SP2 handled BF4 multi.

​Anyone with good knowledge of hd4400 vs hd5000 feel free to chime in.

Glad to hear that about LoL. With a bit of luck the SP3 will still be able to deal with it, even if it's at lower settings.

As far the HD 5000 vs 4400 issue, Anandtech had a good piece on that a while back. I can't find it right now, but I believe they saw an average FPS improvement of 10 to 15 percent with the 5000. Some games showed very minimal improvement, but a few saw significant improvements. They concluded, however, that we won't see any huge strides in the GPU until Broadwell hits.

 

[MoggSquad]

My worry was playing with they type keyboard as I use high end gaming gear on my desktop, but I did very well. While I am more responsive on my desktop, I still felt it played very good with the type 2.

On a side note I think there is a chunk of LOL players probably still on WindowsXP with ancient hardware. The SP2 can load in rather quickly while I would get stuck waiting minutes in some cases for some people here and there.

Glad to hear that about LoL. With a bit of luck the SP3 will still be able to deal with it, even if it's at lower settings.

As far the HD 5000 vs 4400 issue, Anandtech had a good piece on that a while back. I can't find it right now, but I believe they saw an average FPS improvement of 10 to 15 percent with the 5000. Some games showed very minimal improvement, but a few saw significant improvements. They concluded, however, that we won't see any huge strides in the GPU until Broadwell hits.

 

[garak0410]

Also, I load in the game much quicker than 75% of the people during the load screen. (I can't check to verify as I just sold it.)

I can concur here...Skyrim loads much after on my SP2 than on my main PC with better graphics card.

 

[gpmic]

I can concur here...Skyrim loads much after on my SP2 than on my main PC with better graphics card.

This is likely due to the SSD in the SP2 vs the HD on your main PC. I tend to keep the games I play a lot on my PC's SSD and for games I play infrequently or I'm just trying out, I'll install on the (much larger) secondary SATA drive.

 

[garak0410]

This is likely due to the SSD in the SP2 vs the HD on your main PC. I tend to keep the games I play a lot on my PC's SSD and for games I play infrequently or I'm just trying out, I'll install on the (much larger) secondary SATA drive.

It goes without saying though...in the snowy parts of Skyrim, it is like, well, night and day between the SP and PC with Graphics card. No contest...still, if I need a Steam Game fix, the Surface Pro handles it nicely... Though audio on Tex Murphy: Tesla Effect is having issues...

 

[Funky Cricket]

I can play LoL on my surface pro 1 (although risk burning down my house).