Surface 3 4Gb vs Surface Pro M3 4Gb

[slysy]

Which do you all think is the better buy between these two? I want to use it for gaming, but only for games from the windows store (Fruit Ninja etc).

I don't really care about the price difference. Obviously I would prefer the power of the Pro4, but it looks significantly heavier. Is it comfortable to hold as a tablet for long sessions (e.g. couple of hours)?

 

[boltman2013]

Which do you all think is the better buy between these two? I want to use it for gaming, but only for games from the windows store (Fruit Ninja etc).

I don't really care about the price difference. Obviously I would prefer the power of the Pro4, but it looks significantly heavier. Is it comfortable to hold as a tablet for long sessions (e.g. couple of hours)?

Night and day performance difference and screen difference... its fine as a tablet without the type kb

 

[badMojo69]

I dont even own a cover from my S3 I still use my old S2 RT cover. It's not the fastest thing on the planet, but if I was going to buy one. I'd go for the SP4 M3 if all I wanted was to use it as a tablet.

 

[snakebitten]

Significantly heavier? Hmmm. It might look that way, I guess. But I think we are talking about ounces. And very few of those.

 

[onlysublime]

Can you get to a store to try them out?

A Surface 3 is definitely lighter and more portable. It has a smaller screen. It comes with the Atom x7-Z8700 which is a 2W CPU. The SP4 comes in a wide variety of CPUs with the low-end being the M3 which is a 4.5W CPU. Now, running at 2W or 4.5W, you're not going to need a cooling system which is why the Surface 3 is fanless without vents.

The three tiers of CPUs are the Atom at the low end (2W), Core M at the midrange (M3, M5, M7) and Core at the mid/high end (i3, i5, i7) which range from 15W to 45W. i3 will probably be retired because there's overlap with Core M.

The i5 in the SP4 is a 15W CPU. The SP4 is not "heavy" but if form factor is a strong consideration, the Surface 3 is definitely more manageable and easier to hold for a long time. But if you're using it for games, the lower end CPUs can struggle, even with Windows Store games. Part of the reason is the high resolution these Surface machines are running at. The Surface 3 is 1920x1280. The SP4 is running at 2736 x 1824. Rendering games at these resolutions pushes the GPU hard and the only solution is running the resolution lower (which is not optimal because the LCD panel is designed to run at the native resolution). If you lower the resolution, the image will look soft. There's a Pencil Blade game in the store (knockoff of Fruit Ninja but still a great game). That brings down an Acer S7 with Core i7 Haswell when running at the default resolution (2560x1440). When my friend dropped down the resolution to 1920x1080, the game was buttery smooth.

 

[WildKarrde]

You mean the Surface (not Pro) 3 vs. the SP4 m3? You'll get faaaaaaaar better performance in everything, including gaming from the SP4 m3, though I must say it's not a gaming laptop by any means.

That said, my understanding is that the SP4 m3 performance is quite similar to my SP2, in which case you will be able to play a lot of games on it with low settings without too much of an issue. All Blizzard games run on my SP2, and quite a few other newer games.

I considered going with the SP4 m3 myself, but really needed at least 8GB of RAM to be able to justify any upgrade.

 

[slysy]

You mean the Surface (not Pro) 3 vs. the SP4 m3? You'll get faaaaaaaar better performance in everything, including gaming from the SP4 m3, though I must say it's not a gaming laptop by any means.

That said, my understanding is that the SP4 m3 performance is quite similar to my SP2, in which case you will be able to play a lot of games on it with low settings without too much of an issue. All Blizzard games run on my SP2, and quite a few other newer games.

I considered going with the SP4 m3 myself, but really needed at least 8GB of RAM to be able to justify any upgrade.

Yes, that is what I meant. I'm only interested in windows store gaming, so I would hope it would be fine on the m3. I agree about the 8Gb RAM, very annoying. MS should offer an 8gb option with m3 processor. We shouldn't have to choose between either fanless or 8Gb.

I currently have a Surface RT and it can get uncomfortable after a while to hold. That's the only reason I was really considering the Surface3 over the Pro4. Pro4 is going to weigh even more than my RT

 

[WildKarrde]

I'm not familiar with Windows Store gaming, as I buy 98% of my games through Steam, but as I said before, my SP2 can handle most modern games, so I assume the SP4 m3 can handle most of them as well.

If you're talking about mobile app type gaming, the Surface 3 is probably more than adequate, if you're 100% sure you won't regret not having the ability to have much more power with the SP4 m3.

I used to game a bit with my Acer W510, but it was fairly limited.

 

[onlysublime]

Try Pencil Blade (Windows Store app that's a Fruit Ninja clone) on a Surface 3. That will bring it to its knees.

 

[slysy]

It seems there is no good option for people wanting a tablet to play the windows store games. Surface Pro 3/4 is a bit big (can't reach to the middle in landscape mode) and Surface3 is not powerful enough given the screen resolution. I tried Hydro Thunder on a Surface3 and part of the screen in the bottom-right was black, like it was running in 1080p instead of 1280