Surface Pro 3 and Video Games

[Fred Mertz]

I know that the SP3 is not a gaming rig, but that won't stop people from wanting to play AAA games on their new toy. Very interested to hear what games you are playing on your SP3. So, list the games you are playing, resolutions and how they are running, as well as heat issues, etc...

 

[omegafiler]

For top end games, so far I've just played Starcraft 2; and well, it did work. I ran it at native (crazy, I know) resolution with all the details turned down to lowest. Started up a 4v4 coop game with the AI and off I went. At best, FPS was in the 30's. Towards the end with lots of visible action, it was dipping down to 10-15 FPS. But I have to say, it was technically playable. Although next time I'll turn down the resolution for a bit more frames. I'll be trying out Civ 5 later.

Oh, and yes, it will get hot. External temps were around 108 degrees at the top/right and the fan was spinning away.

 

[MoggSquad]

I haven't gamed on mine yet, but have installed Steam and League of Legends.

On my SP2, League of Legends and Dark Souls 2 ran just fine.

I imagine many games will run good enough, but not at full resolution.

 

[Jas00555]

So far I've only played Chaser, Ride to Hell, Empire Earth 2, and Outlast. All of them run nice.

 

[viciouzone]

sp3 i5 128 4g
Wildstar - Playable (Low settings)
Shadowrun Returns - Runs Great
XCOM Enemy Unknown - Gameplay is great. Video cut scenes are minimaly choppy

Gets VERY warm

 

[KJones75]

Does anyone here play Kerbal Space Program? It's one of the few PC games that I play, and I'm curious whether the SP3 can handle it. It isn't exactly Titanfall, but spacecraft with a lot of parts can cause low frame rates on some computers.

 

[Jas00555]

Does anyone here play Kerbal Space Program? It's one of the few PC games that I play, and I'm curious whether the SP3 can handle it. It isn't exactly Titanfall, but spacecraft with a lot of parts can cause low frame rates on some computers.

I'm waiting for that to go on the Steam sale, then I can test it out.

 

[mazel_t]

I have looked into League of Legends quite a bit in the last day. On minimum settings at 1080p NOT NATIVE the game gets between 30-50 fps.During play the CPU sits at about 1.1Ghz (rated at 1.9, turbo to 2.9) and 61 degrees C while the GPU sits between 400-500 Mhz (base clock @ 200 Mhz, turbo to 1100 Mhz). What really bothers me is that when I first enter the game and everything is on low, I get between 120-150 fps! At this frame rate, the CPU is clocked at about 2.7 Ghz and the GPU at 700-800 Mhz, so the SP3 is obviously working really hard and in turbo mode. I was super impressed it could run so well. The problem is the CPU core temp rises to 90 degrees C at these clocked speeds! When this happens, the SP3 drops its CPU and GPU frequencies to what I stated before. So it cannot maintain high frequencies for more than a few minutes at a time because the fan cannot keep the CPU cool enough. Not a great result for anyone looking at gaming because the hardware is very capable, but hindered by the cooling. If anyone can figure out a way to see the fan speeds I would love that (tried Speedfan with no luck). If anyone is able to maintain higher clock rates or even higher temperatures for sustained periods of time I would also be very interested in your secret.

 

[chadthebuilder]

Does anyone here play Kerbal Space Program? It's one of the few PC games that I play, and I'm curious whether the SP3 can handle it. It isn't exactly Titanfall, but spacecraft with a lot of parts can cause low frame rates on some computers.

I'll try it out tomorrow. I can't test how touch functions though, since the digitizer in my SP3 isn't working (*cries*). However, I can try it using the keyboard and my wireless mouse.

Posted via Windows Phone Central App

 

[KJones75]

I'll try it out tomorrow. I can't test how touch functions though, since the digitizer in my SP3 isn't working (*cries*). However, I can try it using the keyboard and my wireless mouse.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I don't imagine that touch would work too well for KSP, except maybe for building the rockets.

Sorry to hear your digitizer isn't working.

 

[anon(5383410)]

I'll be running the battlefield hardline beta while debugging several visual studio projects simultaneously
:grin:

 

[xboxonthego3]

I have played Civ 5 and it works really well and runs smoothly. On lows settings. Windows complains about low memory even though I am only using 40% or so of memory while playing, found that odd. Runs a little hot. Will be playing Age of Empires 2 HD later. Installing Skyrim now. Hoping it runs smoothly saw some promising videos online with the Surface pro 2 playing it. Tempted to get Borderlands 2 for $4.99 from steam. But i'll hold off and see how well skyrim is.

Thanks.

 

[Brandon McLean]

I have played Civ 5 and it works really well and runs smoothly. On lows settings. Windows complains about low memory even though I am only using 40% or so of memory while playing, found that odd. Runs a little hot. Will be playing Age of Empires 2 HD later. Installing Skyrim now. Hoping it runs smoothly saw some promising videos online with the Surface pro 2 playing it. Tempted to get Borderlands 2 for $4.99 from steam. But i'll hold off and see how well skyrim is.

Thanks.

will you be playing Skyrim with mods? I'm interested in knowing how the sp3 holds up running Skyrim with mods.

 

[xboxonthego3]

will you be playing Skyrim with mods? I'm interested in knowing how the sp3 holds up running Skyrim with mods.

I have never played Skyrim on the computer. So I might try figuring out how to do the mods later.

 

[Brandon McLean]

ahh okay. it's quite easy actually. I can help you if you need
Sent from my Lumia Icon using Tapatalk

 

[Cryio]

You can max out The Witcher 1 easily in 720p at least. Long game plus great replay value.

Also, I expect The Witcher 2 to be quite playable on the lowest settings

 

[xboxonthego3]

I'm impressed. I have played about 4 hours of skyrim. Used my Xbox one controller to play. The graphics are low. But decent enough and the frame rate is good enough to play.

 

[garak0410]

Desktop games are looking good to me but they drain batter 2x to 3x times faster...

 

[xboxonthego3]

Desktop games are looking good to me but they drain batter 2x to 3x times faster...

Yep. That's expected. Since desktop games are usually more intensive. Can't complain myself though. I wouldn't be playing desktop games away from the outlet anyway.

 

[garak0410]

Yep. That's expected. Since desktop games are usually more intensive. Can't complain myself though. I wouldn't be playing desktop games away from the outlet anyway.

Same here. If I'm playing a desktop game, I'll most likely be using a mouse on a flat surface too so might as well have it plugged into...