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Surface Book Is Microsoft's Glorious New Laptop - twice as fast as macbook pro
- Thread starter mocoworm
- Start date
0.1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55
Banned
You and me both.... but i'm going to wait for the official teardown/specs. It's gonna be a good Christmas present to the wife/myself.
Prior to the Surface Book announcement yesterday, I was prepared to purchase a Thinkpad X1 Carbon. I still prefer the Thinkpad aesthetic, but the Surface Book out paces it when it comes to features. Ultrabook/tablet, discrete gpu, stylus, higher pixel density, 5 point touch pad....... it's pretty damn boss.
Hardware is still great no matter how you feel about OS-X... Dual boot into Windows and have the best of both worlds.
That's the point, this hardware is potentially better. I buy Macs for OSX, if I'm no longer using OSX as my main OS then there is little point in getting a Macbook over this.
neogaffer1
Banned
for a whille asus was doing a thing with their zenbooks where they included a subwoofer in box and a special 2.5mm port on the laptop only for said subwoofer. curious if that made a huge difference.
Diablohead
Member
an X-mini plugged into the earphone port is amazing for small devices.
Hello? This is Hailun!
Member
Hardware is still great no matter how you feel about OS-X... Dual boot into Windows and have the best of both worlds
I did that and it was buggy as all get out.
pro 4 should be using the same skylake-U CPUs. The SP4 i5 will be the i5-6200u which is 2.3GHz base speed and 2.7-2.8GHz turbo (dual or single core)
edit:
are they sure? Intel slides have that as a 2016 chip?
Hello? This is Hailun!
Member
I game just fine on my SP3 TYVM.
Netherscourge
Banned
When they say Dual Core i5/i7, do they mean:
1. 1 core with Hyperthreading? (1 + 1 HT core)
2. Two single-threaded cores? (2 cores, no HT)
3. Two cores with Hyperthreading? (2 + 2HT cores)
Need someone to open up Task Manager on one of those things.
1. 1 core with Hyperthreading? (1 + 1 HT core)
2. Two single-threaded cores? (2 cores, no HT)
3. Two cores with Hyperthreading? (2 + 2HT cores)
Need someone to open up Task Manager on one of those things.
SmartWaffles
Member
http://ark.intel.com/products/88190/Intel-Core-i5-6300U-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_00-GHz
The i5 in this thing, 2 cores 4 threads, whatever i7 model they are using should be like this as well.
neogaffer1
Banned
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Luckily for you, there's an OT thread if you'd prefer that one.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1120994
Netherscourge
Banned
I'll most certainly use it as a gaming machine, if the GPU is up to snuff.
I've been trying to get out of the "big, ugly, strobe-light Desktop PC Tower of Doom" genre for a while.
If it can handle newer-ish games, I'll be happy for at least 3 years. I'll even turn off AA and keep it at 1080p if need be. So long as I can keep everything else maxed, I'm good.
All I really want is 1080p and 60fps. I don't need crazy high resolutions for games.
Problem is - I think the GTX 980M is the only GPU that can do that at the moment and that thing needs serious cooling. Not sure if the Surface Book has enough room for that type of cooling, unless there's something new inside that keyboard base we don't know about.
Would be nice if Microsoft let Ars/Anandtech/Toms benchmark the damn things already...
I've been trying to get out of the "big, ugly, strobe-light Desktop PC Tower of Doom" genre for a while.
If it can handle newer-ish games, I'll be happy for at least 3 years. I'll even turn off AA and keep it at 1080p if need be. So long as I can keep everything else maxed, I'm good.
All I really want is 1080p and 60fps. I don't need crazy high resolutions for games.
Problem is - I think the GTX 980M is the only GPU that can do that at the moment and that thing needs serious cooling. Not sure if the Surface Book has enough room for that type of cooling, unless there's something new inside that keyboard base we don't know about.
Would be nice if Microsoft let Ars/Anandtech/Toms benchmark the damn things already...
How do you explain all the games I play on my Surface Pro 3 then? I've sunk ~30 hours into Diablo 3 in the last few weeks. And the Surface Book will be 1-2 orders of magnitude faster.
What about this thread? Should it not exist on the Gaming side because it's "not a gaming machine"?
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=529152
SirMossyBloke
Member
Please go on, oh wise one.
If an iPhone or an Android phone is a gaming device, this is?
You can forget about it. It most likely doesn't even have a 960M and the 960M isn't good enough to deliver 1080p60 in most new games (even if the GPU turned out to be the 960m, it would be bottlenecked by 1GB of VRAM).
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
I plan on using a SP4 for a lot of my sports sim stuff. OOTP, Football Manager, etc.
Prophet Steve
Member
Yeah, I wonder the same thing about consoles, phones and handhelds.
They pale in comparison to high end PCs. Should just keep that on gaming side really and move the rest to a "Casual gaming" part of the forum.
It really depends on what you are looking for. I've been waiting for a 2-in-1 premium device that can replace my Macbook Air. I've been leaning towards the Surface Pro line, but the Book will actually fit me better because I need the extra beef the dGPU will deliver, higher resolution and 3h more battery life is also a plus.
Now the build quality of the Surface products are quite astonishing in my opinion. It really feels way better than most other products in the same market.
The Surface line is not designed to compete with the likes of Dell, HP or Lenovo. They are designed to fill a market that these OEM's have not really catered to.
qa_engineer
Member
So 1 GB of GDDR5? That's disappointing but expected for a 13 inch laptop thats both thin and under 5lbs.
Edit: And we still don't know what GPU it is specifically. I am not going to pre-order something if I don't know what you're selling me.
Edit: And we still don't know what GPU it is specifically. I am not going to pre-order something if I don't know what you're selling me.
The f...
Yes it is. Anything with this form factor having dedicated gpus is huge because it's so rare - the dgpu making it a gaming machine.
dragonelite
Member
I'm gonna second this...
Still 1gb of gddr5 sounds disappointing given most of the keyboard is the gpu and battery?
But i'm also interested in the dell xps 15 with infinity display.
Gonna wait for the benchmarks and reviews.
There are plenty of people gaming on Surface Pro, and this is much better. Imho anything that runs desktop Windows with a keyboard and USB ports can (and will) be used for PC gaming.
Head.spawn
Junior Member
The hinge on this thing blew my mind last night.
The position you put the screen in is extremely stable.. Much sturdier than my Asus laptop. When you detach the screen part, the hinge is completely frozen in place until you reattach the screen. It won't move unless there is an electrical current from the screen.
The base is unrealistically thin.
The position you put the screen in is extremely stable.. Much sturdier than my Asus laptop. When you detach the screen part, the hinge is completely frozen in place until you reattach the screen. It won't move unless there is an electrical current from the screen.
The base is unrealistically thin.
edit: lol beaten.
Anyone find it annoying that MS didn't send out review devices? Surely it can't be that difficult to get 50 of these to hand out to all the major reviewers. That and hiding the GPU/CPU specs. Couldn't anyone at the event just open up the NVidia control panel and post footage?
brainchild
Banned
That was an incredible trailer. DAY ONE!!!
qa_engineer
Member
At this point MSI's GS60 Ghost Pro with 970M and Asus' GL55 with the 960M are better options for gamers. Both are thin and light and don't look gaudy, although they both sport bigger 15 inch screens.
Assuming this does well, I would urge MS to build a slightly bigger 14.5 inch version with a better GPU. Call it the Surface Book Pro. Ha.
They've sent out review devices for all previous Surface products. They will probably do it for Surface Book as well.
neogaffer1
Banned
12 hrs for a device with a dGPU requires a giant ass battery.
The fuck? Of course it'll play a few games. It's a windows laptop. Every single one of the things will run games in some capacity.
But I don't see the point in having an OT on the latest Samsung or Asus Ultrabook on gaming side either. What does the Surface Book have to offer in terms of actual gaming hardware? I mean it's an incredible piece of tech but if you're looking to play crysis or any other high-end PC game this thing is dead in the water anyway. There are concessions to be made for such a slim and sleek profile. A dedicated mobile GPU in the base isn't really going to change it into a beast gaming rig and I think we all know this.
And the people playing games on their Surface tablets. Well congrats. I too played Tyrian on my Macbook Air, that doesn't make it a gaming computer. It would be pretty odd to see an OT on the new Macbook Air on gaming side.
The surface book is not a 'gaming laptop'. Just an amazingly designed piece of PC hardware running windows. To think I'd even have to spell this out is weird as hell.
But I don't see the point in having an OT on the latest Samsung or Asus Ultrabook on gaming side either. What does the Surface Book have to offer in terms of actual gaming hardware? I mean it's an incredible piece of tech but if you're looking to play crysis or any other high-end PC game this thing is dead in the water anyway. There are concessions to be made for such a slim and sleek profile. A dedicated mobile GPU in the base isn't really going to change it into a beast gaming rig and I think we all know this.
And the people playing games on their Surface tablets. Well congrats. I too played Tyrian on my Macbook Air, that doesn't make it a gaming computer. It would be pretty odd to see an OT on the new Macbook Air on gaming side.
The surface book is not a 'gaming laptop'. Just an amazingly designed piece of PC hardware running windows. To think I'd even have to spell this out is weird as hell.
neogaffer1
Banned
macbook air is just another ultrabook, same with other things you mentioned. surface got a thread because it was a portable tablet that had the power of a laptop, so people wanted to see what games they could run on it, just like there was a thread for gaming on 8" windows tablets.
the reason this thread was created is because this thing has a dGPU. we don't know which dGPU it is other than being Nvidia made and having 1 GB GDDR5, but there is some evidence it's a 960m, which would actually make it a gaming machine, even if you don't like that.
Luckily for you, there's an OT thread if you'd prefer that one.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1120994
But he has to see it in his forum topic list and it burnnnnsssssssssss
But yes. It is a device that is relevant to gaming.
But Gears 2 isn't exactly cutting edge anymore. It's a last-gen game. But it is competing with Apple so it makes sense it doesn't go for hardcore gamer in style.
Your making a mountain out of a mole hill.
No other Ultrabook has a dGPU. It's not like it's one of many here.
I've heard that the surfaces are fantastic build quality wise and just great overall
all makes sense so a lot of people are comfortable working on both I'm still trapped in old world using a desktop or laptop solely is easier than a tablet
Is that the Surface Book or the i5 SP4? If it's the former, will the SP4 have that processor as well?
neogaffer1
Banned
surface book, no idea i just pulled that from ars's video.
Looks beautiful. I've worked with a few surface 3 pro's at the office and they are top notch IMO but all of them are hooked up to docking stations with keyboards/mice/monitors/etc hooked up so that in the office, they're fully functioning i7 desktop PC's but can still grab and go quickly.
The book version looks sexy as hell and I honestly am glad they decided to take this step with the surface. So many other OEM's trying to build laptops with quality that rival the macbooks and all that I have tried fall short in some way but this one looks legit.
Only real criticism is that they couldn't figure out a way to store the pen somewhere.
IwannaSeeTheRecipts.exe
Would be nice if they took a macbook pro with same amount/speed ram, harddrive and CPU and ran identical tests with video encoding, photoshop rendering and maybe a few synthetic benchmark tests.
I'm willing to bet that the whole 2x as fast thing is from maybe 1 cherry picked test vs an older model MB pro.
The book version looks sexy as hell and I honestly am glad they decided to take this step with the surface. So many other OEM's trying to build laptops with quality that rival the macbooks and all that I have tried fall short in some way but this one looks legit.
Only real criticism is that they couldn't figure out a way to store the pen somewhere.
IwannaSeeTheRecipts.exe
Would be nice if they took a macbook pro with same amount/speed ram, harddrive and CPU and ran identical tests with video encoding, photoshop rendering and maybe a few synthetic benchmark tests.
I'm willing to bet that the whole 2x as fast thing is from maybe 1 cherry picked test vs an older model MB pro.
People on gaming side are more likely to discuss relevant things about the dgpu for gaming than I'd see in off-topic.
This isn't an "OT" it's just an announcement thread.
Netherscourge
Banned
What is this equivalent to?
I'm trying to figure out where that GTX940M to GTX980M GPU line compares to the Desktop GTX GPUs, to get a better idea of what level of gaming I can expect.
0.1.1.2.3.5.8.13.21.34.55
Banned
does Sunset Overdrive come pre-installed?
A 940m is really really slow. I was just making the point that there are (and have been for a while) Ultrabooks with dedicated GPUs.
Notebookcheck has a good overview over pretty much all notebook GPUs.