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Surface Pro Gaming.

SerTapTap

SerTapTap

Member
Blablurn said:
I heard that DS4Windows has malware. Or not really?
Click to expand...

Pretty sure you're thinking of Motionjoy, the old DS3 driver package. DS4Windows has glowing reviews, is open source and I've never really had a problem. Worst thing about it is frequent minor updates, I set it to update every couple weeks because of them.
 
B

bomblord1

Banned
You don't actually need to use DS4 windows as windows recognizes a DS4 connected via micro USB as a generic gamepad. DS4 windows does have some conveniences however.
 
SerTapTap

SerTapTap

Member
bomblord1 said:
You don't actually need to use DS4 windows as windows recognizes a DS4 connected via micro USB as a generic gamepad. DS4 windows does have some conveniences however.
Click to expand...

Yeah, it's not required, but some games only work with Xinput or work better with it. I'd definitely recommend it if only has a backup, also the touchpad -> Mouse thing is amazing. It's not going to let you play RTS/FPS games as if it were a mouse, but it prevents the need to switch input devices.
 
B

bomblord1

Banned
RhyDin said:
Pro2
f18ZtLK.jpg
Click to expand...

How well does it run?
 
I

ILoveBish

Member
Haven't found a game that didnt run 60fps at 2x res in dolphin, got a ton of games at 2x res 60fps in pcsx2 including final fantasy x and disney golf, and even stuff like kingdom hearts bbs at 2x doesnt blink at 60 fps. This is on a pro 2 with the 4300 cpu in it.

I specifically went after this model after testing out several pro 3s and all overheated and throttled to hell, which kills the device for emulation. No such worries here.
 
NeOak

NeOak

Member
ILoveBish said:
Haven't found a game that didnt run 60fps at 2x res in dolphin, got a ton of games at 2x res 60fps in pcsx2 including final fantasy x and disney golf, and even stuff like kingdom hearts bbs at 2x doesnt blink at 60 fps. This is on a pro 2 with the 4300 cpu in it.

I specifically went after this model after testing out several pro 3s and all overheated and throttled to hell, which kills the device for emulation. No such worries here.
Click to expand...

My Pro 2 has the i5-4200U :(

Then again, it is a launch unit lol
 
F

Fusebox

Banned
ILoveBish said:
Haven't found a game that didnt run 60fps at 2x res in dolphin, got a ton of games at 2x res 60fps in pcsx2 including final fantasy x and disney golf, and even stuff like kingdom hearts bbs at 2x doesnt blink at 60 fps. This is on a pro 2 with the 4300 cpu in it.

I specifically went after this model after testing out several pro 3s and all overheated and throttled to hell, which kills the device for emulation. No such worries here.
Click to expand...

Seriously? The Surface Pro 2 is better at running games than the 3?
 
I

ILoveBish

Member
Fusebox said:
Seriously? The Surface Pro 2 is better at running games than the 3?
Click to expand...

NeOak said:
Seems it has better cooling and the resolution is lower
Click to expand...

Yep, the 3 is much much much worse then the 2 when it comes to gaming, especially for emulation. The Pro 2 4300U model is easily the best device for this type of stuff on the go. I went out of my way to get this exact one with the 8 gigs of ram for best experience. Even if the pro 4 has a beefy cpu/gpu and doesn't overheat, the model comparable to mine will be asinine priced, so im still better off with what i got. Its running everything i intended 60fps anyway, completely satisfied with the purchase.
 
openrob

openrob

Member
Ok I don't have a Surface but do have a Dell Venue Pro 11 (i3 model).
I am going on holiday tomorrow and want something to play when I travel. Probably taking my 360 usb controller.

Any suggestions for games that will run?
I have retro city rampage, so might play that.
 
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The Abominable Snowman

Member
NeOak said:
If you want to use a digitizer, yes at the moment.

If you are ok with touchscreen, then the Razer Edge Pro is still the best due to the Geforce 640 in it

http://www.razerzone.com/gaming-systems/razer-edge-pro
Click to expand...
The 640M seems to bench about the same as the Iris Pro according to Notebookcheck, with some games tipping to either or direction but roughly the same.

And I'd be deathly afraid to buy Razer when they dropped this product like it was Ebola-infested when it was so popular they couldn't keep it in stock for months and barely support it. I wouldn't invest more than $500 and these things seem to be going for 900+ on eBay.
 
B

bomblord1

Banned
openrob said:
Ok I don't have a Surface but do have a Dell Venue Pro 11 (i3 model).
I am going on holiday tomorrow and want something to play when I travel. Probably taking my 360 usb controller.

Any suggestions for games that will run?
I have retro city rampage, so might play that.
Click to expand...

What games do you own?
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
The Abominable Snowman said:
Is the Pro 2 the absolute best tablet/hybrid for gaming? Is there another tablet that has Intel's new HD6000 Iris Pro?
Click to expand...

The Pro 2 doesn't have the Iris Pro, it's HD 4400 (or the 4300).

That's actually the same as the Surface Pro 3 (which in the i7 model even has a higher end part), but the difference is that since SP3 is thinner it must be kept cooler than the SP2 so it won't surpass the threshold for temperature Ms has for tablets (to not burn our hands) so they throttle the processor to never pass that threshold.
 
NeOak

NeOak

Member
The Abominable Snowman said:
The 640M seems to bench about the same as the Iris Pro according to Notebookcheck, with some games tipping to either or direction but roughly the same.

And I'd be deathly afraid to buy Razer when they dropped this product like it was Ebola-infested when it was so popular they couldn't keep it in stock for months and barely support it. I wouldn't invest more than $500 and these things seem to be going for 900+ on eBay.
Click to expand...

The SP2 and SP3 i5 have the HD 4400.

And at that size, Iris Pro will throttle. See the i7 with the HD 5000.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
Red_taiyaki said:
Since I plan to do some light gaming on my SP3, does anyone have any good recommendation for fans?

Or is this the best one? http://www.amazon.com/ARCTIC-USB-Powered-Portable-Cooling-Solution/dp/B003XN24GY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427731813&sr=8-1&keywords=surface+pro+3+fan
Click to expand...

I bought this last year, and finally arrived today (seriously, Brazilian mail office is a joke). I didn't find the time to test some games yet, but for normal usage it does seem to help bring the temp down a bit. And it's very silent, which is a nice plus.

Bending it so it can properly aim at the vent is very difficult from the usb port. It's better to plug it to the usb port in the power adapter for better positioning.
 
I

ILoveBish

Member
LukasTaves said:
I bought this last year, and finally arrived today (seriously, Brazilian mail office is a joke). I didn't find the time to test some games yet, but for normal usage it does seem to help bring the temp down a bit. And it's very silent, which is a nice plus.

Bending it so it can properly aim at the vent is very difficult from the usb port. It's better to plug it to the usb port in the power adapter for better positioning.
Click to expand...

That is a piss poor solution honestly. If you can even call that a solution.
 
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LukasTaves

Member
ILoveBish said:
That is a piss poor solution honestly. If you can even call that a solution.
Click to expand...

LukasTaves said:
No argument there :p
Click to expand...

It does seem to work, though.

No idea if it reaches SP2 levels of performance, but with that fan the surface remains much cooler, and there's a noticeable reduce in the effect of the throttling.

It's kinda surprising how fast the throttle is activated/deactivated, you remove the fan and less than a minute it's already way hotter and the performance goes down, you put it back and a few seconds later the framerate increased as well.

I made some stress testing too: Running multiple cpu hungry applications, including some instances of Chrome, and opening 4 HD streams at the same time... It handled pretty well, usually when it's throttling just opening chrome with a few tabs is enough to make the video to stutter.
 
T

therapist

Member
Arttemis said:
I absolutely love my Surface Pro 1! I haven't really put it through any stress tests, though - aside from running school related software like SolidWorks. My go-to games are not demanding at all; FTL and Don't Starve.
Click to expand...

yay i have a surface pro 1 too , i5 one. its not so great for gaming lol.

Hotline miami 2 gives me slowdowns but cs go runs pretty damn well surprisingly (In 720p)

wish i had a surface pro 3 but its just too much

(bought mine used like 5 months ago with typecover for 260 CAD$ (Pro1))
 
A

AEREC

Member
Ushay said:
I'm considering getting a Pro 3 (or 4) for general work and gaming on the following games;

Pillars of Eternity
Planescape
Starcraft LotV

Any thoughts?
Click to expand...


You can probably only run Planescape. I tried PoE on my laptop at 720p (it has an intel HD 4400) and it's not playable at all. I doubt Starcraft would be either.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
I've stumbled across this little app: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2288/throttlestop-6-00/

It should allow to disable the throttling even on the SP3, without any need of external coolers.


I have no idea if it's safe to do so, though. Videos like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I__UMfYWcI8 seems to point out that it is: The throttling is activated due the surface of the device getting hot (and going over Ms requirements for W8 tablets), and that the back fan only helps getting the surface cooler, while the cpu and gpu are actually getting hotter (but within the safe operational area)
 
B

bomblord1

Banned
LukasTaves said:
I've stumbled across this little app: http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/2288/throttlestop-6-00/

It should allow to disable the throttling even on the SP3, without any need of external coolers.


I have no idea if it's safe to do so, though. Videos like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I__UMfYWcI8 seems to point out that it is: The throttling is activated due the surface of the device getting hot (and going over Ms requirements for W8 tablets), and that the back fan only helps getting the surface cooler, while the cpu and gpu are actually getting hotter (but within the safe operational area)
Click to expand...

I wouldn't go with something dangerous like that. Try replacing your GPU drivers with the latest Intel ones to get a few extra FPS there's a link to a tutorial in the OP I think.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
Yeah, not messing with that. So far the cooler will suit me fine.

Most of the time the performance even with throttling is very good (for anything but gaming, transcoding media, and chrome), and I mostly game on consoles so there's not much use for me anyway.


Edit: Though, if this allows for setting the throttling based on the CPU/GPU temp, it should be fine as long as you keep them from overheating.
 
C

catmincer

Member
I got the i3 Pro 3 today.

Surprised at what it can run, Left 4 Dead 2 is fine and Diablo 3 runs too albeit at low graphics.
 
T

topplehat

Member
For those playing on the SP3 at 720p - are yall playing games in a window or full screen? Does it do black bars if you do full screen?
 
BigTnaples

BigTnaples

Todd Howard's Secret GAF Account
Really hoping they go all out with the Pro 4 and give us some really powerful options.

Would love to be able to play a good amount of non demanding steam games, not
necessarily "on the go" but wherever I can find a power outlet.
 
A

AzureSkies

Member
Surface Pro 3 i7 runs DOTA 2 at native resolution with 50% rendering and low/medium textures and minimum graphics pretty nicely, around 50-60fps.

Textures don't seem to make too much difference to performance. The game runs surprisingly nice in teamfights.
 
C

chrominance

Member
TheNiX said:
Average of 15 FPS at 1280x768 with Very Low settings, render quality and draw distance set to the lowest. This was in the middle of a big fight.
Click to expand...

Makes sense, Planetside 2 was heavily CPU-constrained last time I played it. Going from a quad-core Q9550 to an i5 3570k (both desktop chips) improved my framerate from the teens to 30+.
 
R

Red_taiyaki

Member
Been playing Never Alone on my i5 SP3 with high textures in 800x600 resolution, but low everything else. Just plugged in my USB fan and am amazed with just how much smoother everything is!
 
O

OrangeYouGlad

Banned
Tried Shadowrun: Dragonfall on my i5 SP3 and it runs decently (~25fps in large areas, ~35fps in confined areas) as long as you have the updated Intel drivers. If you don't then it barely passes ~15 fps regardless of where you are.
 
F

Future

Member
BigTnaples said:
Really hoping they go all out with the Pro 4 and give us some really powerful options.

Would love to be able to play a good amount of non demanding steam games, not
necessarily "on the go" but wherever I can find a power outlet.
Click to expand...

Give us a dock with a gpu in it. Let the dock remove the weaknesses of the portable and turn it into a desktop caliber unit
 
T

ThoseDeafMutes

Member
Graphical dock might not be a great fit for low power CPUs they include. Even the i7's aren't super shit hot and would be a bottleneck for most respectable GPUs.

I really hope there's a grunty i7 option that isn't as held back by throttling, though. Some highish end integrated thing like HD 6000 maybe.
 
P

Pooya

Member
the dock is already 200 bucks, how much they are gonna ask for a gpu dock? lol.

Maybe they can fit some AMD APU in there, they tend to have better GPU performance though I'm not sure how they fare in this TDP level.
 
B

bomblord1

Banned
Honestly couldn't see much use for a GPU dock these aren't meant for rendering and they can already drive high res displays.

I have my surface Pro 3 plugged into a mac monitor (1920x1200) and extending the desktop with my pro 3 (2160x1440) and don't encounter a hitch.
 
NeOak

NeOak

Member
bomblord1 said:
Honestly couldn't see much use for a GPU dock these aren't meant for rendering and they can already drive high res displays.

I have my surface Pro 3 plugged into a mac monitor (1920x1200) and extending the desktop with my pro 3 (2160x1440) and don't encounter a hitch.
Click to expand...

But can it play Crysis?
 
L

longnosedgoblin

Member
Thinking of getting the new surface when it comes out, not the pro. Do you think that atom is powerful enough to to smoothly run indie games off steam? I only really play stuff like spelunky/volgar/rogue legacy etc, also emulation up to n64 / psx.

Also those using the pro what sort of anti virus are you using, is there something particularly lightweight that isnt going to hog too much memory?
 
B

bomblord1

Banned
longnosedgoblin said:
Thinking of getting the new surface when it comes out, not the pro. Do you think that atom is powerful enough to to smoothly run indie games off steam? I only really play stuff like spelunky/volgar/rogue legacy etc, also emulation up to n64 / psx.

Also those using the pro what sort of anti virus are you using, is there something particularly lightweight that isnt going to hog too much memory?
Click to expand...

The non-pro variant of the surface is non-x86, running windows RT, and cannot run windows programs like steam or steam games.

It can only run app store apps and there's no way around it.
 
F

Flapke

Neo Member
bomblord1 said:
The non-pro variant of the surface is non-x86, running windows RT, and cannot run windows programs like steam or steam games.

It can only run app store apps and there's no way around it.
Click to expand...

The new Surface 3 is actually x86 and will be able to run simple steam games :)
 
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