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[bomblord1]

SURFACE PRO GAMING

The Microsoft Surface Pro 4 is a very capable little machine. While gaming may not be what it's built for it has the chops under the hood to power through some fairly demanding games. The same goes for the Surface Pro 1, 2 and 3. This Thread is dedicated to those of us who enjoy playing games on these wonderful machines.

CONFIRMED WORKING GAMES

Surface Book
i5 DGPU
Rocket League 1920x1080 (confirmed here)
i7 DGPU
Black Ops 3 720P low 60FPS (confirmed here)
Overwatch 720P low 60FPS (confirmed here)

Surface Pro 4
m3
Phantom Dust: very playable with all(!) the settings dialled down (confirmed here)
Other
Diablo 3: 1440x900 25-45fps (confirmed here)
Devil May Cry 4: 720P 2xMSAA Max 60fps with occasional drops (confirmed here)
Ikaruga "Native Res" "Butter Smooth" (confirmed here)
Darksiders 720p 30fps with occasional drops (confirmed here)
Metal Gear Rising 720p, no AA, 4xAF, Shadows medium. 40-60fps (roughly console equivalent) (confirmed here)
The Binding of Isaac Rebirth runs "fine" (confirmed here)

Surface Pro 3
i3
The secret of monkey Island (confirmed by TheDarkTriforce)
Hearthstone (confirmed here)

i5
Killer is Dead "Runs Great" 720p Low (confirmed here)
Metal Gear Rising 720p 30fps with dips low (confirmed here)
Never Alone: 800x600 low (confirmed here)
Alien:Isolation
Bioshock Infinite
Tomb Raider 2013 (confirmed here)
nidhogg (confirmed here)
speedrunners (confirmed here)
towerfall ascension (confirmed here)
Valkyrie Chronicles (confirmed by bomblord)
Recettear an Item shops tale (confirmed by bomblord)
WoW low settings (confirmed here)
Arkham City 720P Low (confirmed here)
Unity of Command
Darkest Dungeon
Quake Live
Rimworld
Mount Your Friends (confirmed here)
Sim City Low 720P (confirmed here)
Banner Saga (confirmed here)
ftl (confirmed here)
aquaria (confirmed here)
Civilization 5 (confirmed here)
Fallout 1 & 2
Octodad
Craft the world (confirmed here)

i7
Endless Legacy 1440x900 (confirmed here)
DOTA 2 low/med Native Res (Confirmed here)


Surface Pro 2
Sim City on High (confirmed here)
Dead or Alive 5 Last Round 720P low 60fps (confirmed here)
Metal Gear Rising Revengeance 720P low 60fps (confirmed here)
Portal 1080P Med-High (confirmed here)
Portal 2 720P (confirmed here)
Just Cause 2 Med+Low mix low 720P 25-35fps (confirmed here)
Ace Combat Assault Horizon 720P 30FPS (confirmed here)
Binary Domain 720P Med-High variable FPS (confirmed here)
Flatout Ultimate Carnage 720P 30 Med-High (confirmed here)
Grid 2 720P 30 Low-Med (confirmed here)
Kalimba 544P 60FPS (confirmed here)
Pix the Cat 1080p 60fps (confirmed here)
RE Revelations unplayable (confirmed here)
Metal Gear Solid 5: Ground Zeroes 720P Low-Med 15-25 fps
Split/Second 720P 30fps (confirmed here)
Dragon Ball Xenoverse low 720p (confirmed here)
Diablo 3 720P (confirmed here)
State of Decay Low 720P (confirmed here)
Dragon Age Inquisition Low 720 (confirmed here)
Hotline Miami
Samurai Gun,
Terraria,
Starbound,
Don't Starve,
Hunie Pop
Towerfall (group confirmed here)
Playable but require lower fps/resolution
Ultra Street Fighter (occasionally has some input lag)
Crypt of the Necrodancer (calibrate to make it playable)
Counterstrike GO
Crimzon Clover
Jamestown
Guild Wars 2
Civilization 5 (group confirmed here)
Super meat boy: 1080p 60fps (confirmed here)
Dust An Elysian Tail: 720p 60fps (confirmed here)
Deus Ex at 1080x720 with no frills at around 30fps (confirmed here)
Tales of Zestiria "Windowed" (confirmed here)
Burnout Paradise = 60fps, 720p on med settings.
Rocket League = 50-60fps, 720p mostly low settings
Splinter Cell Blacklist = 30fps, sub720p, all low settings
South Park SOT = 60fps, 1080p, med? settings?
Grow Home = 45fps~, 720p low settings
Call of Juarez = 60fps, 720p, med settings
Surgeon simulator = 30fps, sub720p, low settings
Retro Grade = 60fps, 720p, low settings (confirmed here)

Surface Pro 1
World of Warcraft (confirmed here)
Ori 800x600 (confirmed here)


HELPFUL TIPS AND TRICKS
The surface Pro gamer youtube channel

Setting up your Surface pro for gaming


Original Post as Follows

You may remember my thread "Surface Pro 3 for light gaming?". Well I picked the surface pro 3 i5 and have putting it through its paces and so far its thoroughly impressed me.

I would like to start a thread about the incredible power of this amazing little device.

So surface Pro owners what have you been able to run?

I plan on updating this thread with some personal benchmarks as I do them but I would like to start with the one that impressed me the most so far.

I was able to run Rune factory Tides of Destiny in Dolphin at full speed (only 1x ir). This honestly shocked me given the cpu power you typically need to emulate wii games.

 

[bomblord1]

I was able to play Valkyrie Chronicles @ 720p 30 fps with no noticeable slowdowns.

 

[tuna_love]

I play xcom with 360 controller at work sometimes. Frame rate is good enough.

 

[Twin Tails]

i bought one recently for cheap, still haven't tried anything on it.

 

[krpiper]

I love football manager has anyone played that on a surface?

 

[Pooya]

I play Hearthstone on it a lot on a daily basis, my ipad usually stays at home so this is the place for me to play, the game is so much better with touch. Runs on high with occasional slowdowns, I use medium. the only difference are the shadows, it's ok.

Recently played Life is Strange on it, had to lower the settings but it looked fine still.

CivBE didn't run well on it other than on low. Touch controls don't feel as smooth as Civ5, they are the same but here seems buggy. Civ5 runs a lot better.

ilomilo+, works maxed out, looks amazing. really pretty game.


That's all I've tried.

 

[Sinfamy]

How does it handle SC2?

 

[Arttemis]

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.

 

[Canon]

It's pretty decent although it runs hot and the fan noise is a little loud. Hurtstone for instance causes the fan to kick in even though it runs on an iPad easily, obviously more optimized (and the iPad has no fans).

 

[Morning Star]

Simcity 4 and Civ V are the only things I've really tried.

 

[ClayKavalier]

It's pretty decent although it runs hot and the fan noise is a little loud. Hurtstone for instance causes the fan to kick in even though it runs on an iPad easily, obviously more optimized (and the iPad has no fans).

Yeah, I also got a Surface recently and gaming on it scares me. While I'm at home I hook it up to a 1080p monitor, I thought that would be fine since it's lower than the Surface's native res, but even playing stuff that I would think wouldn't be demanding at all like KOTOR makes the fan kick on and the thing gets extremely hot within a few minutes.

Stuff run fine, I've messed around with Xcom, Civ 5, Valkyria Chronicles, and a few other things but the heat the Surface puts out just doesn't seem safe.

 

[bomblord1]

how do you guys handle games with like 50GB installs and stuff... cant do that with a surface right? I want to get NBA 2k15 for my surface but I think it has a big download that is mandatory.

Get a large and fast micro sd card.

Yeah, I also got a Surface recently and gaming on it scares me. While I'm at home I hook it up to a 1080p monitor, I thought that would be fine since it's lower than the Surface's native res, but even playing stuff that I would think wouldn't be demanding at all like KOTOR makes the fan kick on and the thing gets extremely hot within a few minutes.

Stuff run fine, I've messed around with Xcom, Civ 5, Valkyria Chronicles, and a few other things but the heat the Surface puts out just doesn't seem safe.

What kind of temps are we talking? The fan certainly kicks in when I play games but it doesnt get hot though just a little warm to the touch. The fan does its job quite nicely.

 

[StudioTan]

I don't game on my SP3 often because I'm home most of the time and game on other devices but some that I've tried that work well with touch are Hearthstone, Broken Age and The Banner Saga.

Has anyone tried Steam streaming to the Surface?

 

[eternalthree]

I've done steam streaming on a surface pro 1. Played a bit of skyrim that way. It's darn cool. Although my router isn't the best.
O and emulators are awesome on the sp1

 

[gAg CruSh3r]

Can we make a OT for just surface pro gaming? I love using my surface pro 2 for gaming. It would be awesome to get help with setting up games to run it so it can play pretty smooth.

 

[KupoNut]

Surface Pro 3 has pretty good specs and should be able to run typical games at medium settings similar to how notebooks do it.

 

[Shivvy_NTL]

Surface pro gaming is amazing, ive got the xb1 titanfall controller for it. I love how you can just pull it out anywhere and start playing.

 

[GifGafIsTheBestGaf]

I love how you can just pull it out anywhere and start playing.

thats what she said.

huehuehue

playing VNs must be awesome in a SP, god damn it. im torn between a very thin/small laptop and a SP

 

[Spinluck]

Pretty cool.

I didn't think the SP handle games as at the level that it does. Even if it's not the best, playable is just fine for me for portable PC gaming.

 

[EvilKatarn]

How does it handle SC2?

Interested in this and Dota2.
Might be cool for Steam home streaming as well.

 

[bomblord1]

Can we make a OT for just surface pro gaming? I love using my surface pro 2 for gaming. It would be awesome to get help with setting up games to run it so it can play pretty smooth.

I would be ok with this.

thats what she said.

huehuehue

playing VNs must be awesome in a SP, god damn it. im torn between a very thin/small laptop and a SP

Surface pro all the way.

 

[xam3l]

I hope this thread goes somewhere. I want to acquire a Surface soon before jumping to curret gen and build a pc gaming.

I dont know, but I believe many last gen games may run somewhat well with a controller, and must be a sweet machine for indie gaming.

 

[eznark]

Someone try Offworld Trading Company

 

[bomblord1]

I hope this thread goes somewhere. I want to acquire a Surface soon before jumping to curret gen and build a pc gaming.

I dont know, but I believe many last gen games may run somewhat well with a controller, and must be a sweet machine for indie gaming.

Ill try to get some videos together although I dont own a ton of games.

 

[SerTapTap]

I didn't use a framerate counter, but Skullgirls seemed flawless at 1440p surprisingly enough, Mercenary Kings played fine. Out There (currently in beta) worked fine with touch. Need to try more games.

Highly recommend this over any non-gaming laptop for light gaming. Form factor is incredible, keyboard is only slightly worse than my Lenovo thinkpad keyboard (RIP) which was by far the best laptop keyboard I have ever used. IMO the keys feel surprisingly good considering their insane thinness, got a bit of travel to them. Onscreen keyboard is okay for entering passwords but without a Swype alternative I dont' use it much.

Recommend a bluetooth mouse and controller (DS4, anyone?) so you don't have to fuss with USBs. Mini displayport to HDMI makes this thing a portable console roughly on par with last gen systems, pretty great.

how do you guys handle games with like 50GB installs and stuff... cant do that with a surface right? I want to get NBA 2k15 for my surface but I think it has a big download that is mandatory.

You could get a 512GB one and a 128GB SD card, that's the current max available storage, though it'll cost a pretty penny.

I have the 128gb and a 64GB card, far more economical, and you could JUST fit one 50 GB game on the main partition or SD card that way. SD card seems to work perfectly fine for games if you get a high speed one, but loading speeds will of course be slow compared to the main SSD. How much it affects the game varies massively between games. If the game streams in assets it might be a big issue otherwise you just wait a bit more.

 

[Lucifon]

Get a large and fast micro sd card.



What kind of temps are we talking? The fan certainly kicks in when I play games but it doesnt get hot though just a little warm to the touch. The fan does its job quite nicely.

Hmm I've got the i5 model and I've not run anything on it which hasn't made the device really hot to the touch. I play a lot of hearthstone, it's absolutely perfect on the device, but even that makes it pretty hot and drains battery.

 

[Twin Tails]

thats what she said.

huehuehue

playing VNs must be awesome in a SP, god damn it. im torn between a very thin/small laptop and a SP

yup playing vns on sp is awesome

 

[SerTapTap]

You can pretty much expect the device to warm up a bit and turn the fan on "medium" or something when playing almost any game that uses a fair bit of CPU (or playing streaming video). It's NOT an iPad, and I'm not sure there's any way to underclock it to make it behave more like one. But it's still a ton quieter than many consumer laptops, the fan shouldn't be too audible over game/video audio.

Important to note that while the SP3 performs admirable for gaming it's not designed for gaming so yeah there's some drawbacks here and there. I wouldn't have bought it as a dedicated gaming machine, but as a total laptop and tablet replacement that does light gaming as well it's one of my favorite single bits of consumer hardware out there.

 

[gAg CruSh3r]

I would be ok with this.



Surface pro all the way.

We really should. I think there is a good amount of people that like using the Surface Pro for gaming.

Like right now for some odd reason I'm having a hard time to get a good specs for Bioshock infinite. It runs a little crappy to me right now. I play Fallout 3 and mirrors edge pretty dang good.

Also what do I need to download to check out my FPS while I play. I can help out other people to show what settings would be best to play games. I have quite a few games. I have a 256gb model with 64gb micro sd card.

 

[SerTapTap]

We really should. I think there is a good amount of people that like using the Surface Pro for gaming.

Like right now for some odd reason I'm having a hard time to get a good specs for Bioshock infinite. It runs a little crappy to me right now. I play Fallout 3 and mirrors edge pretty dang good.

Also what do I need to download to check out my FPS while I play. I can help out other people to show what settings would be best to play games. I have quite a few games. I have a 256gb model with 64gb micro sd card.

I use Bandicam for recording and FPS checking, but it costs money (I prefer it over fraps by a country mile though). But Steam has an FPS counter now I think, might still be Beta only: http://kotaku.com/steams-new-fps-counter-makes-it-easier-to-obsess-over-f-1677380513

 

[BigTnaples]

Definitely going to buy the Surface Pro 4 this year, whatever the top tier version is.


Something that can play a good amount of low intensity or older titles, with decent frames.

My iPad 2 is no longer holding its own, in fact, now that I have a 6 Plus, I never use the thing.


Will be nice to have access to much of my Steam library on the go.

 

[gAg CruSh3r]

Definitely going to buy the Surface Pro 4 this year, whatever the top tier version is.


Something that can play a good amount of low intensity or older titles, with decent frames.

My iPad 2 is no longer holding its own, in fact, now that I have a 6 Plus, I never use the thing.

Will be nice to have access to much of my Steam library on the go.

You won't be disappointed. I love my Surface pro 2. I use it for everything. I think I might be upgrading to Surface pro 4 if they push for a little more gaming side with it.

Spoiler

I hope they do.

Edit:

I use Bandicam for recording and FPS checking, but it costs money (I prefer it over fraps by a country mile though). But Steam has an FPS counter now I think, might still be Beta only: http://kotaku.com/steams-new-fps-counter-makes-it-easier-to-obsess-over-f-1677380513

Oh, this is new to me. I will have to give this a try!

 

[Roberto Larcos]

I love football manager has anyone played that on a surface?

I have a Surface Pro 1, and even that runs it with ease. Football Manager is probably the easiest to run 'bug name' game around. I turn match engine graphics down to the lowest 3D, but still with crowds / weather / pitch deterioration etc..

I'd expect a newer Surface to only be better here.

 

[bomblord1]

I use Bandicam for recording and FPS checking, but it costs money (I prefer it over fraps by a country mile though). But Steam has an FPS counter now I think, might still be Beta only: http://kotaku.com/steams-new-fps-counter-makes-it-easier-to-obsess-over-f-1677380513

i will try the steam one.

 

[kubus]

My Surface Pro 3 + Type Cover only arrived yesterday and I already love it. Huge upgrade from the SP1, which I'll sell soon.

Will subscribe to this thread. I'll be without my home consoles when I go to Japan for studies next month so I'll have to keep myself entertained with my Steam library on the SP3

 

[sadromeo]

I have an SP2 and I absolutely love it. I use it now for everything. Work, light gaming, surfing the web, etc..

My initial reason for purchasing it was to play Diablo 3 on the go and it does that just fine. The graphics are toned down a little but for a game like Diablo 3 that is fine.

What I did not know is how good it is at handling everything else. Taking notes at work, surfing the web, using Lightroom, etc...

I can not wait for what MS does with the SP4. I hope with Win10 that they put a stronger emphasis on gaming for it.

 

[bomblord1]

My tablet scores a 45064 in 3d mark ice storm unlimited

 

[Morning Star]

thats what she said.

huehuehue

playing VNs must be awesome in a SP, god damn it. im torn between a very thin/small laptop and a SP

I know what you mean. One could purchase a fairly nice laptop for the price of a new Surface Pro 3. The pen, portability, and flexibility (existing in between a tablet and a laptop) are the only things it really has going for it.

 

[michaelius]

I know what you mean. One could purchase a fairly nice laptop for the price of a new Surface Pro 3. The pen, portability, and flexibility (existing in between a tablet and a laptop) are the only things it really has going for it.

1080p IPS ultrabook with SSD will cost similar amount to surface pro.

 

[Tailzo]

I'm playing a lot of civ 5 on surface pro 2. Works well. The spacesequel to.

 

[cackhyena]

When would they be announcing a new Surface?

 

[bomblord1]

When would they be announcing a new Surface?

According to the release cycle they've been on it should have not only already been announced but it should have released this month.

 

[BigTnaples]

According to the release cycle they've been on it should have not only already been announced but it should have released this month.

Really? Well shit... whats the hold up? I want one.

 

[SporeCrawler]

i got an original RT based surface for cheap last year and im using it mainly for browsing and word procesing (which is garbage on ipads imho). pretty satisfied so far but since its RT based there are literally no games on it. is surface pro 3 windows 8 based? then again would there be any difference to windows 8 based tablets from third parties?

How does it handle SC2?

i think this is the most important question here!!!

 

[krpiper]

I have a Surface Pro 1, and even that runs it with ease. Football Manager is probably the easiest to run 'bug name' game around. I turn match engine graphics down to the lowest 3D, but still with crowds / weather / pitch deterioration etc..

I'd expect a newer Surface to only be better here.

How fast are the simulation speeds as that's truly the most important!

 

[Wurstsemmel]

Ordered my SP3 on friday to replace my galaxy note 10.1 (first generation). I'm stoked about its arrival ^^
Is it possible to use steam in-home streaming with touch controls if the game supports it, e.g. civilization? I didn't buy it as a gaming device but if it's possible...why not?

Really? Well shit... whats the hold up? I want one.

Probably Windows 10?

 

[thenexus6]

How is the overall heat and fan noise? I know it will differ from game to game.

 

[SerTapTap]

How is the overall heat and fan noise? I know it will differ from game to game.

Significantly less than a gaming laptop or low quality consumer laptop. It's roughly on par with my low voltage Thinkpad laptop. It's louder than dead silent but it's about as quiet as you'll get. Actual gaming laptops, jesus those are loud, hot and heavy. Also heat doesn't really matter in the same way as laptops--the heat is on the "monitor end" and not your lap or hands unless you're using it in tablet mode. And it's still never burn-your-hands hot at that.

And if you mean outside of gaming, it's dead silent and barely warm to the touch outside of gaming, video playing and a few other intensive things. If CPU is under 20% or so it should be cool and silent. But most games will push it enough to turn on the fan.

According to the release cycle they've been on it should have not only already been announced but it should have released this month.

Nah, they iterated quickly because they hadn't found their groove--the SP3 found it. They'll probably be on an annual (or potentially longer, put probably annual) cycle now. The fast iterations were not good for people's willingness to actually buy the new one and I'm sure they know that. They just needed to figure out the form factor and realize RT is not going to happen.

 

[Yaari]

Personally waiting for the Surface 4. I thought if I were to buy one, I might as well see if it has any improvements that make it worthwhile.

I'm hoping the X1 streaming in Windows 10 works well enough so that I can have some fun with it on a Surface.

 

[Astral/H3X]

i got an original RT based surface for cheap last year and im using it mainly for browsing and word procesing (which is garbage on ipads imho). pretty satisfied so far but since its RT based there are literally no games on it. is surface pro 3 windows 8 based? then again would there be any difference to windows 8 based tablets from third parties?

i think this is the most important question here!!!

Surface Pro 3 has 8.1, and its full, NOT RT.
As for Surface vs others, its a matter of quality, and in most cases the stylus.