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[Maximo]

So here is my "dilemma."
I did not realize the new Surface Pro 4 was rumored to be right around the corner.
My fault for not doing better research perhaps.
My Pro 3 is not even a week old, I can return it.
So the big question is should I?
I know with technology if you play the waiting game you will never buy anything, but that rumored upgrade to 16 GB of RAM would help massively since my main purpose is Photos hop and Illustrator. As would a larger screen.
But are rumors enough to wait at least 3 months? I am a patient person and still have other computers to use in the interim.
What does GAF say?

I'll say return it, the Surface Pro 3 throttles with high Gpu usage Games/Editing which funny enough makes it a worse gaming experience then the Surface Pro 2. Rumors are rumors and who knows what the Surface Pro 4 will be like but if you have waited this long already I say keep waiting.
Surface Pro 3 feels like a side step rather then a step forward, Surface Pro 4 should have intels new chips and native Windows 10.

 

[SerTapTap]

So here is my "dilemma."
I did not realize the new Surface Pro 4 was rumored to be right around the corner.
My fault for not doing better research perhaps.
My Pro 3 is not even a week old, I can return it.
So the big question is should I?
I know with technology if you play the waiting game you will never buy anything, but that rumored upgrade to 16 GB of RAM would help massively since my main purpose is Photos hop and Illustrator. As would a larger screen.
But are rumors enough to wait at least 3 months? I am a patient person and still have other computers to use in the interim.
What does GAF say?

If it releases, it'll be quite late this year, with win 10, by my guess. I would say keep it if you think it's worth using for at least half the year, hard to say exactly how big an upgrade it'll be either.

These questions are why MS really needs to extend and regularize their release schedule IMO. So many people waffle and never buy, and I can't really say I blame them since it always seems like another is around the corner. I think they've found their form factor though, hopefully they're a bit more stable now.

I'll say return it, the Surface Pro 3 throttles with high Gpu usage Games/Editing which funny enough makes it a worse gaming experience then the Surface Pro 2. Rumors are rumors and who knows what the Surface Pro 4 will be like but if you have waited this long already I say keep waiting.
Surface Pro 3 feels like a side step rather then a step forward, Surface Pro 4 should have intels new chips and native Windows 10.

Surface Pro 3 is a massive step up in every single way other than CPU/GPU performance, which is not the top priority for this sort of device. The SP3 is ergonomically fantastic and I'm pretty sure they'll never release a device as chunky as the SP2 again. Fully expecting a near-identical form factor and design with bumped specs this year. The stand, pen, size, thinness, keyboard keys and weight have all been nailed with the SP3. The fan noise and touchpad are my only notable complaints and it's still better than almost all laptops in terms of noise.

 

[naib]

Subscribed!

I'm testing out the SP3 for work. Making sure all our apps run fine on it(most of us are still on win7).
Taking one for the team.

Only issues so far are resolution/aspect ratio stuff. All manageable though.

Anyway, games.

So far these run just fine:

Unity of Command
Darkest Dungeon
Quake Live (edit: I have QL dumbed waay down. not just for performance but also preference)
Rimworld
Mount Your Friends

I really want Clockwork Empires to run well, but it just doesn't. Maybe as it gets more optimized.
Recently bought Sunless Sea but haven't tried it out yet. Will report back.

It's an i5, 8gig, 512mb model.

 

[Caayn]

I don't think that the pro 4 will be released soon, read before the summer, I think that Microsoft will launch it around the W10 release. Possibly on the same day.

It's an i5, 8gig, 512mb model.

Wait, I thought that the 512GB SSD was limited to the i7 model. Are there specials models for B2B clients?

Thanks for sharing the info

 

[whitehawk]

The GPU and CPU won't run those at good speeds.

Nope. With the newest beta builds, Dolphin runs most games at full speed on my i5 SP3. I can play Smash Bros Brawl at 1.5 resolutio at full speed. With 4 players.

 

[naib]

Wait, I thought that the 512GB SSD was limited to the i7 model. Are there specials models for B2B clients?

Thanks for sharing the info

Nope. I'm wrong. It's 256.

I remember being "upgraded" but it was just to 256 from 128. Dang it.

 

[DirtyLarry]

I did return my Surface Pro 3 tonight.
It was not just the potential of the Surface Pro 4 being released although that did play a very small part of my overall decision.
It was primarily because I was not sold on why I picked it up to begin with... To draw directly on it using the Adobe Creative Cloud software. In fact overall in regards to why I did pick it up, I felt it was actually hindering my workflow.
The touch version of Illustrator still has some maturing to do, but it is very promising there is a touch version of Illustrator.
The touch version of Photoshop is currently non existent even they it was announced in 2014.
And the truth is to use both apps, one needs to fully rely on the Desktop experience of Windows 8.1, and using that on the Surface is not a very fluid end user experience.
I found myself heavily relying on the combination of a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and in fact hardy using the stylus, because I was using the Windows 8.1 Desktop on the Surface. It led to the big question of why am I even using a Surface?
Keep in mind I do own, and have owned for a very long time now, a Wacom tablet that I can use on either Windows or OS X.
Another big factor was the features MS has implemented thus far for UI scaling, etc., just do not work well at all with the Adobe products.

In all fairness to MS, I do put a lot of the blame on Adobe, but I just cannot help but think, at least right now, they are not going to dedicate a large amount of resources to support what I would imagine is a very small subset of their user base overall.

I absolutely loved, truly loved, the idea of having a tablet that had the power of a laptop in order to use for traditional digital illustration.
The unfortunate reality of using the Surface Pro 3 primarily for this reason is just not quite there just yet.

So I did return it with two hopes.

1. Perhaps Windows 10 will address some of the issues I had while using the Desktop on the Surface.
2. Even more important, perhaps Adobe will update their applications to really utilize the Surface itself.

So only time will tell here. It may be I do not even pick up the new Surface Pro 4 (or whatever it may be) when it is in fact released and I have to wait some more time.
It may also be someone else releases another device that handles what I am looking to do even better.
Bottom line was I just felt that $1200 was a whole lot of money to spend for a device I was not sold on for meeting my very specific needs.

There is a big part of me that does wonder if I should have just stuck it out.
However there is an even bigger part of me whose mind is at ease with not spending that amount of money (I in fact spent $1600 total when considering I did pick up the bundle with the extended warranty, touch keyboard, protective cover, and 1 year of Office 365 and tax).

It was not an easy decision to make, but it is a decision I am at peace with.

Sorry to go so off topic since this is a thread about gaming, but I do think perhaps someone may find this helpful. With that said it seemed to have a great amount of potential, and it did seem like it could no doubt be a very capable portable gaming device, so enjoy to those who do use it for that.

 

[KAOS]

I love gaming on the SP3!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJUBb3G8-Tk

Can't wait for the wireless X1 controller dongle.

 

[NeOak]

Nope. With the newest beta builds, Dolphin runs most games at full speed on my i5 SP3. I can play Smash Bros Brawl at 1.5 resolutio at full speed. With 4 players.

:O

Damn. I did not know that!

 

[Tailzo]

I did return my Surface Pro 3 tonight.
It was not just the potential of the Surface Pro 4 being released although that did play a very small part of my overall decision.
It was primarily because I was not sold on why I picked it up to begin with... To draw directly on it using the Adobe Creative Cloud software. In fact overall in regards to why I did pick it up, I felt it was actually hindering my workflow.
The touch version of Illustrator still has some maturing to do, but it is very promising there is a touch version of Illustrator.
The touch version of Photoshop is currently non existent even they it was announced in 2014.
And the truth is to use both apps, one needs to fully rely on the Desktop experience of Windows 8.1, and using that on the Surface is not a very fluid end user experience.
I found myself heavily relying on the combination of a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and in fact hardy using the stylus, because I was using the Windows 8.1 Desktop on the Surface. It led to the big question of why am I even using a Surface?
Keep in mind I do own, and have owned for a very long time now, a Wacom tablet that I can use on either Windows or OS X.
Another big factor was the features MS has implemented thus far for UI scaling, etc., just do not work well at all with the Adobe products.

In all fairness to MS, I do put a lot of the blame on Adobe, but I just cannot help but think, at least right now, they are not going to dedicate a large amount of resources to support what I would imagine is a very small subset of their user base overall.

I absolutely loved, truly loved, the idea of having a tablet that had the power of a laptop in order to use for traditional digital illustration.
The unfortunate reality of using the Surface Pro 3 primarily for this reason is just not quite there just yet.

So I did return it with two hopes.

1. Perhaps Windows 10 will address some of the issues I had while using the Desktop on the Surface.
2. Even more important, perhaps Adobe will update their applications to really utilize the Surface itself.

So only time will tell here. It may be I do not even pick up the new Surface Pro 4 (or whatever it may be) when it is in fact released and I have to wait some more time.
It may also be someone else releases another device that handles what I am looking to do even better.
Bottom line was I just felt that $1200 was a whole lot of money to spend for a device I was not sold on for meeting my very specific needs.

There is a big part of me that does wonder if I should have just stuck it out.
However there is an even bigger part of me whose mind is at ease with not spending that amount of money (I in fact spent $1600 total when considering I did pick up the bundle with the extended warranty, touch keyboard, protective cover, and 1 year of Office 365 and tax).

It was not an easy decision to make, but it is a decision I am at peace with.

Sorry to go so off topic since this is a thread about gaming, but I do think perhaps someone may find this helpful. With that said it seemed to have a great amount of potential, and it did seem like it could no doubt be a very capable portable gaming device, so enjoy to those who do use it for that.

I use my surface pro 2 for drawing too. If I wanna do serious work, I need my wacom. Surface is fine for sketching while watching a movie with my wife though,

 

[bomblord1]

I did return my Surface Pro 3 tonight.
It was not just the potential of the Surface Pro 4 being released although that did play a very small part of my overall decision.
It was primarily because I was not sold on why I picked it up to begin with... To draw directly on it using the Adobe Creative Cloud software. In fact overall in regards to why I did pick it up, I felt it was actually hindering my workflow.
The touch version of Illustrator still has some maturing to do, but it is very promising there is a touch version of Illustrator.
The touch version of Photoshop is currently non existent even they it was announced in 2014.
And the truth is to use both apps, one needs to fully rely on the Desktop experience of Windows 8.1, and using that on the Surface is not a very fluid end user experience.
I found myself heavily relying on the combination of a bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and in fact hardy using the stylus, because I was using the Windows 8.1 Desktop on the Surface. It led to the big question of why am I even using a Surface?
Keep in mind I do own, and have owned for a very long time now, a Wacom tablet that I can use on either Windows or OS X.
Another big factor was the features MS has implemented thus far for UI scaling, etc., just do not work well at all with the Adobe products.

In all fairness to MS, I do put a lot of the blame on Adobe, but I just cannot help but think, at least right now, they are not going to dedicate a large amount of resources to support what I would imagine is a very small subset of their user base overall.

I absolutely loved, truly loved, the idea of having a tablet that had the power of a laptop in order to use for traditional digital illustration.
The unfortunate reality of using the Surface Pro 3 primarily for this reason is just not quite there just yet.

So I did return it with two hopes.

1. Perhaps Windows 10 will address some of the issues I had while using the Desktop on the Surface.
2. Even more important, perhaps Adobe will update their applications to really utilize the Surface itself.

So only time will tell here. It may be I do not even pick up the new Surface Pro 4 (or whatever it may be) when it is in fact released and I have to wait some more time.
It may also be someone else releases another device that handles what I am looking to do even better.
Bottom line was I just felt that $1200 was a whole lot of money to spend for a device I was not sold on for meeting my very specific needs.

There is a big part of me that does wonder if I should have just stuck it out.
However there is an even bigger part of me whose mind is at ease with not spending that amount of money (I in fact spent $1600 total when considering I did pick up the bundle with the extended warranty, touch keyboard, protective cover, and 1 year of Office 365 and tax).

It was not an easy decision to make, but it is a decision I am at peace with.

Sorry to go so off topic since this is a thread about gaming, but I do think perhaps someone may find this helpful. With that said it seemed to have a great amount of potential, and it did seem like it could no doubt be a very capable portable gaming device, so enjoy to those who do use it for that.

Sorry to hear that. I personally love mine its replaced my macbook pro at work.

 

[Smo21]

Getting a pro 3 i5 today. I'll try some games out once I get it set up and everything.

 

[Windu]

So here is my "dilemma."
I did not realize the new Surface Pro 4 was rumored to be right around the corner.

4 is probably 6 months out. Not really around the corner.

 

[eznark]

Someone try cities skylines next week!

 

[AJLma]

Someone try cities skylines next week!

Sure thing.

 

[Spinluck]

SP4 is rumored to be right around the corner? New to me.

Guess I'll keep waiting.. Around.. The.. Corner

 

[Kama_1082]

Absolutely love my i3 sp3,tried hearthstone and it ran well.

 

[Smo21]

tried a couple games a ran fine on my surface 3 i5 gb

ftl - seems fine. will test touch controls later
aquaria - fan kicked in. weird considering its an old indie game.
civ 5 - all good at beginning. Would go with low settings to be safe. Touch enabled

edit
Just tried banner saga and it runs perfect. Works with touch too.

 

[BigTnaples]

All of the latest rumors from the past week are pointing to a July release.


And considering it is supposed to be a rather large leap in features and specs, I would say yes, it is "right around the corner" or at least enough so that you shouldn't spent 1800 on one now just to regret it in a few months when they unveil the 4.

Also, can anyone with a Surface 3 try some Sins?

 

[Windu]

All of the latest rumors from the past week are pointing to a July release.

these reports are coming from random sites that no one has heard of. It is not being released soon. They will release it when windows 10 is ready at the earliest.

soo 6 months.

 

[BigTnaples]

these reports are coming from random sites that no one has heard of. It is not being released soon. They will release it when windows 10 is ready at the earliest.

soo 6 months.

So everyone saying July are out of their minds but saying August is spot on? Seriously?

 

[eznark]

I'm just assuming it'll release with Windows 10, and I can't wait.

 

[Philtastic]

I have the Surface Pro 2, great device! I'll chime in with Diablo 3 working quite well at 720p, almost lowest settings (I think I left textures at high and didn't check the low fx setting) and Dragon Ball XenoVerse (720p, mostly low/off settings with HDR filter on). State of Decay, after a number of patches, works well now at 720p lowest settings. Dragon Age: Inquisition also runs ok and still looks alright at 720p lowest, though definitely not anywhere near an ideal way to experience its locales.

 

[BigTnaples]

I have the Surface Pro 2, great device! I'll chime in with Diablo 3 working quite well at 720p, almost lowest settings (I think I left textures at high and didn't check the low fx setting) and Dragon Ball XenoVerse (720p, mostly low/off settings with HDR filter on). State of Decay, after a number of patches, works well now at 720p lowest settings. Dragon Age: Inquisition also runs ok and still looks alright at 720p lowest, though definitely not anywhere near an ideal way to experience its locales.

Nice. i7?


Saw some videos of Diablo 3 running at lowest settings and resolution and still only hitting teens and twenties.


Would like to be able to run games like Starcraft, Diablo III, Bioshock, Wasteland, Xcom, etc on the go with a Surface Peo 4 but I have my doubts. Crossing my fingers.

 

[Owari]

Nope. With the newest beta builds, Dolphin runs most games at full speed on my i5 SP3. I can play Smash Bros Brawl at 1.5 resolutio at full speed. With 4 players.

Runs great on the i7, as well.

 

[Caayn]

Sim City with all updates/expansions runs at a steady 30fps on 720p with low settings, on a Pro 3 i5. Can be controlled with just the touch screen and the pen, although that requires some getting used to and it isn't ideal but it works.

 

[FlipCup]

Sure thing.

Please let us know how this works. I pre-ordered the game but may have to expedite building my new HTPC if this does not do well at all with the SP3.

 

[AJLma]

Please let us know how this works. I pre-ordered the game but may have to expedite building my new HTPC if this does not do well at all with the SP3.

Seeing the minimum specs yesterday, hopes aren't exactly high.

 

[ILoveBish]

My pro 2 is on the way. Looking forward to it greatly.

 

[HORRORSHØW]

thinking of getting the sp4 later this year to replace my mbp. gaming on it would be a nice plus so subscribed.

 

[AJLma]

My Surface Pro 3 is screaming and on fire, but it runs.

At 1024x768 with everything on low, my small town was completely playable with the keyboard attachment. Multi-touch zoom and all. 800x600 was perfectly smooth if you can stand the resolution.

EDIT: i5 version.

 

[Philtastic]

Nice. i7?


Saw some videos of Diablo 3 running at lowest settings and resolution and still only hitting teens and twenties.


Would like to be able to run games like Starcraft, Diablo III, Bioshock, Wasteland, Xcom, etc on the go with a Surface Peo 4 but I have my doubts. Crossing my fingers.

The SP2 only came in an i5 variant. On lowest details while running at full speed (want to have it plugged in for this), I usually averaged around 45 fps or so. On battery and half CPU speed, lowest GPU speed, I could usually keep it above 30 fps with dips into the 20s (playing it on long bus rides). This is all at 720p which is basically required for any 3D game to run decently on the Surface Pro 2's and 3's.

 

[Tailzo]

The SP2 only came in an i5 variant. On lowest details while running at full speed (want to have it plugged in for this), I usually averaged around 45 fps or so. On battery and half CPU speed, lowest GPU speed, I could usually keep it above 30 fps with dips into the 20s (playing it on long bus rides). This is all at 720p which is basically required for any 3D game to run decently on the Surface Pro 2's and 3's.

Is it playable with touch only? I don't like using the keyboard. I want my Surface to be a huge handheld

 

[Lady Siara]

Someone try cities skylines next week!

Settings for City: Skylines settings on an SP3 i7 256GB model.

 

[SerTapTap]

Out There: Omega Edition (in beta) works fine on SP3. i5 though I'm sure i3 can handle it. Fully controllable via touch--it's "mouse" only with large touch points due to originally a tablet game. Fun game, but early access. Also it's not on Steam yet but will be at launch.

Been meaning to try and see what else is playable with touch only--I'm gonna guess Darkest Dungeon but haven't tried yet (I play it with mouse only on my desktop, but maybe touch size could be an issue?), and I played Peggle with a pen years ago. But looking through my steam list...not a lot of mouse-only/touch friendly games. Anyone know of any list/database of Steam games like that?

 

[justsomeguy]

I think that Microsoft will launch it around the W10 release. Possibly on the same day.

This is my bet too. But I must stress I have no inside info - this is just speculation on my part!

 

[Pooya]

tried Ori on my pro1, it runs great... at 800x600. I haven't figured out how to make intel driver scale the screen (really terrible ui, old one was easier to use), I get blackbars with anything lower than native res. Looks great on Surface screen though (at native slideshow). 2/3 probably run it a little bit better but don't think it will playable still.

 

[Philtastic]

Is it playable with touch only? I don't like using the keyboard. I want my Surface to be a huge handheld

It would probably be just as hard to play it touch/stylus only as it would be to play mouse only but definitely doable. On the bus, I use the keyboard for the skill bar and stylus for pointing and clicking.

 

[Smo21]

Any word on how ori and the blind forest run on sp3?

 

[bomblord1]

Any word on how ori and the blind forest run on sp3?

A poster above said it works on the pro 1 so I would be shocked if it didn't run on the 3.

 

[harSon]

I've been using mine as a portable Steam streaming machine for a few days now

 

[Apath]

Can you use bluetooth controllers with the surface?

Yes

 

[BigTnaples]

So the new Surface Pro 4 is to be fanless if the rumors are true. Will this have a negative impact on gaming potential? Or are the new processors just that good/efficient?

 

[Apath]

So the new Surface Pro 4 is to be fanless if the rumors are true. Will this have a negative impact on gaming potential? Or are the new processors just that good/efficient?

What are we talking, Skylake-Y?

 

[SerTapTap]

So the new Surface Pro 4 is to be fanless if the rumors are true. Will this have a negative impact on gaming potential? Or are the new processors just that good/efficient?

It seems possible, but like I said earlier in the thread, I don't think we've ever actually gotten accurate rumors before a Surface came out. Wait for what MS says and don't trust anything else to be more than a guess. And while gaming on SP3 is very impressive due to the size and full windows, it's best to accept it's not a primary concern. However, having oomph to run programs like Photoshop is going to be required so I doubt they'll ever cripple it too hard performance-wise either.

Can you use bluetooth controllers with the surface?

Yup, DS4 works fantasticly with DS4Windows, highly recommend.

 

[NeOak]

So the new Surface Pro 4 is to be fanless if the rumors are true. Will this have a negative impact on gaming potential? Or are the new processors just that good/efficient?

I don't think so, otherwise the clockrate will be severely gimped when you need it.

They can just put the same fans the SP3 has so the CPU can turbo no problems. SP2 pushes the CPU to the max turbo setting (+2 bins)

 

[joey_bone_bomb]

A poster above said it works on the pro 1 so I would be shocked if it didn't run on the 3.

Do you not update the OP's list of games anymore? I don't see Bioshock Infinite, TR 2013 and Alien: Isolation on there, which I have already confirmed to be playable on the SP3 i5.

 

[Rollo Lawson]

Vouching for Fallout 1 & 2, Octodad and Craft the World. None of them even run the fans

i5, 128gb

South Park and Civ V run the fan but they are still very smooth

Havent tried much else

 

[Yaari]

I've been using mine as a portable Steam streaming machine for a few days now

Thats definitely something I'd want a Surface for. Steam streaming and the Windows 10 X1 streaming will make this very interesting.

Do we have any idea when they'll reveal the Surface 4 at all, because I heard they usually already done so by this time of the year ?

 

[bomblord1]

Do you not update the OP's list of games anymore? I don't see Bioshock Infinite, TR 2013 and Alien: Isolation on there, which I have already confirmed to be playable on the SP3 i5.

I've been updating everytime I see a new game. Ori is on there under pro 1

I'll scan the thread again and see if there is any I missed.