Surface Book

Well apparently Gordon Mah Ung (co-founder of b00t and Maximum PC magazines, now working with PCWorld) discovered Microsoft "lied" about the performance of the Surface Book in terms of the GPU by claiming "it's twice as fast as a MacBook Pro."

He discovered it's up to 3x as fast. :)

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2995...nt-twice-as-fast-its-three-times-as-fast.html

haha I was just about to place my pre-order and then you do this ... mislead me into ... sigh ... now im definitely pre-ording a I5 128GB w/ GPU
 
Pretty sure the Book will have a GTX 950M.

Check out this comparisson: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2995...nt-twice-as-fast-its-three-times-as-fast.html
The game benchmark gives the Iris 6100 24fps
Here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-Iris-Graphics-6100.125591.0.html
It's also 24fps average at High settings.

Then the Book GPU gets 74fps.
If we look at the GTX 950M here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-950M.138026.0.html
It gets an average of 73fps at the same settings.

I think we can conclude it's going to be a GPU with the same performance as the GTX 950M; Which is about 3.1 times faster than the Iris Graphics.
 
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Got my shipping notice this morning. Looks like a big drop from China got here Wednesday and is shipping out of Memphis. Delivery by 10:30 AM Monday.
 
Pretty sure the Book will have a GTX 950M.

Check out this comparisson: http://www.pcworld.com/article/29955...s-as-fast.html
The game benchmark gives the Iris 6100 24fps
Here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-I....125591.0.html
It's also 24fps average at High settings.

Then the Book GPU gets 74fps.
If we look at the GTX 950M here: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-....138026.0.html
It gets an average of 73fps at the same settings.

I think we can conclude it's going to be a GPU with the same performance as the GTX 950M; Which is about 3.1 times faster than the Iris Graphics.

While the Surface Book isn't a gaming machine, it looks like it's going to be able to play a good number of modern games albeit at lower settings and at lower than native resolutions. Still that's pretty remarkable for a device of this nature.
 
All broke

Fixed that.
I have no problem gaming with a 750M in my current XPS 15. Even ARMA 2 and 3 run smooth at low settings at 1080P (above 60fps) or at medium settings at 1/2 of my screens 3K resolution (when gaming on the go).

The 950M will be a good increase in GPU performance: from 45 fps to 74fps in Tomb raider (to keep it within the same game benchmark).
 
How could the GPU possibily get good performance with 1GB of VRAM at that crazy HD resolution. Makes no sense to me. This is not a gaming machine. Might be fun to play Half-Life 2 again or something...
 
You don't run games on these things at native resolution you run them at like 720p-1080p and up sample, benchmarks even say so.
 
Got my shipping notice this morning. Looks like a big drop from China got here Wednesday and is shipping out of Memphis. Delivery by 10:30 AM Monday.

Me too, but don't know how you reasoned that a 1030 delivery was in the works. My tracker says it left Memphis (hopefully that means TN not Egypt) and it is "in transit". Which covers a multitude of sins.

Am having trouble understanding the SB dGPU and on-chip graphics arguments in this thread. That the combination or even the SOC's Iris are not good enough for high shadow/high frame rate games when the Book is advertised and sold as a business and artsy craft machine. Doesn't that sound like a non sequitur?

The irony is that I just went downstairs to son's room (he's a quad) and talked to him about this discussion since he is an all day every day gamer. While talking to him I saw he was playing Minecraft which graphics requirements are only a challenge for the original IBM 286 Intel desktops with DOS, a 5.2" floppy and 1MB on-board RAM.
 
Me too, but don't know how you reasoned that a 1030 delivery was in the works. My tracker says it left Memphis (hopefully that means TN not Egypt) and it is "in transit". Which covers a multitude of sins.

LOLat the Memphis joke.:D. The Fed Ex tracker clearly says scheduled delivery by 10:30 AM on my shipment.

Am having trouble understanding the SB dGPU and on-chip graphics arguments in this thread. That the combination or even the SOC's Iris are not good enough for high shadow/high frame rate games when the Book is advertised and sold as a business and artsy craft machine. Doesn't that sound like a non sequitur?

Not getting your point. The dGPU in the SB clearly gives it more graphics power over Iris, sometimes considerably so. It's certainly not a gaming machine but can do a considerable amount of desktop PC gaming. Looking forward to trying out the latest CoD on it.
 
i7/16 GB/512 GB model.

You must have a pretty serious collection of hardware, I've noticed that you're also a member over at TabletPCReview and you seem to be on top of things almost as soon as they happen.

Congrats on the purchase, and if you ever decide to offload any old "hand me down" hardware I'd be happy to provide my shipping address. :D
 
I ordered the friday afternoon after they applied the discounts to the books and pro 4's and just got my tracking # sometime in the last hour
 
LOLat the Memphis joke.:D. The Fed Ex tracker clearly says scheduled delivery by 10:30 AM on my shipment.



Not getting your point. The dGPU in the SB clearly gives it more graphics power over Iris, sometimes considerably so. It's certainly not a gaming machine but can do a considerable amount of desktop PC gaming. Looking forward to trying out the latest CoD on it.

Yeah, sorry about that. I meant my comments as tongue in cheek, light poke at the ongoing arguments that SB (mine is same as yours: i7, 16, 512) is not a good a game machine, based on the 520 built into the chip - not Iris as I said - or the dGPU NVidia 940 or 940 MSFT/NVidia knock off, so you should not buy it.

It is a non sequitur argument, since it was never intended as a game machine. Tho it is capable of some pretty sophisticated gaming, but only as an adjunct.

My FedEx tracker now says delivery by noon Monday. Still does specify which Memphis...but I will trust it is TN.
 
My FedEx tracker now says delivery by noon Monday. Still does specify which Memphis...but I will trust it is TN.

The "world hub" aka the biggest and busiest Fed Ex transfer location is Memphis, TN so yeah, that's a pretty safe bet where it's located. :D
 
You must have a pretty serious collection of hardware, I've noticed that you're also a member over at TabletPCReview and you seem to be on top of things almost as soon as they happen.

Congrats on the purchase, and if you ever decide to offload any old "hand me down" hardware I'd be happy to provide my shipping address. :D

Guilty as charged. ;) I've been a huge fan of pen enabled hybrid PCs for a long time. My first good IT job involved doing a inventory management system in the early 90's that used pen Windows for Pen computing devices. Didn't really know anything about them at the time but got the job and just kind of have just followed them since.

Definitely need to offload some stuff as my wife keeps telling me. I just hate going through auctions and online transactions. But I probably will do a fire sale next year just to clean out the closets and reduce the in IT foot print.
 
Yeah, sorry about that. I meant my comments as tongue in cheek, light poke at the ongoing arguments that SB (mine is same as yours: i7, 16, 512) is not a good a game machine, based on the 520 built into the chip - not Iris as I said - or the dGPU NVidia 940 or 940 MSFT/NVidia knock off, so you should not buy it.

My bad, that flew totally over my head. For all of its faults, which don't seem to be many considering all that the SB can do, it's actually faster than many devices used for PC gaming according to the Steam Hardware Survey. There are a LOT of GPUs in that survey, none having 5% share, but three of the top five GPUs on it are Intel iGPUs. Even a non dGPU SB is more powerful than those.
 
And for some reason they shipped my dock overnight air, and my book ground, so I'll be sitting here with a dock on monday waiting for the book on tuesday...
 
And for some reason they shipped my dock overnight air, and my book ground, so I'll be sitting here with a dock on monday waiting for the book on tuesday...

If someone were to read that sentence not knowing that it's about the Surface Book, I bet it would create quite an uproar. "Sitting by the dock on Tues-day..." or something like that. :D
 
Just got mine in 40 minutes ago and have just completed the initial updates. Not a lot to say about at this time other than the screen is fantastic and anyone calling it fugly can't see. Doing the routine program installs now.
 
Nice, congrats again on the buy, and definitely post anything you care to since I'm interested like many others are as well.
 
For anybody worried about the strength of the hinge (and having that gap), Mashable has a video review on YouTube, and the guy actually stood on it.
 
That video just mentioned is at:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSkkwK7w1JU

and he "steps" on it at about the 1:12 mark but if you look closely at how he's doing it, it's obvious he's seated in a chair that's out of the frame on the right side as both feet kind of just glide onto the top of the Surface Book like a mini-jump of sorts (not what he does, however). And considering it barely gets pushed into the carpet like one would expect if the full weight of a person were on it, this is more of a gimmick shot in my opinion - he never fully stands on it directly, just leans onto it from a seated position using both feet.

Neat, but I ain't buying it (meaning the video). :p
 
If you read their actual review he says this:

I placed the Surface Book on my carpeted floor (office-style, so a pretty low-pile carpet). Then I held onto my desk and chair. I lifted both feet off the ground and gingerly lowered them onto the clipboard side of the Surface Book -- my heels and the majority of my weight were rested on the hinge. I did not move my feet or jump and down, but the device survived my full body weight (roughly 150 pounds) resting on top of it. In short, I do not see a fundamental flaw in Microsoft’s unique hinge design.

Full Review
 
150 lbs, what a pipsqueak.

But yeah, I kinda figured as much by looking at the way the Surface Book gets pushed into the carpet under it and it's barely sinking into at all. I myself am 6'6" tall and I weigh about 370 lbs - without making a joke related to "The Dark Knight Rises" and the Bane thing, I'm a very big guy so I'm sure if that was me putting my weight on it the damned thing would flatten out the carpet for sure and potentially the hinge too. :)
 
Thanks! I don't think this hinge is going anywhere. It's feels like a tank tread.

I think that was probably the idea when they conceived of it, but one does have to look at it and wonder why they didn't try to make it "smaller" in a sense meaning the hinge smaller overall from top to bottom (as it's laying on a surface - no pun intended) so that the two parts would close properly and flat. I remember the ThinkPad Twist from a few years ago and how they put small rubberized "feet" on the corners of the main base so that when the lid was swung back around on itself they provided a small amount of cushioning and spacing - probably learned lessons over the years because of how some convertibles in a closed mode tend to develop scuffs and scratches from the keyboards or main bases.

Anyway, I'm sure it's a truly kick ass piece of hardware you'll love for years to come.
 
I think that was probably the idea when they conceived of it, but one does have to look at it and wonder why they didn't try to make it "smaller" in a sense meaning the hinge smaller overall from top to bottom (as it's laying on a surface - no pun intended) so that the two parts would close properly and flat. I remember the ThinkPad Twist from a few years ago and how they put small rubberized "feet" on the corners of the main base so that when the lid was swung back around on itself they provided a small amount of cushioning and spacing - probably learned lessons over the years because of how some convertibles in a closed mode tend to develop scuffs and scratches from the keyboards or main bases.

Anyway, I'm sure it's a truly kick ass piece of hardware you'll love for years to come.

The length of the hinge is what helps to provide stability and it also provides a slant to the screen when its flipped over the keyboard. Since some many people made an issue out of the gap when closed I tried to think of a situation in all of the years I've owned laptops where it would be an issue.

On thing that pops a lot about the subject is dirt and dust and stuff in a bag that could slip into the gap. Every laptop bag I've owned has a separate compartment for the laptop. Random stuff wouldn't get in any bag I've ever owned. As for dirt and dust, I see a lot of laptops at work, full of dirt and dust on the screens and keys. It's just happens and you clean the thing routinely.

As for the screens stability it's fine on a table. The bottom is on the slick slide, it doesn't really grip to the surface (no pun intended) as well as I'd like but it's not what I'd call slippery. There is some slight wobble if you bang on the keys hard enough, nothing I'd call an issue. As for "lapability" it's about as comfortable as any laptop I've used in my lap. Which isn't very comfortable for me at all. I just hate using a laptop in my lap. It's much better than the Surface Pro but it is top heavy so I kind of have to rest my hands on it to keep it in place. Right now I'm sitting in kitchen chair writing this post with it in my lap. I have pretty long arms so the screen and hinge are out past my knees at good five inches. As long as my hands on the device this actually isn't bad for a laptop for me.

Still installing stuff. Couldn't get Alien Isolation to run, it kept crashing, Trying MGS V Phantom now to see how that goes. I've noticed too a bit of trouble when converting to canvas mode. Had some blue screens, then I installed the latest firmware which seems to have fixed that but then the display driver will stop responding. Unit still runs but still an issue.

Pulling it at as using it a tablet works perfectly however. The tablet section is VERY impressive. Other reviewers have mentioned it and now I get it. As big as this screen is, the tablet section feel feather light almost. Of course the battery life is poor as tablet outside of the base. But still it's really amazing how big and light the tablet section is.
 
There's nothing stopping you or any Surface Book owner from putting 4 (in the corners) or 5 (with one in the center for an "X" style setup) thin rubber "feet" on the bottom similar to what I was referring to in that last post, too. If I had a Surface Book that would practically be a priority for me when first getting it and I don't mean a really thick set of feet because that wouldn't be necessary, but I would definitely get something under there - I know it doesn't have any intake or exhaust ports on the bottom so that's not part of it, I'd just do it to do it I suppose and get the device up a bit to save the bottom from any potential cosmetic damage I could.

That's just me, of course, and I'm not one to go all OCD about keeping stuff bright and shiny new but even so, it just seems like a good idea to me to have at least a few feet or spacers or whatever on the bottom.

Anyway, where's the pics? :D
 
Just paid for mine at Bestbuy got the I5/256GB/8GB/dGPU with 10% veterans discount. They honored my vet status I showed them proof and they matched Microsoft retail store discount. I get ship to store pickup this thursday. Im excited for sure but damn expensive machine.
 
Overall, I like the idea of the Surface Book, but I'm not sure I can justify paying $2000 for something with a Nvidia GTX 950M at best. I know many will say it "isn't intended for gaming", but I guess my question would be then... why a dGPU? If the thing comes with such a high resolution screen, its going to be hard to get several years of even moderate-setting gaming out of that card, perhaps? If it is made primarily as a low-power portable machine, then it should be able to do "light gaming" with Iris / Iris Pro or even standard Intel integrated graphics, shouldn't it? Stuff at low settings, 2D style games, indie titles, older games. Sure, the GTX 950M may do a little better but for the price I'm not sure its enough at least for me.

I really like the Surface Book design, but I'd really like if they could make an "Elite" version or whatnot that is perhaps a little thicker/heavier, but puts a premium gaming GPU (and even better battery?) in that keyboard "dock" area that it has nearly all to itself! Failing this, I'd be curious if other manufacturers will rise to the challenge. We already have thankfully begun to see some "luxury gaming" notebooks like the Razer Blade, those from Asus / MSI etc... that have higher-end hardware, metal chassis, high res touch displays. If they can take it another step further and make them "convertible/ 2 in 1" types, it would be neat.

Oh, has anyone with a Surface Book put Linux on it (dual booting etc.) by chance? I'm curious to see how well the hardware would be supported.
 
Oh, has anyone with a Surface Book put Linux on it (dual booting etc.) by chance? I'm curious to see how well the hardware would be supported.

Considering the people that pre-ordered it in the past two weeks are just getting them today as well as they've officially gone on sale everywhere but those have to be shipped as well - not sure any stores other than Microsoft Stores have them in actual physical stock - I doubt you'll get an answer on that one within the next week or so, but it's possible.

As for the gaming thing, sometimes I wish people would get over it (not you specifically, Xaeos, I mean people in general) and realize that yes you can game with such a laptop to appreciable degrees but no, there's never going to be a laptop that can match what's possible with the best desktop GPUs. Even the DIY ExpressCard graphics stuff would still be limited by that bus and limited by the sheer number of GPUs they could make use of.

Even in spite of the Surface Book's dGPU and the high resolution, nothing stops anyone from using an external monitor that is physically larger but might have a lower native resolution say traditional 1920x1080 or something similar. I would presume (since I don't own a Surface Book and probably never will) that using it linked up to an external display that's basically 1/32 the number of pixels (6,000,000 pixels on the Surface Book display vs 2,073,600 on a 1920x1080 display) means performance would obviously be much better on the external, and I'm sure you could probably adjust the internal display's resolution to do the same thing but then you'd deal with some downscaling going on or whatever.

Obviously, an external lower resolution display would simply be the best option for gaming, but that's just a guess on my part. Honestly I wouldn't dream of doing any serious gaming on a laptop display, I would always be looking to attach an external to get the larger physical aspect even if the resolution tends to be lower. I guess that comes from years of being a competitive Quake player - it was always about the speed of things, not the way things looked. I couldn't care less about all the fancy graphical effects and would traditionally bring everything down to the lowest common denominator with large blocky characters, 16 bit color, disabling all the dynamic lighting, etc because in those days ~15 years ago you had to do such things to get that speed from the GPUs of the day.

But I can see where having such a powerhouse machine coupled with a dGPU that's decent is a draw, sure. A discrete GPU like the one in the Surface Book is going to offer better performance in applications like CAD and 3D modeling and yes some professionals do tend to use laptops as portable workstations (like the Dell Precision models for example) and so the opportunity to carry around a much lighter device that can match or even exceed such monstrous machines - the Dell Precision laptops are never something you'd call "light and easy to carry" - then that's where the Surface Book or similar hardware comes in.

As time passes efficiency improves, things get smaller and lighter. This is just another step in the right direction and I'm happy that it's Microsoft on the forefront this time.

As the Overwatch closed beta starts tomorrow and I'm hoping to get an invite, I wonder how well that game would play on a Surface Book. :D
 
Today UPS delivered my Surface Book... warranty information card. Someone at the shipping department is having a laugh right now.

I hope they got charged a ton for overnighting something the size of a postcard in a huge padded envelope.
 
Today UPS delivered my Surface Book... warranty information card. Someone at the shipping department is having a laugh right now.

I hope they got charged a ton for overnighting something the size of a postcard in a huge padded envelope.

PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN... sorry, just had to say that. :D

Wow, that is unusual. I've had FedEx deliver me things like that, and I practically had to shake the envelope to get the item out - at first grasp the thought was "My god, someone shipped me an empty FedEx envelope overnight..." It's just weird but happens - hopefully you're able to track whatever else is being shipped your way, right?
 
MS has no idea when the 128GB dGPU model is shipping, ugh, despite the site saying it would ship by Oct 26.

I can pick up a 256GB at BB right now but I'll just wait, can't get my EDU discount there so it's almost $200 extra factoring in the cash back I'd also be missing out on.
 
Good grief this thing is so much faster than a SP3 for what I do, which typically involves a lot of PDF manipulation and markup using Drawboard and sometimes Adobe DC. I can turn on all the advanced rendering features in Drawboard and it's still all pretty much instant. I still hear the fan kick up when One Drive for Business fires up because ODFB fucking sucks and it's honestly about as loud as the one on the SP3, but the difference is my SP3 got HOT, while this just gets a little warm. The screen is just stupid good and keyboard is a massive improvement over the type covers. Also since I use this daily for work I can write it off as a business expense at the end of the year and get a few hundred back on taxes, so between that and veterans discount the i7/256 model will probably cost me less than $1500.

Overall, I like the idea of the Surface Book, but I'm not sure I can justify paying $2000 for something with a Nvidia GTX 950M at best. I know many will say it "isn't intended for gaming", but I guess my question would be then... why a dGPU? If the thing comes with such a high resolution screen, its going to be hard to get several years of even moderate-setting gaming out of that card, perhaps? If it is made primarily as a low-power portable machine, then it should be able to do "light gaming" with Iris / Iris Pro or even standard Intel integrated graphics, shouldn't it? Stuff at low settings, 2D style games, indie titles, older games. Sure, the GTX 950M may do a little better but for the price I'm not sure its enough at least for me.

I really like the Surface Book design, but I'd really like if they could make an "Elite" version or whatnot that is perhaps a little thicker/heavier, but puts a premium gaming GPU (and even better battery?) in that keyboard "dock" area that it has nearly all to itself! Failing this, I'd be curious if other manufacturers will rise to the challenge. We already have thankfully begun to see some "luxury gaming" notebooks like the Razer Blade, those from Asus / MSI etc... that have higher-end hardware, metal chassis, high res touch displays. If they can take it another step further and make them "convertible/ 2 in 1" types, it would be neat.

Oh, has anyone with a Surface Book put Linux on it (dual booting etc.) by chance? I'm curious to see how well the hardware would be supported.

You do realize that since the advent of OpenCL, Cuda, and general GPU acceleration in professional level productivity programs that there are a large number of varied business applications that can take advantage of a dGPU, therefore the presence of a dGPU doesn't innately designate this device as a gaming machine right? There are plenty of people out there who see the dGPU on this thing and think "oh wow even if it's not a monster card that will speed up my work flow tremendously" and those are the exact people MS is targeting with these devices.
 
PICS OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN... sorry, just had to say that. :D

Wow, that is unusual. I've had FedEx deliver me things like that, and I practically had to shake the envelope to get the item out - at first grasp the thought was "My god, someone shipped me an empty FedEx envelope overnight..." It's just weird but happens - hopefully you're able to track whatever else is being shipped your way, right?

Should have made an unboxing video I guess. Looks like they haven't actually shipped the book yet. Hopefully soon, they have my money.
 
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