Gaming Battery Life?

[Orren]

Hi,

I've been looking around and can't seem to find anything on how long this device will work when gaming? Since it's stressing the GPU and CPU it will drain much quicker than most review tests.

For a high end game like Skyrim (or any high end game really) does anyone have any idea what I could expect from battery life? I'm hoping for around the 3 hours mark. Anyone?

 

[jollywombat]

Hi,

I've been looking around and can't seem to find anything on how long this device will work when gaming? Since it's stressing the GPU and CPU it will drain much quicker than most review tests.

For a high end game like Skyrim (or any high end game really) does anyone have any idea what I could expect from battery life? I'm hoping for around the 3 hours mark. Anyone?

Expect ~2 hours gaming at most with something like Skyrim. Playing Starcraft 2 on the surface usually results around 1 1/2 - 2 hours of gametime for me. These tablets were not designed with gaming in mind, and running the GPU/CPU full out plus the cooling required taxes the battery life excessively.

 

[Orren]

Expect ~2 hours gaming at most with something like Skyrim. Playing Starcraft 2 on the surface usually results around 1 1/2 - 2 hours of gametime for me. These tablets were not designed with gaming in mind, and running the GPU/CPU full out plus the cooling required taxes the battery life excessively.

Thanks for the reply. I guess I can't complain, I never expected a device this powerful could be this small with that kind of battery life. I noticed the reviewers got extremely good battery life but none of them did a 100% load test. Considering this device can be used anywhere with a controller for gaming I'm shocked no one has done one.

I doubt a full sized ultra-book would last much longer. A Haswell ultra-book costs a reasonable amount more in the UK as well.

 

[Deleted member 10837]

The Power Cover will have a 30Wh battery which will add 71% to the Surface's 42Wh.

 

[Orren]

That's really good, how have you guys found the on-board storage? Considering the 64GB or the 128GB, difference in price is quite high (£70) but the storage seems to be extremely fast when compared to a microSD card.

 

[DragonGamer]

Thanks for the reply. I guess I can't complain, I never expected a device this powerful could be this small with that kind of battery life. I noticed the reviewers got extremely good battery life but none of them did a 100% load test. Considering this device can be used anywhere with a controller for gaming I'm shocked no one has done one.

Not sure where I saw that but I rememebr a test where they did a 100% load test even on both Surfaces. Maybe it was a german review.. not sure..
In every case I remember the SP 2 to have lasted about 1:47 hours and the old Surface Pro about 1:30
So the improvement isn't enormous on full load.

Yes indeed, Ultrabooks barely have much more battery time. They usually have larger screens though! The screen consumes a lot of power...

 

[demandarin]

If your aim is gaming, I'd suggest either the 128 fb with 4gb of ram or even better the 256gb version with 8gb of ram. PC games will eat through your storage space..haha

I have a pro1 the 128gb version with a 64gb class 10 ultra SD memory card in it. I ran through all that space quick with steam games.

So over the weekend i caught a great deal on a 1.5tb portable USB 3,0 harddrive. The Toshiba Canvio. Cost me like on $55 dollars. Radioshack had it on sale. Then I bought a Anker USB 3.0 4 port hub. Works great plugged up to the pro with hardsrive and Xbox 360 controller attached.

Now I have morenthan enough space and can now download some of the larger games out there without fear of running out of space. I already transferred most games to it. So now i have 30-50gb of internal rstorage freed up. With USB 3 hub and harddrive, games play flawless off of it.

 

[Orren]

Not sure where I saw that but I rememebr a test where they did a 100% load test even on both Surfaces. Maybe it was a german review.. not sure..
In every case I remember the SP 2 to have lasted about 1:47 hours and the old Surface Pro about 1:30
So the improvement isn't enormous on full load.

Yes indeed, Ultrabooks barely have much more battery time. They usually have larger screens though! The screen consumes a lot of power...

Very true, but in the surface's defense, there is a lot less room inside to store the larger capacity batteries.

If your aim is gaming, I'd suggest either the 128 fb with 4gb of ram or even better the 256gb version with 8gb of ram. PC games will eat through your storage space..haha

I have a pro1 the 128gb version with a 64gb class 10 ultra SD memory card in it. I ran through all that space quick with steam games.

So over the weekend i caught a great deal on a 1.5tb portable USB 3,0 harddrive. The Toshiba Canvio. Cost me like on $55 dollars. Radioshack had it on sale. Then I bought a Anker USB 3.0 4 port hub. Works great plugged up to the pro with hardsrive and Xbox 360 controller attached.

Now I have morenthan enough space and can now download some of the larger games out there without fear of running out of space. I already transferred most games to it. So now i have 30-50gb of internal rstorage freed up. With USB 3 hub and harddrive, games play flawless off of it.

By the sounds of this a 128GB is the better choice, how slow is reading from the microSD? Is it even worth getting a super fast card?

 

[jollywombat]

I would say it is worth it for getting a fast micro sdxc card if you do not want the bulk of lugging around a portable HD with the surface. I have a 64gb Sandisk Ultra card in mine, read speeds are ~50mbps, write is ~10. That is fine for games and such, and there are faster cards out there that double the write speeds if that is a concern.

 

[Orren]

I would say it is worth it for getting a fast micro sdxc card if you do not want the bulk of lugging around a portable HD with the surface. I have a 64gb Sandisk Ultra card in mine, read speeds are ~50mbps, write is ~10. That is fine for games and such, and there are faster cards out there that double the write speeds if that is a concern.

I think I'll go for the 128GB version then buy a microSD when it is full.

Once last question, with the RAM usually 4GB is enough for games, however the HD4400 (I'm assuming nothing has changed since I last checked with integrated GPUs) doesn't have its own memory therefore it will be using the system memory as video RAM as well. Since the GPU isn't that powerful I'd expect that this limitation wouldn't show itself however, I also have heard that the 4GB version is single channel and the 8GB version is dual channel. This could cause the 4GB to perform slower if true, what versions are you guys using?

 

[demandarin]

I heard the 4gb is dual channel also. I think it was seen in a breakdown of device. I'd search some more to verify that. As for the card, get a class 10. I have the SanDisk ultra version and has worked great since I got it. N actually my portable Hard drive is very small. Since its USB 3.0, its speeds are far faster than class 10 micros card. Its about the size if a deck of cards. Actually a little thinner. If you game alot and like to have alot of games installed, you will burn through both internal and micro memory. Which is why I got the 1.5tb hard drive. Its very small and light. You might want to consider one down the road if you find yourself running out of storage space.

 

[Orren]

I heard the 4gb is dual channel also. I think it was seen in a breakdown of device. I'd search some more to verify that. As for the card, get a class 10. I have the SanDisk ultra version and has worked great since I got it. N actually my portable Hard drive is very small. Since its USB 3.0, its speeds are far faster than class 10 micros card. Its about the size if a deck of cards. Actually a little thinner. If you game alot and like to have alot of games installed, you will burn through both internal and micro memory. Which is why I got the 1.5tb hard drive. Its very small and light. You might want to consider one down the road if you find yourself running out of storage space.

Yeah I've been looking around the web and it seems that some people think its dual and others single. I'll keep looking and let you know what I find though. I want to find out because all the videos that test FPS in games are all running on the 8GB version so I don't want to get one home and find out my frames are 10% less or something.