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CPU/GPU Specs, Why no info?

The operative word is Custom or Customized.
Is it first generation or second generation Maxwell cores that were used/customized?
Maxwell xxxM models call for PCIe 3.0 x8 or x16 interfaces and this lists PCIe 3.0 x4. Customized?
Memory size, bandwidth, and transfers don't match any products. Customized?
GeForce 900 series - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia see 9xx M table.

Lets say it was based on a 950M which lists a 65W TDP PCIe 3.0 x16 interface, 2GB memory size, 80Gb/s bandwidth, 128 bit bus width, GDDR5 memory. There's a lot of differences. PCIe x4 is only 1/4 of x16 and interestingly 65w/4 = ₁6.25w :) the listed 64bit interface is half the 128 and the 40Gb bandwidth is half the 80Gb bandwidth listed. 1GB of ram is half the 2048.
With so many modifications the end result is what? Assuming it started with a 940M is no picnic either.
 
please go to Microsoft Surface Book Nvidia GeForce GPU details emerge - Laptop - News - HEXUS.net

Other redditors were more successful in getting to install programs and two of them managed to run GPUz (as linked in the intro paragraph). The results are embedded below. As you can see, Microsoft's custom Nvidia dGPU is approximately similar to the Nvidia GeForce 940M.
http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2015/10/e424f3b1-7ff2-4698-8855-f99ba5ded439.jpg
http://hexus.net/media/uploaded/2015/10/77142e97-e486-43aa-b2b5-10dc9e3205ef_resized_210x249.jpg
 
Passmark 3D score Intel HD 520 = 820 this is the iGPU in the i5/i7 Skylake chips.
Passmark 3D score NVIDIA 940m = 869
Passmark 3D score Intel iris 6100 = 961 Broadwell high end HD iGPU i5-5257U & i5-5287U

Let the wailing begin... :)

Got to see the benchmarks. Although if it's optimized for Professional Applications, which benchmarks?

If you're going to modify something it's usually much easier to subtract or remove things than to add onto something. when looking at 940M vs 950M some of the specs would require adding to the 940M where if you start with a 950M and remove couple things you may have a much easier time of it.
 
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Passmark 3D score Intel HD 520 = 820 this is the iGPU in the i5/i7 Skylake chips.
Passmark 3D score NVIDIA 940m = 869
Passmark 3D score Intel iris 6100 = 961 Broadwell high end HD iGPU i5-5257U & i5-5287U

Let the wailing begin... :)

Got to see the benchmarks. Although if it's optimized for Professional Applications, which benchmarks?

If you're going to modify something it's usually much easier to subtract or remove things than to add onto something. when looking at 940M vs 950M some of the specs would require adding to the 940M where if you start with a 950M and remove couple things you may have a much easier time of it.

I find benchmarking programs to not be very useful compared to actual games... but another point to compare:

3DMark 06 (median)
Intel HD 520 - 8916
940m - 11920
Intel Iris 6100 - 8764

There aren't gaming benchmarks for the Intel HD 520 yet, but here are some comparisons for the other two:

Witcher 3 - med. 1366x768
940m - 18 fps
Iris 6100 - 10.4 fps

Dragon Age: Inquisition - med. 1366x768
940m - 28 fps
Iris 6100 - 19.3 fps

Shadows of Mordor
med. 1344x756
940m - 25 fps
Iris 6100 - 18.6 fps

high 1920x1080
940m - 13 fps
Iris 6100 - 10.8 fps

Metro: Last Light - high 1366x768
940m - 25 fps
Iris 6100 - 13.3 fps
 
I can't help but think that anyone who orders this with gaming in mind is just going to end up disappointed considering how much they're paying.

It CAN play games, yes. But you are absolutely not going to get $2,000 of gaming performance out of this device. It's just not happening. You will be able to run games like Civilization, Cities Skylines, Crusader Kings, Minecraft, and other similar type games acceptably. That I don't doubt.

But if you're buying this thing thinking that it's going to capably handle Fallout 4....that's not happening. Alienware's weigh 7+ lbs for a reason.
 
I can't help but think that anyone who orders this with gaming in mind is just going to end up disappointed considering how much they're paying.

It CAN play games, yes. But you are absolutely not going to get $2,000 of gaming performance out of this device. It's just not happening. You will be able to run games like Civilization, Cities Skylines, Crusader Kings, Minecraft, and other similar type games acceptably. That I don't doubt.

But if you're buying this thing thinking that it's going to capably handle Fallout 4....that's not happening. Alienware's weigh 7+ lbs for a reason.

Agreed, like you mention alienware's weigh so much for a reason. Panos specifically said this isn't a gaming machine, the dedicated video card should definitely give it some oomph... my guess is it will add 50-100% performance over the integrated card which is definitely worth it, not only for GPU accelerated apps, but also that can be the difference from a gaming running at an acceptable FPS or not. For example in the above the 940m vs Iris 6100 in Dragon Age: Inquisition it's basically 19 vs 28 FPS, that's a massive difference in experience... around 30 FPS is playable on a laptop, 20 or less begins to get the point you want to crank down settings or just choose not to play the game.
 
the dedicated video card should definitely give it some oomph... my guess is it will add 50-100% performance over the integrated card which is definitely worth it, not only for GPU accelerated apps, but also that can be the difference from a gaming running at an acceptable FPS or not. For example in the above the 940m vs Iris 6100 in Dragon Age: Inquisition it's basically 19 vs 28 FPS, that's a massive difference in experience... around 30 FPS is playable on a laptop, 20 or less begins to get the point you want to crank down settings or just choose not to play the game.

I'm not convinced it's going to be in line with those benchmarks as I have my doubts that this GPU is going to be the equivalent of a 940M.

And even if it was.....those benchmarks are 1366 x 768. And it is still struggling to get 30fps. Why would someone want to play a game in 2015 at that resolution on a machine that you spent $2,000 on?
 
Panos said that the graphics card was designed with the help of the Xbox team and that this "this is for the gamer who plays League of Legends." This naively led a lot of us to have a lot of hopes for the GPU.
 
Panos said that the graphics card was designed with the help of the Xbox team and that this "this is for the gamer who plays League of Legends." This naively led a lot of us to have a lot of hopes for the GPU.
Yes. That is like saying "Minesweeper" in the gaming world. Basically, low demanding games. It was a nice way of saying "not for gaming" or "sucky GPU, but better than Intel", in a presentation full of journalists and blogger not computer savvy.

Here is what you get with the Nvidia GPU:
-> Possibly play games at minimum setting at native resolution (forget really demanding titles, much like Intel)
-> FULL DirectX and OpenGL support, and game optimized drivers, ensures 0 crash in games. It might ruin crappy, but at least it runs
-> FULL OpenCL, DirectCompute and CUDA support, allowing many professional software to use the GPU as hardware acceleration to boost the performance, like he showed on stage with a software. People who uses PhotoShop are also happy, as many demanding filters can be applied much faster than with Intel fur to Nvidia GPU support.
-> Solid drivers. While they are exceptions, and naturally with a new OS release, Nvidia drivers are generally strong, and present lots of options and features to the user to customize the GPU. Intel has silly useless feature like "Dynamic Power Saving Display" or wtv it is called, where it a software level dynamic contrast ratio, because it works on reverse (it should brighten up dark colors to see better, not dimm them down so that you need to increase the screen brightness to compensate, making you consume MORE battery life).
 
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