Experience with App Store Games

[bvone21]

The primary purpose for my surface (i7/256gb) isn't really games...I went into it knowing about the expected performance and have an Xbox One for that.

My use is more for common daily use (browsing, email, youtube, netflix) and light photo work (Lightroom / Photoshop). But...it's nice to be able to throw on a time waster here or there from the app store. I didn't really think much of it before the purchase...I just figured these light weight games would run just fine. And they do, very smoothly, butttt....at the expense of the fan kicking into high gear very quickly and the back of the tablet heating up significantly. I wasn't expecting this.

(I'm considering dropping to the i5, it would probably suit my purposes just the same)

Are there any games from the app store or Steam that your running on your surface that "do not" kick up the fan to high and heat the tablet significantly? And if so, which model are you running?

I'd like to try them out and see if it's an issue with my machine at all...

 

[RémiM]

Even playing chess with the most popular app on the Store makes my fan crazy. If the level is easy, then the fan doesn't run and my SP3 is cool, if I set the level to hard, my SP3 becomes very hot...

I mean, a chess game :S

I guess these games are not finely tuned for the SP3. I don't see it as an hardware issue.

 

[GreyFox7]

Remember when MS Access used to run the CPU at 100% doing nothing.
The equivalent in chess would be... CheckToSeeIfHeMoved. Did he move yet. No. CheckToSeeIfHeMoved. ... ... ...

 

[VickiFL]

I use the Jeopardy app a lot, but I haven't noticed if it makes my i5 run hot.

 

[RémiM]

Remember when MS Access used to run the CPU at 100% doing nothing.
The equivalent in chess would be... CheckToSeeIfHeMoved. Did he move yet. No. CheckToSeeIfHeMoved. ... ... ...

It actually gets warm when the computer is thinking on his move.

Which actually makes me feel very smart

 

[bvone21]

It actually gets warm when the computer is thinking on his move.

Which actually makes me feel very smart

It's nice to know that your wits can only be matched by a Core i7 running at Turbo clocks.


Another day with the Surface and I have to say, Lightroom ran great! Very impressed with performance. Fan stayed quiet, although I was not doing much editing. (Did get hot while transferring almost 6gb of catalog files/previews/etc. via WiFi)

Testing some other app store games:
Call of Duty: Heroes (or whatever it's called, clash of clans clone, but 3d): Fan and heat go bonkers
Asphalt 8: Fan and heat go bonkers
GT Racing 2: Surprisingly...did not get as hot as Asphalt...

I probably won't play any of those games...they were just on the front page of the app store, so I tried them.

The reason for this whole thread is that I'm trying to clarify the common sentiment "that the SP3 is great for just about everything but CPU/GPU intensive games". I think the "CPU/GPU intensive" comments are bogus...and rather, if it's a game, any game, then it's making frequent calls to the CPU...and folks should be aware that this device will get uncomfortably hot to hold in tablet mode.

I just don't get why the CPU turbo's when it's so obviously unnecessary...even if it has to run constantly, whatever...but run at a lower clock and then we shouldn't get the same heat output.

 

[GreyFox7]

If the CPU could just tell bad code from appropriately demanding code this wouldn't be an issue.

 

[bvone21]

If the CPU could just tell bad code from appropriately demanding code this wouldn't be an issue.

I agree, I think that's the root issue. So I guess I'm curious, is there any app store games that do exhibit appropriately demanding code? I haven't found them yet...and with the surge in ultrabooks and thinner, lighter, faster...you'd think this may get taken into consideration during development.

 

[GreyFox7]

I agree, I think that's the root issue. So I guess I'm curious, is there any app store games that do exhibit appropriately demanding code? I haven't found them yet...and with the surge in ultrabooks and thinner, lighter, faster...you'd think this may get taken into consideration during development.

Sadly the days of efficiency in coding seem to be largely behind us. The last five years at work were spent largely troubleshooting poor performing apps. Some were unbelievably atrocious, others used new features that just turned out to be very inefficient themselves. I blame most of it on the current Project Management practices, that are hurting more than helping.

 

[TestudoAubreii]

The primary purpose for my surface (i7/256gb) isn't really games...I went into it knowing about the expected performance and have an Xbox One for that.

My use is more for common daily use (browsing, email, youtube, netflix) and light photo work (Lightroom / Photoshop). But...it's nice to be able to throw on a time waster here or there from the app store. I didn't really think much of it before the purchase...I just figured these light weight games would run just fine. And they do, very smoothly, butttt....at the expense of the fan kicking into high gear very quickly and the back of the tablet heating up significantly. I wasn't expecting this.

(I'm considering dropping to the i5, it would probably suit my purposes just the same)

Are there any games from the app store or Steam that your running on your surface that "do not" kick up the fan to high and heat the tablet significantly? And if so, which model are you running?

I'd like to try them out and see if it's an issue with my machine at all...

Like you, I didn't purchase my SP3 for gaming, but if I can game on it, added bonus!

I have been trying to find out what games will run well on my device, too (i5/8GB/256Gb). Since you mentioned Steam, I thought I would ask: Do you know about Steam In-Home Streaming? It works great when you are on your home network. Off of my network, I have been able to play Medieval II Total War with auto-detect settings. Yeah, the fan comes on and it heats up, but I kind of expected that from a demanding game like MII:TW. NBA 2K11 runs pretty good. I haven't really tried too much more from Steam, though. I really want to see it State of Decay will play locally on my machine.

As far as game apps, I haven't really tried any. Although, I heard that Spartan Assault is a good game to test your device out on. I would love to see a list of good games for the SP3.

 

[MathewH]

Like you, I didn't purchase my SP3 for gaming, but if I can game on it, added bonus!

I have been trying to find out what games will run well on my device, too (i5/8GB/256Gb). Since you mentioned Steam, I thought I would ask: Do you know about Steam In-Home Streaming? It works great when you are on your home network. Off of my network, I have been able to play Medieval II Total War with auto-detect settings. Yeah, the fan comes on and it heats up, but I kind of expected that from a demanding game like MII:TW. NBA 2K11 runs pretty good. I haven't really tried too much more from Steam, though. I really want to see it State of Decay will play locally on my machine.

As far as game apps, I haven't really tried any. Although, I heard that Spartan Assault is a good game to test your device out on. I would love to see a list of good games for the SP3.

I'd also like to see a list of games that work good on the SP3.

 

[TestudoAubreii]

I'd also like to see a list of games that work good on the SP3.

This is from a year ago, but check it out:

http://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/comments/17srkv/huge_list_of_games_the_surface_pro_meets_minimum/