External 1080p monitor - what do I have to expect?

[TalkToTheHand]

Hi,
I am very interested in buying a Surface Pro 3 for using it as a desktop replacement. While I am pretty sure it can cope with my demands in terms of performance I am aksing myself how it would work with my external 1080p monitor (via DisplayPort). At the moment, I am unsure if I would use external only, rather than extendend view but what do I have to expect? Will the Surface remember the scaling factor for my monitor (100%) if I unplug it for mobile use? Since I also don't know whether the default scaling (of the Surface) is big enough for me, is it likely I will have to struggle around with serveral menu entries every time I (re-)connect the monitor?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Antitoon]

I am not using one yet, but as far as I have heard it will remember the scaling, however it will only apply the new scaling if you log out and log back in. Also, if you plan to use it in extended mode, be aware that you cannot have two different scaling values for two different monitors at the same time. So it will either look huge on your external screen or extremely small on the SP3 screen.

 

[TalkToTheHand]

(...) it will remember the scaling, however it will only apply the new scaling if you log out and log back in.

So that would mean if I use external-only-mode, some kind of pop-up will appear so I could approve log out/in in order to change the scaling remembered? Not perfect, but I probably could live with that 'til Microsoft adds the needed feature.

 

[Antitoon]

I don't know this for direct experience, I believe that when you plug the screen nothing special happens, but if you manually log off and back on you will have the new scaling.

But you should definitely wait for somebody else to answer this if you want to be sure.

 

[TalkToTheHand]

Thanks anyway. Hope somebody can help me further.

 

[daniielrp]

I can confirm that scaling is NOT automatic. When you plug it in to the monitor it will recognise the monitor and everything will look a bit oddly proportioned until you initiate a log out/log in. After you log back in, it will scale properly.

 

[TalkToTheHand]

Thanks for your answer. Well .. pretty annoying, right? Can't be that hard to implement for Microsoft, hope this will get adressed soon.

 

[daniielrp]

Thanks for your answer. Well .. pretty annoying, right? Can't be that hard to implement for Microsoft, hope this will get adressed soon.

Well it kind of it as dragging one app from one screen go another would require that app to be able go dpi scale on the fly, which afaik is quite a complicated thing.

 

[TalkToTheHand]

Right. In fact, I would be happy if it works for external-only and mirror-mode ..

 

[HvT]

My SP3 has a Dell U3014 connected. No problem at all. The U3014 ran on native resolution right away. I've got a USB/DisplayPort KVM in between, but does not seem to be a problem neither. I had no need to touch scaling settings.

 

[TalkToTheHand]

No suprise, I guess. Your monitor's resolution is pretty high.

 

[HvT]

Yes. ;-)
However, I wondered if it would work. But it does. Even with the KVM in the middle.
Now I am thinking of a Dock for the SP3....