i7 benchmarks & tests

[leeshor]

Great point and one I was about to make. Really good gaming video cards cost nearly as much as a Surface Pro 3

 

[bkydcmpr]

Simple problem, simple answer:
Plug in headphones. Go into playback devices, make the headphones the default device. When you unplug them it will default to onboard speakers. When you plug them in it will automatically switch them over to the headphones.

maybe you didn't read the details. the settings were correct, it will automatically switch when cpu/gpu is not fully loaded. it is a bug.

 

[bkydcmpr]

Great point and one I was about to make. Really good gaming video cards cost nearly as much as a Surface Pro 3

nobody is expecting sp3 performs like a really good gaming video card. I was expecting sp3 i7 performs better than sp2 i5, or even just better than sp3 i5, isn't it reasonable? that's the only reason to get i7 right?

 

[grumpy]

The thing is, MS could have made they SP3 a few millimeters thicker and achieved the equivelant performance of the SP2. Instead, MS chose to chase the iPad form factor and as a result significantly hobbled the performance. No one expects a tablet to compete with a gaming laptop, just like no one expects a gaming laptop to compete with a gaming desktop. But, the SP3's performance could have been better if not for a poor design decision.

 

[bkydcmpr]

I think sp3 i7 is completely a marketing strategy. no engineer would squeeze an hotter part into the chassis when i5 is getting overheat already. it reminds me a classic marketing case, a product didn't sell because the consumers don't have comparison, so created a crippled cheaper model and a luxury model and consumers begin to buy the "standard" model because they believe that's the best value. microsoft claimed it's a new class of computer for several times, marketing people certainly know this story and made some "references". but this time, I think the i3 model is sacrificed for this strategy. It could be a really good option for students and office people if put in a bigger ssd and 8gb memory.

 

[ipaq_101]

nobody is expecting sp3 performs like a really good gaming video card. I was expecting sp3 i7 performs better than sp2 i5, or even just better than sp3 i5, isn't it reasonable? that's the only reason to get i7 right?

Knowing what you know now, why not get the SP2 i5? They are still selling them at a discount, right? Or stick with the SP3 i5? At least it will save you some $$$. I was debating between the i5 and i7 and in hindsight I am glad I stuck with the i5 as clearly there isn't much of a difference in performance from everyone's first take of the i7s. I saved a few hundred dollars, then again I don't do any serious gaming or editing. The most intensive things I do are crunch data, regression analysis, and financial modeling and the i5 does it without a problem.

Sorry it didn't work out for you.

 

[bkydcmpr]

Knowing what you know now, why not get the SP2 i5? They are still selling them at a discount, right? Or stick with the SP3 i5? At least it will save you some $$$. I was debating between the i5 and i7 and in hindsight I am glad I stuck with the i5 as clearly there isn't much of a difference in performance from everyone's first take of the i7s. I saved a few hundred dollars, then again I don't do any serious gaming or editing. The most intensive things I do are crunch data, regression analysis, and financial modeling and the i5 does it without a problem.

Sorry it didn't work out for you.

I LOVE the form factor of sp3. I have sp1, and skipped sp2 pinned high hope on sp3. even sp3 failed on me, I still think this is the right design, they just need the right processor and some other minor upgrades (full power usb 3.0, autofocus camera, etc.). so I'm sure I'll preorder sp4 as soon as it begins just like I did for sp3.

 

[hughlle]

of course I'm upset. I've waited since it was announced, pre-ordered in the first 30 seconds it started, now turns out I can't do much more than an ipad with it and have to return it, how would I feel?

How can you possibly try and make the argument that you can't do much more with an sp3 and an ipad?

 

[Kif]

I find the performance of my i5 SP3 to be perfectly acceptable during real world usage. I bought it knowing that if I ran a bunch of synthetic benchmarks it wasn't going to be the top of the heap. To me it's more important that is has a great form factor and it's fast enough. The time has past for worrying about if you have the fastest rig on the block.

 

[eltos_lightfoot]

Well said, Kif.

 

[bkydcmpr]

How can you possibly try and make the argument that you can't do much more with an sp3 and an ipad?

I was exaggerating literally. some user don't do much with their sp3 besides web browsing and casual editing, ipad can handle similar job perfectly fine. covered it up, they won't tell they were using an arm or i7.

 

[GreyFox7]

The thing is, MS could have made they SP3 a few millimeters thicker and achieved the equivelant performance of the SP2. Instead, MS chose to chase the iPad form factor and as a result significantly hobbled the performance. No one expects a tablet to compete with a gaming laptop, just like no one expects a gaming laptop to compete with a gaming desktop. But, the SP3's performance could have been better if not for a poor design decision.

IMO MS is chasing the desires of most users not the high end gamer in choosing thinner and lighter. The performance will be very good for most users. you can do a lot with it and never see throttling.

I don't see throttling when browsing the web, doing office work, watching HD videos (either streamed or from USB Disk on the same docking station I have two DisplayLink monitors running off of plus my wired Ethernet connection, kybd & mouse). I occasionally play mahjong but haven't tried it yet sometimes I get so many tabs open in a browser window I open another one or two or use both desktop and metro.

I don't see throttling when running Sysmark for 4 hours, PassMark, or PCMark (Home, work, or Creative) benchmarks. I do see throttling running 3DMark, or the Intel XTU tests.
I think its PCMark that does a 25000 row Matrix calculation in a spreadsheet. They do image manipulation... id call it light but likely representative of what most users do. These benchmarks are designed to evaluate systems for use with typical use cases.

It would be nice if MS can tune the firmware to get closer to SP2 performance on these tougher workloads but I never bought a Surface Pro until the SP3 because IMO it was to thick. As a tablet device I found the Surface 2 to be quite good for web browsing, video watching, playing Mahjong and light office work. The SP3 is much faster and the S2 was in the same ballpark as iPad Air and Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.

Certainly there are websites and Google apps that don't work well... I see that as mostly their problem and have pretty much shutdown anything with those.