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Poll What do you want to buy, Surface Pro or Surface Book?

What do want to buy?

  • Low end Surface Book without dGPU

    Votes: 2 3.2%
  • Mid range Surface Book with dGPU

    Votes: 13 21.0%
  • High end Surface Book with dGPU + i7

    Votes: 21 33.9%
  • Low end Surface Pro 4

    Votes: 4 6.5%
  • Mid range Surface Pro 4 (8G/16G)

    Votes: 9 14.5%
  • High end Surface Pro 4 (i7 + 16G)

    Votes: 4 6.5%
  • Surface 3

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Nope, I don't have money or I don't want to upgrade

    Votes: 9 14.5%

  • Total voters
    62

snowboarder

New Member
After 15 different Macbooks, this is my first ever non-Apple device. Scary.
I was waiting for the SP4 announcement, but SB is so much better for me. It still gives
me a "normal" laptop I can put on my desk when I need it, but it also gives me a beautiful
tablet with 16GB of RAM and pretty decent power for my Photoshop work.
An amazing tool for a traveling photographer. Full SD card is also important to me.
USB3 is actually a better solution in 2015 than the new TB3 or USB-C.

iPad Pro is a joke BTW. Great piece of hardware running a phone operating system...
Such a waste. No file system, no full Photoshop to run.
Apple become such a sad company these days. They think dumbing down everything
to the kardashians levels is the solution for everybody.

BTW, as of this morning the highest model is sold out at MS store.
Glad I preordered one.
 

vxm

Active Member
How does SP4 i5/8GB compare to SP3 i7/8GB in terms of performance? SP3 i7 version had better start in performance tests against i5, but thermal throttling was pushing it back even below i5 performance in some cases. Overall performance of SP4 is said to be 30% higher than SP3, I'm assuming that they compared i7 versions. I wonder, because if I'll get performance close to my i7 SP3 but with lesser heat and throttling I'd go for i5 version any day.
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
How does SP4 i5/8GB compare to SP3 i7/8GB in terms of performance? SP3 i7 version had better start in performance tests against i5, but thermal throttling was pushing it back even below i5 performance in some cases. Overall performance of SP4 is said to be 30% higher than SP3, I'm assuming that they compared i7 versions. I wonder, because if I'll get performance close to my i7 SP3 but with lesser heat and throttling I'd go for i5 version any day.
With a grain of salt
Geekbench i5-6300u single core 3071 multi core 6388
Geekbench i7-4650u single core 3205 multi core 6065

Passmark Scores with more salt
i7-4650u vs i5-6300u.PNG


Note only one sample for i5-6300u

One more grain of salt
02.png


Note there's no score for the i7-6650U with iris 540 graphics used in the SP4 only. i7-6600U is used in the SB.
 
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Nuspieds

Active Member
Yes, the hinge is ridiculously over complex. Laptop hinges were solved about 20 years ago...
Especially in technology, what is ever solved and stays stagnant with no improvement or attempt to improve?

But what's overly complex about the hinge? Push a button to snap out and snap back in at will. That's complex? Now, yes, if the technology behind it fails/is unreliable then, yes, it becomes a flawed engineering design; only time will tell.
 

GreyFox7

Super Moderator
Staff member
What to buy according to PCWorld
Here are the details of the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 chips, and why they matter

What's inside ...
Surface Book:
•6th Gen 2.6-GHz Intel Core i7-6600U processor with Intel HD graphics 520
•6th Gen 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5-6300U processor with Intel HD graphics 520
Optional (customized for the Surface Book) Nvidia GPU

Surface Pro 4:
•6th Gen 2.2-GHz Intel Core i7-6650U processor with Intel Iris graphics 540
•6th Gen 2.4-GHz Intel Core i5-6300U processor with Intel HD graphics 520
•6th Gen 900-MHz Intel Core m3-6Y30 processor with Intel HD graphics 515

Which Surface Book to buy: Core i5 or Core i7?
With identical graphics cores, the main difference between the Core i5 and the Core i7 appears to just be pure clock speed, so the better deal for performance per buck goes to the Core i5 chip.

From a pure performance perspective, based on how previous Intel model numbers have gone and my testing of the desktop Skylake chip, I predict that you might see a 15-percent difference between the two based on CPU-intensive chores. (Yes, and like a meteorologist, you can’t hold me to it unless I’m right.)

Therefore, you’d probably be fine buying the Core i5 version of the Surface Book with discrete graphics and 256GB SSD for $1,900 instead of shelling out $2,100 for the Core i7 Surface Book with discrete graphics and a 256GB SSD. Most of you won’t notice the difference unless there’s some other key difference between the configurations that I’m missing. More RAM or storage and your decision is made for you, i7 only.

But what about that graphics chip?
One part that’s still shrouded in mystery is the discrete graphics chip Microsoft put in the Surface Book.

What GPU though, I still don’t know. Nvidia offered up nearly the same statement as Microsoft itself did.

“The new GPU is a Maxwell based GPU with GDDR5 memory,” an Nvidia spokesperson said. “It was designed to deliver the best performance in ultra-thin form factors such as the Surface Book keyboard dock. Given its unique implementation and design in the keyboard module, it cannot be compared to a traditional 900M series GPU.”

The company directed me to Nvidia’s blog, which confirms that it’s an “8M” and has a 1GB GDDR5 frame buffer. So for that one chip, you’ll have to wait a bit more to find out just what kind of performance the Nvidia GPU nets you.

What about the CPUs in the Surface Pro 4?
Unlike the Surface Book, here you should choose wisely. While the CPUs in the Surface Book don’t differ dramatically, the SP4’s brains matter far more.

The highest end Surface Pro 4 uses Intel’s Iris Graphics with 48 execution units and should offer rather decent performance. If you read page 4 of my Skylake Core i7-6700K review, you’ll see that the desktop chip with its Intel HD 530 graphics—a step down from the Surface Pro 4 with the Core i7—pushes 54 fps in Tomb Raider when set to normal and at 1366x768 resolution. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect the Surface Pro 4 to be close to that or possibly exceed it (there are differences in cooling and memory bandwidth that could impact performance). Basically, “light-duty” gaming is definitely a feature of the Core i7 Surface Pro 4.

The mid-range Core i5-based Surface Pro 4 will be slower, but in the same performance ballpark as the Core i7 unit in, say, Photoshop. But it will take a definite back seat in graphics performance, which means “lighter duty gaming” or graphics tasks.

The really interesting changeup is that Core m3-6Y30 part within the entry-level Surface Pro 4. It won’t be as fast as the two faster SP4’s in any CPU task, such as Photoshop or video encoding, and it’ll also be third-place in graphics, too. But the significantly lower power consumption—and the significant boost in battery life—may be worth the tradeoff.

Depending on how Microsoft configured the chip to run in the Surface Pro 4, it could offer truly stupendous battery life that the two hotter and faster CPUs can’t touch. And it’ll do this while offering better performance than say, an Atom X5- or Atom X7-based Surface 3.

What Surface Pro 4 to buy
With this information in hand, the sweet spot for performance for the pre-configured models is the Core i5 with 8GB of RAM and the 256GB SSD.

So, which one should you buy? Again, realizing that the three CPUs here will yield markedly different results, here’s what I’d recommend:

  • Buy the Core m3 SP4 if your top priority is battery life, cost and more performance than an Atom-based Surface 3. Just know it will be slower in graphics and CPU tasks than the other two units. One thing to be aware of: the Core m3 does not have vPro, which may be a deal-breaker for a managed corporate environment.
  • Buy the Core i5 SP4 if you do more intensive chores such as Photoshop, Lightroom or light-duty video editing. The extra 8GB will help, and the Core i5 should outpace the Core m3 in CPU tasks and be a little faster in graphics tasks. And yes, vPro is supported on the Core i5 version.
  • Buy the Core i7 SP4 if you really need faster graphics performance. On the CPU side, you may see a 15 percent or so performance difference, too.
Again, this is based on how Intel CPUs have behaved for a few generations now and my testing of the desktop Skylake chips. While we won’t know for certain until we perform actual testing, I’m pretty comfortable making these predictions now.

Excerpted from PCWorld.
 
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EMINENT

Active Member
I was really sold on Book until I realized that there is no stand. WTF? That's what makes it a Surface.

That alone could've solved the wobbly nature of a top heavy laptop when using with a pen.

I'm still in shock at how they could've left out the most important feature. That alone kills it for me. Maybe next gen they'll ditch the weird hinge, get a stand and more battery in the clipboard.
 
OP
unruledboy

unruledboy

Active Member
I was really sold on Book until I realized that there is no stand. WTF? That's what makes it a Surface.

That alone could've solved the wobbly nature of a top heavy laptop when using with a pen.

I'm still in shock at how they could've left out the most important feature. That alone kills it for me. Maybe next gen they'll ditch the weird hinge, get a stand and more battery in the clipboard.


just wait for reviews, I believe it should be fine
 
I want the surface book but think I will go with sp4. My gaming laptop with a quad core i7 cpu 16gb ram, 512 and 256 ssds and Nvidia 970 3gb was 1600.00 ...I can't bring myself to spend that kind of money on an ultra book type device....yet
 

EMINENT

Active Member
Wobble was just a minor concern.
The big deal is the portability and utility of a built in stand when I want to use it as a tablet. In order to support angles on a table/sofa/lap while browsing, i'd have to lug around another 1.5 lbs. This defeats the benefit of it being a Surface tablet. Now it's just another heavy convertible.

Maybe some company can make a case that has a stand. Something that doesn't interfere with the bottom connection that can be always on even when docked.

Or, it'd be super cool if there was a light weight base with just battery, no keyboard. Kinda like a lightweight, dummy docking stand where you get extra battery and it serves as a stand and connects just like the dock.
 
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