I've wasted some $ on games. Can you help?

[Dim-Ize]

I have the SP2, and using Steam I have purchased and have played:
Portal 2 (it's incredible by the way)
Brothers - A Tale of Two Sons (also awesome!)
Castle of Illusion
Others from MS Store (all work fine)

Then I purchased Q.U.B.E. and Quantum Conundrum. Neither work, even on the lowest settings. I am confused as to what the minimum specs are on these titles as everything in the minimum specs seems to list a dedicated GPU card, which obviously I don't have.

Is there a way to compare a GPU with the integrated chip that the SP2 is using to at least get in the ball park before making any other purchases that won't really work?

I've seen the threads on here about dedicated gaming mods and recommended games:
Surface Games
SP2 Gaming
SP2 Gaming Mod


I even tried the site, Can you run it? But, it returns different results on a few games that I've played and know work well.

Just confused how I can make a good decision without wasting any more money by comparing the integrated video to what the minimum GPU is supposed to be.

 

[GreyFox7]

Google PassMark gpu-name
Example:
PassMark gtx 680
PassMark Intel HD 4400

 

[Philtastic]

Some games just aren't well optimized. I hadn't heard of Q.U.B.E. until now and it's under the "Indie" category of Steam which makes me suspect that it's a bit more of an obscure title. In my own experience, lots of games run really well even when you don't necessarily meet the minimum requirements and others don't. Skyrim runs great even though the min is Dx9 card with 512 MB of RAM while State of Decay (made by an indie developer) runs like crap with a RECOMMENDED of an Intel HD 4000.

I tried out the Q.U.B.E. demo and it runs great at 1080p and everything on except antialiasing. Might be something on your SP2 slowing it down.

 

[Dim-Ize]

I tried out the Q.U.B.E. demo and it runs great at 1080p and everything on except antialiasing. Might be something on your SP2 slowing it down.

That's what I thought too. But, I can't imagine what it would be...

I have stock load and nothing running in background. Portal 2 is definately a heavier load and it runs like butter at 1280x800. It uses the Half-Life engine and Q.U.B.E. runs on the Unreal Engine.

So confused.

 

[Philtastic]

The only thing that I can think of is that you're on the power saving profile maybe where the GPU is throttled to save power. To be fair, I tested the demo in that mode and it still ran fine but maybe something to check. I have customized my power saving profile so not sure if that's maybe why mine runs fine while yours might not.

 

[Dim-Ize]

Thanks, Philtastic. I haven't tried the demo, but assume it would be the same. I have high performance profile and it's plugged into power. I run an external monitor.

Q.U.B.E actually plays - but as the levels advance, it just sorta choppy / laggy. There's not much going on the screen, only lines and boxes. I don't know why it would be laggy when other games play great. I think there must be some settings to tweak int he .ini file to get really good performance. This game should work.

Quantum Conundrum, on the other hand, is pretty massive.

But, when I watch the game titles in the SP2 Gaming thread, I can't imagine these two titles (in OP) playing so sluggish, unless those gurus in that the SP2 Gaming thread have some unique set of video drivers and settings.

My system is rock solid (knock on wood) and everything else under the sun works perfectly.