Surface Pro 3, Football Manager 2014, & A Few Other Bits

[lbart]

Hi,

This is my first post so hope I am in the correct area for these questions. I have been looking a lot at the Forum and have found many useful pieces of information.

Has anyone used the new Surface Pro 3 with FM2014 yet ? This is a big game that worked great on my Surface Pro 2 (installed via Steam) which I have sold in preparation for getting the Pro 3 when it is released in the UK.

I am at the moment going for the i5 with 256GB and 8GB or Ram, going with this model mostly so I have the 8GB of Mem.

I have been debating with myself a lot over the last few weeks, I really wanted this device as my Surface Pro 2 was a bit heavy and didn't think the Battery life was great however I keep finding myself considering if really I should get a MacBook Air instead or a MacBook Pro, then just when I think right I want the Surface I read in a few places its nothing like as good as the Surface Pro 2 at handling games.

The main things I want to use this device for is MS Office, FM2014, General Browsing and mail and probably the odd game via steam.

I do have an iPad Air and when I owned the Surface Pro 2 I found myself picking this up over the Surface Pro 2 for general browsing but I don't like using Office on the iPad and I can't use Steam Games on my iPad so want the Surface Pro 3 to replace my iPad. Has the SP3 replaced the iPad for anyone, are you finding you use this device now over the iPad for the small tasks like just general browsing or e-mail ?

Does anyone have any thoughts on the above or any advice or recommendations, think I am just trying to put my mind at ease that I am making the right decision going for the Surface Pro 3 ?

Many Thanks
lbart

 

[hughlle]

Never having used a sp3, or played fm2014, just looking at the games system requirements, and one would have thought that the ps3 won't have even the slightest of issues playing it. On the graphics alone you can play it using integrated graphics from 10 years ago (intel gma 3100). For the cpu you can play it using a 2ghz pentium 4.

 

[ManUnited]

Finally, a post about what is important — FM2014. Well done, lBart, Well done.

 

[GreyFox7]

Oh man this is isn't even real Football is it... its that other game ... what we call soccer

 

[hughlle]

Oh man this is isn't even real Football is it... its that other game ... what we call soccer

Correct. This is the game the whole world plays and rallies around.

 

[lbart]

Sorry Yes it Soccer, soon to become your new National Sport with how well you did in the World Cup!

 

[hughlle]

And ironically, I was at an open day a month ago for the london university I will be attending next month, and they talked more about the american football team (and male cheerleaders...) More than they did football :-D

 

[marty_g]

lbart, just upgraded my SP2 (8GB/256GB) for a SP3 (i7/8GB/256GB) which I picked up on hols last week I'm now back in Blighty and need to download FM2014 again

My SP2 run very hot when watching the 3D graphics so stuck with the overhead simulation in the end. Hopefully I wont have this problem with the SP3. Also FM2014 only recommended running 2 other concurrent leagues which I was dissapointed with. I'll report back my findings after downloading from Steam again and giving it a runout.

I loved my SP2 but did find it a little heavy after a while, especially web surfing last thing at night flat on my back in bed. So far the SP3 has been brilliant and I'm really pleased with it plus it much lighter.

I've not noticed any performance issues but then again I'm not a power user. I do need to reinstall Office 2013 again so cant comment on that.

My iPad doesn't get a lookin these days and my Mac Book is gathering dust.

 

[ManUnited]

I used my SP3 i3 for three hours consecutive last night while teaching. Outside of a few moments when the SP3 display went to sleep, the unit was on and hooked to a VGA projector. I had Office (both Word and PowerPoint), IE with several tabs opened, CourseSmart (a Metro app for textbooks) and the Music app open to play the audio from several student presentations. The fan never came on and the SP3 was never warm, even in the righthand corner.

(The only odd occurrence was the resolution changed every time I projected a presentation full screen. A small matter, but still a nuisance.)

After a 30-minute ride home (while the SP3 slept), I took it out and annotated several Word documents with the pen, updated several websites I manage, and answered emails. Toward the end of the evening, I even streamed a little of the Pakistan-Sri Lanka Test Match through DishWorld.

This morning, I worked on some more annotations in Word and looked at the battery level — 53%.

Not bad at all.

 

[lbart]

Thanks for all the info so far everyone, it's much appreciated!

Marty_g be great hear about how it goes with Steam and FM!!

Many thanks
Lbart

 

[marty_g]

lbart, Fm2014 installed

Setup recommended 5 concurrent leagues which I went with and setup gave the SP3 four out of five stars for graphics capability. Install was a breeze and pretty quick.

The SP2 got very hot running matches in 3D, sadly the SP3 was no different. As you hold the device the top centre and top right got very hot. A quarter of the way through the first match I switched to overhead view (which is how I played on the SP2) and the device cooled down.

The bigger screen size means playing in a more suitable resolution (text and buttons a little too small on SP2) which I'm very pleased with. Buttons and text much better

On the SP2 I had a resolution prob when switching from the game to the start screen. The start screen would sometimes stay the same as the game and the tiles etc looked to big and odd. This does not happen on the SP3, much smoother expeience.

Overall the game plays much better so I'm really pleased. The only negative is the device running hot in 3D mode (as it did with the SP2) so I stick to overhead view.

Hope that helps

 

[ManUnited]

lbart —

Using your SP3 and running Football Manager may lead to something unexpected:

'Football Manager' will help actual football managers to find new players

Let me know if you get appointed, Gaffer.