Surface Pro Performance?

[Cike]

I've seem many comments about how snappy the Surface Pro is, so I wonder why I'm not impressed. My official work computer is a 2 year old Dell laptop (no frills, i5 processor) and it seems much snappier than the SP, which lags an extra second on many operations. The SP seems like it's always trying catch up with me.

Admittedly, the Dell is running Win7 and Office 2007 versus the SP's Win8 and Office 2013 (i.e., 365), but I imagine that many SP owners have the same before-and-after scenarios and I haven't seen any other complaints about lag with the SP.

Is it just me?

C

 

[DOS]

I don’t have any other Core i5s to compare with, but my work unit is a Toshiba Satellite L670 running Win7 with a Core i3 @ 2.27GHz, 4GB RAM and a 4.5 rating. The Surface is faster than this.

At home I have media server on a Toshiba Satellite A505 Core 2 Duo @ 2.30GHz, 4GB RAM and a 3.4 rating. Obviously, the Surface is much faster than this one.

My primary machine at home is a Toshiba Satellite P870 running Win8 with a Core i7 @ 2.40GHZ, 8GB RAM and a 5.9 rating. The Surface can’t keep up with this one.

I also have a Toshiba Satellite T135D running Win7 with an AMD Athlon @1.60GHz, 3GB RAM and a 3.0 rating. This one is no competition to the Surface (at all).

Since the Surface is faster than all but one of my systems, I think it does very well for such a compact device.

I’m not sure if you have already tried this, but under the Power Options, I run all my systems at High Performance. I know this sacrifices battery life, but to me it’s worth it.

 

[tonyz3]

Is it just me?

C

yep. :wink: Mine seems to fly not matter what i am throwing at it. What are you doing when you see lag issues?

 

[souldier]

Also take note what power profile you're using. I notice the surface pro really slows down in power saver mode. But I find balanced and high performance to work very snappy

 

[jeffskent]

I have an ASUS i7 with 6GB of ram and an Nvidia 360M video board. Nice machine but the Pro runs rings around it, mostly because of the fast SSD in the Pro, as opposed to the much slower 600 GB HHD in the ASUS. It seems that the SSD more than compensates for the more powerful and faster i7 in terms of program execution, web page fetching, and any other task, except for heavy duty video or photo editing, which I hardly ever do any way. I'm sure that if I were to add a fast SSD to the ASUS it would be as fast or faster than the Pro. But, the Pro is a third the weight and a third the size of the ASUS, which makes all the difference for me. I should also note that the two year old ASUS was almost $1,500 when it was new, while the Pro was $999 plus the snap on Type keyboard for an extra $130. I got the $99 two year swap for a new one insurance policy in case any thing goes wrong, and most importantly, my entire computer fits in a case about the size and weight of a kid's lunch box, and goes everywhere with me. The ASUS weighs a lot and barely fits in my backpack, while the Pro is very light for the power it has. The Pro is not an iPad, of course, but it is a fully functioning computer. Trade offs are everywhere in life, it seems.

 

[mitchellvii]

I just got off the phone with MS support. They said to run this video 5 times and it will dramatically improve the snappiness of your rig:

[video=youtube;rUZh84D39B8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUZh84D39B8[/video]

 

[tonyz3]

I just got off the phone with MS support. They said to run this video 5 times and it will dramatically improve the snappiness of your rig:

[video=youtube;rUZh84D39B8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUZh84D39B8[/video]

Is that a home movie....:LOL:

 

[mitchellvii]

Is that a home movie....

Gladly no. I'm old.

 

[HD_Dude]

I use two i7 machines, a newer Sony VAIO and a brand new Dell XPS, both with 8GB RAM.

Gotta say, the Surface smokes 'em.

 

[mitchellvii]

I just got finished watching Netflix on the SP, designing my Access DB on the external monitor and installing Photoshop in the background all at the same time. Never a hiccup.

 

[Uncensored2008]

I have an Alienware MX17 - it smokes the Surface Pro - lets be serious.

BUT the SP outruns the Mac Air, the Dell XPS 12,13, and 15, (Verified with PCMark Vantage)

It is a VERY fast little machine.