Keep sipping the Microsoft Kool Aid. It really bothers me when people with have a vested interest try to mislead and deny. Your signature says it all. I suppose according to you its also faster than the SP2.
who's NOT upgrading to sp3?
- Thread starter mtalinm
- Start date
Keep sipping the Microsoft Kool Aid. It really bothers me when people with have a vested interest try to mislead and deny. Your signature says it all. I suppose according to you its also faster than the SP2.
Philtastic
Active Member
To be fair, it probably doesn't get any hotter than the SP2 since it's probably also throttling to stay at or under 80 degrees Celcius. This is probably what's making it slower than the SP2 since the thermals are probably worse due to the thinner chassis and probably worse fan.
AnandTech review on thermal of the device when pushed under heavy load:
Surface Pro 1
Surface Pro 2
Surface Pro 3
The Pro 2 is hotter as Microsoft increased the temperature limit of when the system needs to start throttling.
Throttling the CPU based on temperature is the reality of all ultrabooks, and the majority of laptops.
It's not a desktop, and the small compact size that people want has downsides of limiting air flow, and limiting cooling solutions.
You can have this on the desktop, as an example:
You can't have it on your Surface, unless you want Surface to be that thick (those are 120mm fans).
Can you guys please calm down.
Surface Pro 1
Surface Pro 2
Surface Pro 3
The Pro 2 is hotter as Microsoft increased the temperature limit of when the system needs to start throttling.
Throttling the CPU based on temperature is the reality of all ultrabooks, and the majority of laptops.
It's not a desktop, and the small compact size that people want has downsides of limiting air flow, and limiting cooling solutions.
You can have this on the desktop, as an example:
You can't have it on your Surface, unless you want Surface to be that thick (those are 120mm fans).
Can you guys please calm down.
Philtastic
Active Member
More on topic, I got to try out an SP3 at Best Buy on Saturday. I found that the pen was actually worse in accuracy than the Wacom on the SP2, mostly around the edges. Mind you, I wasn't able to calibrate it due to lack of admin privileges. I also didn't like the lack of a designated spot to put the pen. You can definitely clip it onto the edge of the keyboard but it will be sticking out and you'd need to take it off to use the keyboard every time. Not sure if I like how the new keyboard bends and magnetically sticks to the tablet to give it a slant: to me, that's unnecessary and doesn't really make it all that much better as a keyboard.
All in all, I think that the SP3 is actually a downgrade from the SP2 in all categories except for weight which is a marked improvement and arguably screen size depending on if you really need more vertical space. Although it's admirable that they tried to reduce the weight and make it thinner, it looks like you can only do so much with the current Haswell CPU chips such that the thermals are now impeding the performance.
Can't wait until SP4 with, presumably, the Broadwell CPUs which should fix the SP3's thermal problems.
All in all, I think that the SP3 is actually a downgrade from the SP2 in all categories except for weight which is a marked improvement and arguably screen size depending on if you really need more vertical space. Although it's admirable that they tried to reduce the weight and make it thinner, it looks like you can only do so much with the current Haswell CPU chips such that the thermals are now impeding the performance.
Can't wait until SP4 with, presumably, the Broadwell CPUs which should fix the SP3's thermal problems.
From the early reports, it seems that the SP3 CPU can get up to 90C which would likely result on the device being hotter.
macmee
Active Member
Inline with macbook temperatures then. My MacBook peaks at 97C when watching YouTube...
Xcode has caused the unit to shut itself off when compiling many source files, I think from reaching 100C.
CrippsCorner
Well-Known Member
Yay go Surface Pro 1 
Are you saying SP3 throttles at a lower temp than the SP2? Since the SP2 throttle temp is ~80/C, the SP3 temp is <80?
I guess I could look it up, but that doesn't sound quite right...
That is what AnandTech was suggesting in their review. I cant' comment, I don't have the device to compare and test.
AnandTech is a trusted review sites when it comes testing performance, displays, and temperature of systems and computer hardware.
Well I just embarrassed myself royally by posting to the sp3 forum that the sp3 was much much faster than my sp2.
It was; only the reason is attributable to my SP2 being in "Power Saver" battery profile. When I switched to "Balanced" it was nearly as fast as the SP3.
Now kicking myself for having had it in Power Saver mode since I bought it (on launch day...).
oops
It was; only the reason is attributable to my SP2 being in "Power Saver" battery profile. When I switched to "Balanced" it was nearly as fast as the SP3.
Now kicking myself for having had it in Power Saver mode since I bought it (on launch day...).
oops
LOL it's ok.
I am working on a software for everyone, which switches between Power Saver and Balance based on if you are plugged in or not. And adds keyboard shortcuts to the Surface Pro, like Brightness up and down, next track, previous track, and more, and allows you to control desktop monitor brightness setting (assuming it supports DDC/CI protocol), in addition, it provides battery status report with graph. The software itself is done. I am working on support multiple displays setups, and making it high DPI aware. So stay tuned.
Well, time for me to confess that I bought an SP3 and on launch day. But tonight I took it back to BB. My gripes, in no particular order:
* not even closer to 9 hours of battery life. Maybe if you are running only Metro apps and have the screen on 10% brightness. More like 5-6 or me. SP2 does better.
* weird software and hardware glitches where the screen suddenly wouldn't respond to touch, keyboard would stop working, etc. had to reboot a lot. the latter sometimes crops up on sp2 but not nearly as often.
* the pen storage is worse than sp2, where I got a Leuchtturm pen loop which coupled with the magnet to power slot kept it rigid AND attached to the chassis no the keyboard. o the sp3 is just flops all around.
I did love the thinness and lightness - it is MUCH more usable as a tablet in portrait mode than the SP2 mainly ue to the weight distribution. And I am nearly out of disk space, so I may have to upgrade at some point. I did like the OneNote gimmicks with the new pen. Once they iron out some of the launch bugs perhaps I'll try again with an i7 model, we'll see...
