The Microsoft Surface Book Review
by Brett Howse on November 10, 2015 8:00 AM ESTCompute with the Surface Book
When discussing Ultrabooks, the word Compute doesn’t get thrown around very often, and for good reason. Even the MacBook Pro 13 only comes with Intel Iris graphics (no GT3e yet) and although Intel’s GPUs have been a priority over the last couple of generations, just like in gaming there is only so much you can do when your TDP is shared with the processor.
With Surface Book, there is more of an opportunity here. If you opt for the model with the NVIDIA GPU, you gain access to CUDA, which is NVIDIA’s parallel computing platform. Quite a few applications that need strong parallel processing have CUDA available as an option. Adobe, for instance, has CUDA support in many of their professional products like Photoshop, After Effects, Premier Pro, and more. NVIDIA lists hundreds of applications on their site which can benefit from GPU compute power, and there are also OpenCL applications as well which would benefit from the more powerful dGPU.
Expectations need to be put in check of course, because the GPU available in the Surface Book is not a workstation class GPU, so we shall see how it compares on these types of tasks. This is not an area where we have an extensive database of other devices, and normally compute is not a heavy focus for Ultrabook reviews, but I feel the Surface Book may find a niche with content creators so it’s worth examining.
Compubench
From the makers of GFXBench is Compubench, and like GFXBench, there are a number of tests which can be completed with either the CPU only, or by choosing a GPU.
The results are a bit mixed. Some of the tests respond very well to having the NVIDIA GPU, but some of the others don’t get as much of a benefit. But where the GPU helps, it can help a lot. Several of the tasks are 50% faster, and the Video Composition sub-test is 212% faster on the discrete GPU.
Agisoft Photscan
This software performs photogrammetric processing of images, and it has an option to use the GPU or just standalone with the CPU. Of the entire benchmark, only one section actually leverages the GPU functions so that test has been highlighted.
Even the one accelerated test still only shows a 5% decrease in time with the GPU being used. This highlights that even though a task may be accelerated with the GPU, the overall impact may not always be what you are expecting, since not all tasks can be done in parallel.
Using the Surface Book NVIDIA GPU for Compute
There is no doubt that if you are performing work that supports CUDA, the NVIDIA option on the Surface Book is going to make an impact. The question of course is how much. Applications such as those from Adobe do leverage CUDA, but it’s not for all tasks. This is kind of the issue with considering the GPU for compute. If you are someone who uses Adobe Premiere on the go, and need something smaller than a typical workstation class notebook, the GPU is going to help out, but since it doesn’t get leveraged for all tasks, it is very dependent on the exact task that you are performing.
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hlovatt - Tuesday, November 10, 2015 - link
Excellent review, well worth the wait. Also good to see MS pushing the envelope with an interesting product.Can't believe that a *positive* review of an MS product has bought out the Apple haters in droves, wish they would all leave the site or get a life.
vLsL2VnDmWjoTByaVLxb - Tuesday, November 10, 2015 - link
Links:https://www.reddit.com/r/Surface/search?q=display&...
SP4 dock supports two UHD display monitors.
Again, you're just justifying the issues that are obviously there on release. How about you show us a setup where you have a working SPB4 working with two displayport monitors attached (supported) in a business environment. We're just trying to use the dock as Microsoft sold it to us.
Houdani - Tuesday, November 10, 2015 - link
So, that hinge -- when closed -- creates a cavity that's about the same diameter of the surface pen. They just need a little depression + magnet along the top edge of the keyboard (along the F-keys) and they'd have an obvious pen storage cradle.Heatlesssun - Tuesday, November 10, 2015 - link
The gap is nowhere near as big as then diameter of the pen.Lavkesh - Tuesday, November 10, 2015 - link
Excellent review as always but I feel this review has completely ignored the Surface Pen. Is the lag really bad? Is there any utility to using the Pen or is it a novelty that will wear off in days. The review would have helped because I just ordered a MacBook Pro Retina 15 top of the line with upgraded CPU and 1 TB SSD. Was wondering if I should cancel and get one of these instead?s.yu - Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - link
If you need it to take notes, go ahead. If you need it in PS, not a good idea. The hinge is bouncy and horrible for drawing and if you flip/remove the screen you end up with no hotkeys.Regarding the lag, I believe it's about as fast as it gets on these sorts of devices.
dray67 - Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - link
i would stick with the rMbp, what that package will cost you leads me to believe you know exactly what you need it for, I recently bought a 13" rMbp and was sort of wondering should I have waited, but if I'm honest i don't really need detachable screen and I try to avoid being an early adopter.Who knows maybe when it's time to upgrade I might jump in as it will be on its 2nd or 3rd iteration by then.
s.yu - Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - link
Nothing about the horrible screen wobble? I've already seen much about that in review videos or customer feedback. And not much about functionality, like how either the keyboard gets in the way or hotkeys can't be used during pen usage? Without hotkeys it still takes notes, yeah, but then there wouldn't be much of a point stressing calibrated sRGB.I still hope Anandtech could review the VAIO Z Canvas though, higher performance and 95% AdobeRGB screen in a more compact form factor.
gamer1000k - Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - link
This laptop isn't for me (not a fan of the hinge design or detachable hybrids in general and this machine is too pricey) but I'm glad to see Microsoft putting pressure on the OEM's to put out better machines.What I would like to see is a flipper hybrid (like the Lenovo Yogas) with a dedicated GPU (or at least Iris Pro) and an active digitizer.
nerd1 - Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - link
I found it REALLY funny (and sad) that this 'review' completely ignored the pen that comes with the device... and AT just posted a whole article just adressing $99 optional apple pencil.Yeah I totally expected that.