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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Brett Howse - Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - link
Sorry I covered the pen in the Surface Pro 4 review. It's all exactly the same. I should have put a link to it so I'll add one now. As far as latency and other measures, working on that.milkod2001 - Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - link
Clicked on Amazon link posted on this review to see what are early adaptors experiences.http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Surface-Book-Intel...
The amount of 1* review(25%) is quite alarming. Looks like half baked rushed product. Too bad, i have expected more from product in this price range.
s.yu - Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - link
Exactly.cashnmillions - Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - link
Yes, 13 bad or 1* reviews, 3 of which are verified purchases. Take it with a grain of salt.s.yu - Sunday, November 15, 2015 - link
Yeah, MS Store reviews are all "verified", they just delete all the negative ones. Those people have nowhere to go so they post reviews at Amazon instead.cbf - Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - link
The one star reviews are all quite believable. Most of them say that they didn't purchase it at Amazon, so naturally wouldn't be verified.I played with a Surface Book at a Microsoft store (only sample they had), and it was flaky. I fully expect these glitches to be fixed in time -- hopefully with software/firmware updates (as opposed to hardware replacement). But in the meantime, you can hardly blame people who give an appropriate review to a product that doesn't work yet.
pliablemoosethebanned - Wednesday, November 11, 2015 - link
Review mirrors what I'm hearing, software half baked.Also, guys, has there been any discussion about just shutting down the comments altogether, seem to be the latest trend.
milkod2001 - Thursday, November 12, 2015 - link
Where is that trend of shutting down comments coming from? Comments help to keep user stay on website longer, browse through pages or posts. All that increase a chance that user will eventually see some ads which will draw his attention and will eventually click on them. That generates money.As user/reader you also have a chance to state your own opinion / toughs etc. in comments. If you shut down comments you will also decrease time spent on website from a few minutes to a few secs.
s.yu - Sunday, November 15, 2015 - link
I noticed some sites shutting down comments but they don't seem to be among the more popular tech sites. They also use individual comment systems and since I don't see much interesting content I don't even bother registering. Anandtech is the only place I registered that isn't using Disqus or Livefyre.milkod2001 - Thursday, November 12, 2015 - link
I guess it would be OK for cheapo brands like ACER, but when you spend $2000+ on something it should work as advertised from day one.I just don't understand how can MS throw 1.2 billion on Minecraft without problem but cannot spend a few hundred grand on quality control: software firmawe / hardware.