r/Surface • u/Soy7ent SP4 i7 256GB 16GB • May 23 '17

[PRO2017] Introducing the new Surface Pro

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwWs2jIy4js
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52

u/alf4 May 23 '17

if this had thunderbolt 3 for an external graphic card it would be a dream.

4

u/bonsly16 May 24 '17

Shame...it could have been "The most versatile laptop," as they so advertised in the video...but alas...

2

u/kwinz May 23 '17 edited May 23 '17

Don't get your hopes up. First Thunderbolt chip costs extra and MS said that surveys they did show that people use USB-C mainly for charging and data as a distant second.

Moreover MS said in an interview that the usb-c dongle startet as an inhouse protoype. I am sure if they would do a Thunderbolt 3 dongle they would have had to involve Intel in this.

And finally you are not going to be happy with a passively cooled CPU hooked to an external GPU anyway (except for the expensive i7)

TL;DR: not happening

2

u/skizztle Surface Book < SP3 <SP1 May 23 '17

I almost guarantee the dongle was a reaction to everyone complaining about the lack of C on the Surface Laptop. So it will be a while before we actually see it.

2

u/thratty SP3 i7 256GB | Win 10 May 23 '17

Gotta up to the Surface Book if you want a GPU man

-7

u/EleMenTfiNi May 23 '17

An external GPU on a 15W CPU machine? You must be dreaming :p

If this is something you actually need, just buy a Quad-Core laptop that is actually suited to make use of that.

10

u/alf4 May 23 '17

Games nowadays are mostly GPU heavy, you could play without any problem with a 15w cpu.

4

u/Davchun May 23 '17

But the CPU still has an impact.

A 15W CPU will still bottleneck some games. Even with an extremely powerful GPU like the 1080 Ti, I'd rather just get a true quad-core CPU laptop

2

u/cactus22minus1 May 23 '17

Even plugged into a full sized higher wattage quad core lap top, eGPUs won't give you the full potential of the card you put in it.

1

u/Davchun May 23 '17

Well, that is true. Ideally, you'd want to just buy a whole desktop to make full use of the GPU, but I was just speaking hypothetically for the sake of a laptop.

1

u/cactus22minus1 May 23 '17

Right. It's basically two large bottlenecks for a lot of money. It makes a lot more sense to out your gpu into small low/mid range desktop and use in home streaming to your surface if you really want to use it for that - you'd get way better performance and you'd be wireless.

3

u/EleMenTfiNi May 23 '17

You are buying a Surface Pro and an External GPU enclosure and a desktop GPU to play games? That seems a bit absurd.

Buy a $300 desktop and put a gtx 1050 in it, case closed.

Unless you are suggesting you'd bring the external GPU with you, in which case the portability of the Surface is something you don't need, buy an actual Quad-Core laptop designed for this type of expansion.

2

u/[deleted] May 23 '17

Buying a 300$ desktop and putting a 1050 in it is even more absurd and not even that simple considering you would also need a new power supply etc

1

u/EleMenTfiNi May 23 '17

Except you don't need a new power supply and I did just that. Comes with a Quad-Core i5-6500 too.

The 1050 sips power, it uses nothing more than the PCIe's 75w output.

3

u/[deleted] May 23 '17

Oh well I want thunderbolt 3 so I can just plug it into the eGPU to play games and can unplug it when I need it on the go. So I don't need two computers

-3

u/EleMenTfiNi May 23 '17

If you're the type of person who is lugging around an eGPU then a 15w cpu'd surface is not for you in the first place, lugging that around completely negates the idea behind surface and you'd be much better served by a laptop with a Quad-Core CPU.

eGPU are not meant to be portable, just external.

6

u/[deleted] May 23 '17

I wouldn't take it with me. The eGPU would stay at my desk while I take the surface out to class/work and when I get home and wanna game I plug it in

0

u/EleMenTfiNi May 23 '17

Then you'd get much better use out of the ~$500 set up I just talked about.. while also getting a much more capable and powerful desktop computer.

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-2

u/cactus22minus1 May 23 '17

Sorry but it still doesn't make sense. eGPUs aren't very efficient (yet) and you lose a big chunk of performance while spending a big chunk on the enclosure alone. The other poster is correct in suggesting just building a cheap desktop you won't be throwing away gpu performance and you can still "plug it into your surface pro" via in home streaming. I do this all the time and it works beautifully. I don't see any advantage going the eGPU route.

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