Microsoft Surface Pro

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Billy, Jun 8, 2013.

  1. Billy New Member

    Hey guys,

    Just wanted to see if there was anyone out there that has played EQ on one of these Surface Pros.

    Looking into possibly buying one so I can play when I'm at places I normally wouldn't be able to. How are they? Does it run EQ pretty smooth? Any feed back would be appreciated.

    Thanks!
  2. Mikestab Elder

    You could play it but not very well. It has a so so Intel graphics card in there that would make it choppy even at EQs lowest settings. The processor demand while playing may also heat the thing up a lot.
  3. Billy New Member

    Good to know. I saw it has the I5 core processor. I figured that might be enough to run the game, but I wasn't sure on the onboard graphics. It would have to run it flawlessly for me to have to drop $1,000 on one anyways.


    Thanks for the feedback!
  4. Oranges Augur

    You should really use that keyboard in a store before considering buying it. Playing on a notebook keyboard is already something I dread doing, playing games on a Surface keyboard is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy.

    If you really want to play games-on-the-go, get yourself a PS Vita, or if you must play EQ, just get yourself a decent gaming laptop.

    The Sony VAIO Pro 11 just came out, it will cost you as much as a Surface Pro, $1100, but it's going to blow away the Surface on performance, and you'll have a real keyboard and better battery life and a bigger screen.

    here's a pic:

    [IMG]


    Make sure you try the keyboard before buying though though.
  5. Billy New Member

    Awesome info! Thank you very much for that. I will definitely look into that, as everything you said makes good sense.
  6. Billy New Member

    I actually do have a decent laptop that will run EQ, not the best but it works.

    However, whenever I load up EQ, my USB mouse doesn't work. The cursor is no where to be found. My touch pad mouse also doesn't work. So I'm basically stuck in the login screen once it loads. Is there a way to fix that?
  7. KC13 Augur

    Couldn't agree more. I am currently forced to play on an older HP laptop with the most annoying keyboard I have ever used. Replying to tells and in guild chat is almost painful.....
  8. Smokezz The Bane Crew

    It has an Intel HD Graphics 4000 video card, which would be more than enough for EQ - provided you run a single character. My current laptop has an HD 4000 + an nVidia 650M. I can run two characters in a group setting without much issue, but in a raid setting, things lag. I've got Everquest to simply run on the nVidia card though. As others have said, the keyboard would be an issue for sure.

    It really depends why you're considering the Surface. Is it the true portability of a tablet that runs all Windows software? If so, it's not a bad choice. If you're just looking at something nice and light, and portable ... check out the ultrabook laptops.
  9. Thelion New Member

    I have the surface pro and it runs great. The graphics are fine for an on the go system. The keyboard is more than suitable. My only complaint was that I bought the MS wedge mouse, which is GREAT for everything expect for EQ. I doesn't allow me to have the character walk around like a regular mouse by holding the left and right clickers simultaneously. That is a simple fix with the use of any other mouse. I could not be happier with the surface pro.
  10. Axxius Augur

    I would recommend asking Augur (the dev). He has been using MS Surface Pro for a while now and even wrong a tech review of it.
    Augur likes this.
  11. Qest T. Silverclaw Augur

    From what I've seen, it does run EQ alright. The problem is EQ doesn't have a touch interface, so you need a keyboard even if you get by without a mouse. Once you add a keyboard, you're way better off with the amazing new MacBook Air and use Bootcamp* to run Windows.

    *Parallels or VMware will get your account banned.
  12. Augur Developer

    There's a lot of different reasons to get the Surface Pro instead of a traditional laptop, and a fair number of reasons not to, depending on what you're using the device for. I'd recommend looking up some reviews to see if the Surface Pro is the right sort of machine for what you want to do outside of EQ.

    I've had mine for about 3 months and absolutely love it. It works great for everything I need, with a bonus fun factor courtesy of the touch interface and the amazing pen that comes with it :)

    EQ runs just fine on it. I get 30 -40 FPS just running around moloing on recommended graphics settings. (It drops to about 10 -20 FPS if I max out all graphics settings, including shadows, advanced lighting, post effects, and particles.)

    I haven't tried raiding with it, and I'm not sure I'd want it as my main gaming machine. But it's serviceable and works fine when my wife is using our desktop PC or I'm traveling. The touch interface works fine for casual playing (just have to double-tap most things), but like Qest mentioned, you will absolutely want a mouse if you're doing anything serious.

    The Type keyboard (black plastic, not the colorful rubber ones) works great though. I have absolutely no problem typing on it, and like it more than any other laptop keyboard I've used.

    Happy hunting :) Feel free to PM me any specific questions about the device. I'll help if I can.
    yar_seyer and Crystilla like this.
  13. Iila Augur

    EQ will run on damn near anything. You should be able to raid on the cheapest of current laptops with the settings turned down. But using the laptop keyboard for games is going to suck, a usb kb & mouse is pretty much required for playing games. I wouldn't want to play anything outside of slow puzzle games on the native control options.

    I'm using a cheap black friday laptop from a few years ago and it run games up to about Skyrim on reduced settings. ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4200 Series graphics card with 384mb of ram dedicated ram out of 2gb total. Certainly not anything amazing. PCs are powerful enough to do a decent amount of gaming with low/mid spec now.
  14. moogs Augur

    I have raided (54 players) in Beasts' Domain with low latency on a Lenovo T420 with an Intel HD 3000/4000.

    I've done some molo (took a new character to 50) over a weekend with low latency on a Lenovo X100e ($400), which has an atrocious processor (Atom). EQ ran fine in 1 instance, but the machine really hurt trying to 2-box on a single-core CPU.
  15. Slasher Augur

    Augur it wouldn't matter what system you use when raiding. I7 desktop with 24gbs of ram and ATI 7970 and I barely get 15 fps when raiding and that's with all the advanced stuff turned off.
  16. Langya Augur

    Tablets have their niche. I have one of them fruit based tablet deals. Its good for checking e-mail or surfing or playing a game like Angry Birds. It also gets used for school books in .pdf but big files will crash it. It can be used just about anywhere you have wifi. That is about it. They are for content consumption only. Otherwise its is just an Ipod with a really big screen or a really stretched Iphone that doesn't make phone calls. Taking a picture with an Ipad makes you pretty much look like an idiot. If you want to do a bunch of typing or anything productivity speaking that would otherwise require a real computer, forget it. Auto-correct by itself will make you want to break the thing in half over your knee (which might explain why the I-pad is built like a tank) and typing anything past a sentence is torture. The TL;DR crowd will love you for it, but the screen typing and how kludge it is to go back and make corrections will have the spelling/grammer Hilter-types prepping you for the gas chamber. If you are getting a tablet for games just to be a hipster or whatever and impress your buddies at Starbucks, do yourself a favor:

    Don't bother.

    Tablets can crash just loading up webpages and video streams and the only games you might have an easy time with are 2D sprite based. The tech pundits who claim that phones and tablets are going to kill off the PC obviously have not had to do anything productive with them or play a game that is not based on 1980s Nintendo game tech. Battery life, heat dissipation and slick, thin design still translate into it not being suitable for games. If you want to surf adult themed content on the bus, then by all means...get a tablet or a slick thin profile laptop. If you want to enjoy your gaming experience, then you still have to get a gaming desktop computer or uber expensive gaming lap top.
    moogs likes this.
  17. Oranges Augur

    The reviews of the new Macbook Air with Haswell are in too.

    Amazing and frankly insane battery life, it did 12:50 on Engadget's battery test, for comparison, the 2012 version only managed to do 6 hours.

    If battery life matters to you, make sure you look at a Haswell machine when checking out notebooks.
  18. Angahran Augur

    If that system is slowing down that much then you have some serious problems that are nothing to do with EQ.
    The system I have is nowhere near that powerful and the only time I notice any slowdown is if I turn on shadows.
  19. oisjafoij Augur

    I know this thread is a bit old but its the first one that pops up on bing so figured id reply w/ my experience so far.

    Got a surface pro2 the other day and finally got EQ working. It runs solo/group setting, full spells/graphics/effects without issue @ the highest resolution settings. I've yet to raid with it but dont see it being bad once i turn down spell particles etc.

    If you keep getting a "reset device failed" error right click the launcher icon and make sure it is always running maximized.

    You will need a keyboard and mouse as previously mentioned. Running at max resolution text can be a bit small but can always /chatfont to make things easier to see or find larger custom ui pieces.
  20. Bardy Elder

    Why does it seem that no matter how fast or slow the computer is, EQ runs the same?? I have played EQ on a Pentium 2 all the way to an I7 with an SSD drive. My characters still take a long time to log in and they game seems to run the same as it did years ago.