Surface Book (not pro): Good for gaming and professional use?

[phlebble10]

I'm not very good when it comes to laptops, computers e.t.c. usually it's my partner who suggests things to me. Recently I told him I needed a strong laptop that was good for gaming (especially with the upcoming release of No Man's Sky) and I could use for studies and music. He suggested the Surface Book. Usuallying he's never wrong about these things but I'd like to check with some other people. How well would the surface book work with everything I need and are there any better ideas? Baring in mind I'm not looking to spend loads on this laptop!
All support and ideas are greatly appreciated, Thanks

 

[TechyInAZ]

The Surface Book isn't really a gaming laptop. Sure it has a GPU, but even Microsoft says it's there for GPU accelerated software, not much for gaming.

Games will be pretty pathetic on that surface book, expect 720P at okish settings.

You need a gaming laptop, one that has a high end GPU like a GTX 970M to run next gen games that are coming out.

 

[Nikita79]

Try to get a real gaming laptop at least with GTX 960 (for me I will choose GTX 970)

 

[Solandri]

Here are game benchmarks for the vanilla nvidia 940m, the 940m with GDDR5 used in the Surface Book, and some of the higher-end nvidia notebook GPUs. You can add/remove games from the comparison by highlighting them, then click the Restrict button. Not all games were tested in all configurations, but the color estimates how well the game will play based on other games and other GPUs.

http/www.notebookcheck.net/Computer-Games-on-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.13849.0.html?type=&sort=&deskornote=0&or=0&search=&month=&benchmark_values=&gpubenchmarks=0&professional=0&archive=1&dx=0&multiplegpus=0&showClassDescription=0&itemselect_5965=5965&itemselect_6157=6157&itemselect_6158=6158&itemselect_6927=6927&itemselect_6159=6159&condensed=0&showCount=0&showBars=0&showPercent=0&gameselect%5B%5D=386&gameselect%5B%5D=384&gameselect%5B%5D=381&gameselect%5B%5D=379&gameselect%5B%5D=377&gameselect%5B%5D=375&gameselect%5B%5D=373&gameselect%5B%5D=371&gameselect%5B%5D=368&gameselect%5B%5D=366&gameselect%5B%5D=361&gameselect%5B%5D=359&gameselect%5B%5D=355&gameselect%5B%5D=351&gameselect%5B%5D=346&gameselect%5B%5D=344&gameselect%5B%5D=342&gameselect%5B%5D=332&gameselect%5B%5D=334&gameselect%5B%5D=329&gameselect%5B%5D=293&gameselect%5B%5D=249&gameselect%5B%5D=217&gameselect%5B%5D=214&gameselect%5B%5D=204&gpu_fullname=1&codename=0&architecture=0&pixelshaders=0&vertexshaders=0&corespeed=0&shaderspeed=0&boostspeed=0&memoryspeed=0&memorybus=0&memorytype=0&directx=0&opengl=0&technology=0&daysold=0

The bigger drawback of the Surface Book IMHO is that you're looking at only about 3.5 hours of battery life in tablet-only mode. So to really use it, you're going to be lugging the keyboard with you everywhere. And if you're going to do that, why not just get a real notebook with a 950m or even a gaming notebook with a 960m or higher?

The Surface Book (and Surface Pro) is really aimed more at people doing graphics / photo / video work. The Macbook Pro's target demographic. That's why the discrete GPU was included - to give it a leg up over the MBP at video processing, not just so you could play games on it. The screen is absolutely gorgeous and targets 100% sRGB color gamut, and the 3:2 aspect ratio allows you to work on 16:9 videos with edit controls always visible. If you don't understand the previous sentence, or that sort of stuff doesn't really interest you, then it's probably not the right laptop for you.