Coolica

Just wanted to update, it's been a while but I haven't upgrade my CPU (still using 3630QM.)

You guys think upgrading now will help some games? I'm planning to play Titanfall if that's any indication.

I want a small tablet, about 11.6" is fine. I definitely think that Haswell is the next logical step; however from the info I've gathered it just seems like MS might abandon the idea of "souping up" the specs of Surface Pro, and going for a more "casual consumer" friendly market. The type of consumers that buy iPads for it's sleek, light, power saving design.

I would love the same Surface Pro just upgrade to Haswell.

Wait for Haswell. It's literally around the corner. Plus, the prices for the current generation will go down just by you waiting. So it's a win-win if you don't have to buy at this moment.

Next month we should have solid numbers on benchmarks and power consumption.

I don't have a problem with waiting a month, so I guess I'll do that. It's just that it would be nice to know IF they are going to use Haswell on the Surface Pro anytime soon. I read that they are using it for the Surface Book in the future, which is a 14.6 inch version, but I don't want something that big; I'm perfectly happy with the current style of the Surface Pro. It's perfect, except that I'd prefer it to have Haswell HD grahics.

If I knew they were going to release it with Haswell within the next 6 months I'd wait; but I heard rumors that they are focusing on form factor instead of improved specs. I don't really want to wait until Febuary 2014 to get one, but I guess there will be more information on it in the next month.

I hope they have info on it in the computex 2013 event in Taiwan.

Hmm, if you can wait, I would. Seeing you are stuck with what you have graphics wise. Might as well wait for something better. I'unno. The 30% increase might not be worth it since it is 6+ months away.

Be aware of the available space depending on the version you have. The OS + other stuffs use over 30GB of space. So might be worth getting the 128GB version. And replacing the SSD... is really really hard.

Microsoft Surface Pro Teardown - iFixit

Tons of glue and over 90 screws... no thanks.

I'm definitely going to get the 128GB version, and I'll tweak it to get the most of the available space, so I have no issues with the SSD. I'm more concerned when or if (a big IF) the next Surface Pro will come soon enough and whether or not they will focus on improving the IGPU.

So the Microsoft Surface Pro looks really good; it's the size of a tablet PC, but it's got the full Windows 8 OS inside it, not to mention a good sized SSD. It's perfect for what I was looking for.

My only problem with it is; Haswell is just around the corner, and it's definitely coming to Ultrabooks/Notebooks/Laptops by next year. I don't know what will happen to the Surface Pro if I get one now.

My main concern is HD graphics. I want to buy Surface Pro 2 as my "light gaming" substitute for when I travel somewhere far, but not long enough for me to bring my massive gaming laptop. I'd probably play games on it such as Diablo III, CS:GO, DotA 2, some emulators, etc. At the moment HD4000 can play all of them well enough (of course with settings on low) but Haswell is bringing BIG upgrades to IGPU's.

If I knew that the next Surface Pro (under the assumption that it will have a better IGPU than the HD4000) will come out within the next 6 months I'd wait, but I've heard rumors that it's going to go in another direction, where they won't adapt Haswell (and with it a better IGPU) until the 3rd Generation of the device, and instead are going to focus on competing with existing tablets such as iPad mini, as well as making XBox Surface.

Essentially I like the Surface Pro as it is; the portability of a tablet, but the power of an ultrabook. Should I get it now, or wait for the next one? I only want to wait if:

1.The next one will have at least a 30% increase in IGPU performance.

2. The next one will come out by the end of 2013/January 2014.

Thoughts? (I know Surface Pro isn't for gaming, but it's my "go-to" for gaming when I don't have my laptop for maybe a day or two.)

I've also thought about upgrading to an XM chip, but it's way too expensive and tbh with the heating problems I'm bound to have, not to mention my GPU not being SLI, I doubt I can OC it to it's full potential. Therefore I'm most likely just going to upgrade to the highest QM chip ATM (which is the 3840QM). Question is, do you guys think I'll be disappointed by the CPU power increase? I'm hoping that this upgrade will make the games I run more GPU bound, because it's a lot easier to OC my GPU.

For the record, I love to play MMO games, which nowadays seem more CPU hungry than GPU hungry, as evidenced by PlanetSide 2 (usually CPU bound instead of GPU bound).

I dunno but I couldn't solve the heat issue. I tried repasting again (sadly I did it literally PERFECT the first time, and I don't know if I can get that perfection again ) and I also replaced some of the thermal pads. Temps still reach 90.

However I did notice that the fan didn't really change speed UNTIL it hit 90 degrees, so at least on Kombustor I got it back down to 80 with turbo enabled. Not sure how that will fare in-game (before repasting it hit 91 with 100% fan speed.)

Do you have an aftermarket thermal paste on? I'd consider repasting with icd7. I had similar temps to you and after repasting my temps dropped quite significantly, like around 67c on full load.

Well I went out and bought IC Diamond and repasted... Didn't seem o make much difference although it runs a bit cooler (still hitting 90 degrees... Maybe I pasted badly? It was my first time pasting but I followed all instructions carefully.)

Because with the default BIOS Kombustor will not push the card much. Games will push it even harder. I'm not very familiar with that laptop's cooling effectiveness but 90C is very hot for default voltage so I suspect a die contact issue.

Ah I see. So what do you suggest I do? What should be the temps for my current OC? (+135/400)?

What laptop is this?

MSI GT60-0NE w/ GTX 680m

The strange thing is, when I use Kombustor, the max temperatures only reach about 79 degrees. However, when I run GPU/CPU intensive games (in particular, PlanetSide 2), my temps rise to 90 degrees! I've tried running Kombustor for about 10 minutes and the maximum temp it reached was 79, so I dunno what's up. I doubt it's a thermal paste issue because Kombustor is supposed to push my GPU to the max, and it doesn't break 80 degrees, so why would PlanetSide 2 break 90?

svl7's bios disables the throttling for kombustor causing it to get the card hotter than anything. Games should be several degrees cooler.

The thing is, I haven't even flashed any kind of modded vBIOS or modified my vBIOS for that matter at all. I'm still using the BIOS that my laptop came with. The only thing I did was flash an EC Firmware that stopped throttling of the CPU, which should therotecially leave the GPU temps untouched for the most part.

That's why I'm thinking, if I already have such high temps with the locked vBIOS, I don't know if I should even bother using a modified vBIOS to push the clocks even further (I have a feeling I'll hit the 90 degree ceiling quickly...)

EDIT: Ok I just finished playing for about 20 minutes, I had my GPU OC'ed to 901 (+135)/2200 (+400). After gaming I noticed that my GPU throttled a bit at some points, but the biggest thing was I noticed my temps were pretty much staying at 90 degrees! That's not a big OC (it was the max I could push the core without using a modded vBIOS) and I don't think I should be getting these types of temps.

Are the graphs misleading? It shows such a huge difference in performance, but the specs don't really speak for that kind of difference...

On another note, it seems that the 780m will indeed crush it.

Thanks for the reply. I'm just wondering am I expecting too much by upgrading to 3840QM? At least in terms getting PlanetSide 2 to not always be CPU bound @ 30 fps... (I'm also worried about future MMO games that will require a lot of CPU power.)

Alright thanks. My CPU seems to be doing fine but my GPU... I have a GTX 680m and I OC'ed it to 901/2200 then tried Kombustor for 10 minutes... it reached 86, so i guess I should be worried? Using stock BIOS, so that means I shouldn't even touch vBIOS because it will run too hot?

Thanks for the response. So basically all I have to worry about is if my CPU starts to reach 95 or so, and if my GPU starts hitting 85 and up?

Do you guys have any suggestions? And what temps@what OC do you guys have?

I used to not care, but after having a laptop with matte screen for the first time, I must say matte all the way. I never realized how distracting glossy's glare is.

I'm just curious. What are considered safe, dangerous, and seriously killer temps for laptop CPU/GPU's?

I'd go with AW, because Origin cases look really old and bad (like 90's bad). I know looks aren't what you are mainly paying for, but who wants to be using a laptop that looks like it's from the 90's?

The 7970m xfire will definately be a lot faster, but you are sacrificing overall quality in terms of driver updates, GPU errors, etc.

If you are pretty good at fixing random solutions for your GPU (finding the right drivers, testing for stability, etc.) then go get the xfire. I personally went with a single 680m, since it's just such as hassle dealing with those things. Admittedly though AMD has been getting better at getting out drivers/fixes.

I was originally in the Nvidia camp when I first got into selecting my own GPU's. Then for a while I swapped to ATI (because my first gaming laptop used ATI). Recently I've been back to Nvidia though because they are just more stable overall these days with optimus and stuff. Their drivers are better as well.

I have an msi GT60-0NE and it came with the stock i7-3630QM CPU. I've been playing PlanetSide 2 and I have been mostly CPU bound.

I'm assuming that future games that come out will just be as, if not more CPU intensive, so I have started thinking about what to upgrade my CPU to.

Because I don't think I can provide adequate cooling to my laptop (I am fairly new at modifying computers, so I won't be modding anything inside the laptop) so I was wondering what is the best bang for my buck? Also, I'm expecting a significant boost in performance, or am I setting myself up for disappointment if I buy a 3840QM?

Sorry last question: Without modifications to the PSU, laptop, etc. Is it worth it to get an XM chip to OC or will it just heat up my CPU too much?

Cheers