Surface Pro 3?

#1

Hey guys!

Been a while since I posted here, but I needed some informed opinions on a portable work machine so who better :wink:

Right down to the nitty gritty! Recently changed teaching institutions and need to bring my own machine if I want to work at any kind of speed. A friend recommended the Surface pro 3, and I’ve been looking up reviews and comparisons against the portable cintiq, but what I’m really missing is some user opinions by people who’re using it for similar purposes as me.

What I’ll be using it for:

Running tutorials on Photoshop, Game Maker, Zbrush, Maya and perhaps some UDK.

From that list I imagine UDK may be an issue? As I’ve struggled getting it to run on a few borrowed laptops - so confirmation either way would be wicked.

But otherwise yeah, I’m eyeing the i5 model as I don’t want to go nuts on something which will only be used when I’m not at my desktop. Would love to know how people find it for sculpting and general running speed etc.

Much love !

#2

http://surfaceproartist.com/ Have you seen this site?

#3

Thanks Simon,

I’ve been on that site once I believe - I’ve seen that chart of functioning softwares for certain!

Very handy list; though it doesn’t include Unreal :confused: Plus I’d like to go beyond “does it open” and get some opinions on real-world usability. I mean my girlfriends laptop can run Maya…so long as I don’t mind severe camera clipping and visual glitches, or Photoshop so long as I don’t mind working at a tiny resolution to avoid cursor lag whilst painting.

Gotta make sure the money I dump into this doesn’t provide the other-half with ammo to beat me with :stuck_out_tongue:

#4

I tried UE4 on mine and Unreal doesn’t run good on it. You can use it to block levels and such with lighting turned off but don’t expect good performance out of it. You will be fine for stuff like 2d/mobile games though.

Everything else runs incredibly well. I use Houdini(runs great), Maya (very hard to use due to no UI scaling yet) , Zbrush (runs great), Photoshop (runs great, no lag)

Also tried the modo trial which ran great.

Overall I would highly recommend it, one of the best purchases I made for art.

#5

Brilliant! Thanks Sheep, exactly the kind of info I was looking for!

A shame about Unreal, but of all the softwares listed, that one is the least important fortunately.