Surface Pro 9, 1+ years later: Windows on ARM is ready to be your next computer

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Last year, my initial review of the ARM-based #Surface Pro 9 was mostly favorable. By 2023, #Windows on ARM had already progressed to a point where it was good enough to be the primary computer for the vast majority of folks who only use their laptops for browsing the internet, watching videos, and lite gaming. A year later, some pain points still exist for power users but there’ve been significant enough updates to give weight to #Microsoft’s new push for Windows on ARM.

Initial reviews:

– General usage: https://youtu.be/JUBnuYVkADk
– Local gaming: https://youtu.be/rkCWmT87Po8
– Cloud gaming: https://youtu.be/Z2Yy4ye0K58

You might also like:

– Should you still buy a Surface Duo? https://youtu.be/vyR78iJLgKc
– Surface Duo 2 One Year: https://youtu.be/3h3iYUbCtwk

Gameplay recording details

All gameplay was recorded using an Elgato 4K60 Pro inserted into a secondary computer. For ease of recording, the Surface Pro 9’s display was set to 1920×1080 and any gameplay shown below 60 fps was adjusted to 720p in-game (upscaled to 4K after the fact). Games were typically recorded back-to-back in 15 – 30 minute gameplay chunks. Performance described within the script was tested at closer to the Surface Pro 9’s native aspect ratio (where available) without adjusting the display’s resolution.

As might be obvious, sustained performance for more intense 3D games (e.g., Control and Shadow of the Tomb Raider) is likely to reduce over time due to the Pro 9’s lack of a fan. Performance reported in this video is meant to reflect the maximum raw performance of the SQ3 in spite of the Pro 9’s fanless design. For anyone interested, I have seen other Surface owners get additional performance by attaching external coolers to the back of the device.

Other gameplay performance to note

Here are some extra performance details for games which either didn’t make it into the script or I only got access to after recording the A-roll:

– Elden Ring: Fails to launch, reports incompatibility with the SQ3
– Hi-Fi Rush: Crashes after launch, reports incompatibility with the SQ3
– Penny’s Big Adventure: Crashes after launch
– Bioshock 2 (Remastered): Still has issues loading certain textures
– Cassette Beasts: Certain environmental textures load in incorrect orders
– Rayman Origins: Runs great!
– Cult of Lamb: Runs great!
– N64 emulation: Still can be a bit finicky, but I’ve had a few good gameplay sessions without issue.
– Witcher III (DirectX 12): Loads audio fine but fails to load gameplay

Chapters

00:00 Initial Review Recap
01:47 Performance Updates
03:42 Professional App Performance
06:38 Native Gaming
11:57 Emulation
13:35 Summary

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10 thoughts on “Surface Pro 9, 1+ years later: Windows on ARM is ready to be your next computer”

  1. Does linux run on these things?
    Also for videos, ive had a fair bit of luck with KDEN-live. it's a bit unstable and less powerful than the mainstream stuff, but it works well and you should be able to build it or get the normal windows version to run.
    For games, maturity is key, as a proton lover, the longer it exists, the closer to native it will be. You already kinda said it, but it bears repeating.

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  2. I bought a Windows Dev Kit 2023 back in Nov 2022 to experiment what it would be like to live Windows 11 arm daily. The Dev Kit is a Surface Pro 9 5G in a box but with 32GB RAM, no 5G and much lower cost. My experience over that time is Windows 11 arm has improved significantly. This has come from; OS improvements especially with regards x64 emulation, Dev Tools that fully support arm64 architecture, a constant stream of firmware, hardware, and graphic driver updates, and more Windows apps also coming with arm binaries. My Dev Kit now includes support for USB4 Surface Dock, USB4 and TB3 external SSD, though not at the full 40Gbps bandwidth. My gaming experience on Windows 11 arm very much reflects yours. I also installed Qualcomm's Nov 2023 graphics driver update, Adreno_Driver_for_Snapdragon_8cx_Gen3_release_6.0_(11-08-2023), which included several game fixes, and was later than any driver being provided via Windows Update. It even allowed me to run Genshin Impact v4.5 on lowest settings and subsequently upgrade to v4.6 without any issue. I had to jump through many hoops to get Genshin impact to install on my M2 MacBook Pro, and often after game software update it failed until required software compatibility layers had caught up. Windows 11 arm like its x64 sibling also includes WSL2 and Windows Subsystem for Android support. WSL2 installs arm64 Linux distros with hardware graphics acceleration support such as Ubuntu 22.04+. This means you can install Linux arm GUI apps alongside your windows apps. For example, GIMP Image Manipulation Program installed as an arm64 binary via WSL2 runs faster than GIMP installed via Microsoft Store. Linux Kdenlive video editor maybe a viable option pending Da Vinci Resolve release for Windows 11 arm (which Qualcomm has been demonstrating optimized of their AI engine at recent Snapdragon X Elite events). I now use my Dev Kit all the time and in preference to both my MacBook and M1 iPad Pro. I would have purchased a Robo & Kala SQ3 laptop if they sold them outside the US, but I am looking forward to getting a Microsoft Surface Pro 10 or similar with Qualcomm's new Snapdragon X Elite processor.

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  3. I feel like the minusfourm V3 or the asus rog flow x13 and z13 are better alternatives. Especially for pricing. Though idk if it is as slim or its battery life is good, as i am broke, but from reveiwers,, it seems to run everything well, especially for the gaming side.

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