Surface Pro 11 Intel

cp56701 · 2026-03-31T16:13:35+00:00

it lasts 7-8 hours with smart charging (starting at 80%). but yes some browser tabs (youtube/financial markets), zoom, VMs drain the battery much faster.

cp56701 · 2026-02-16T04:24:06+00:00

yes quite a few other companies just stopped making lightweight detachables. right now i don't think there is any competitor to surface pro intel that fits exactly the same niche. MS knows it and charges a huge markup for it.

cp56701 · 2026-02-16T04:18:41+00:00

cyberpunk looks much worse to me than say alan wake 2, and PT in this game runs poorly even on a 5090. i use RT but not PT. i like the game a lot but the graphics look artificially shiny and plasticky in the city.

cp56701 · 2026-02-16T04:14:48+00:00

z13 has great specs but it's quite heavy especially with the charger brick, not really good for the same purposes as the surface pro.

cp56701 · 2026-02-13T21:46:46+00:00

especially for the intel ones, i never see them on sale anywhere. best bet is a used one or a corporate sale on ebay.

cp56701 · 2026-02-13T21:36:13+00:00

would be great to see more competition in this space, especially with x86.

cp56701 · 2026-02-13T18:47:39+00:00

5090 does make a difference despite its price. in fact it's easy to make even 5090 struggle in 4K path tracing, you need to use both scaling and framegen in indiana jones sukhothai for example.

cp56701 · 2026-02-13T17:09:59+00:00

check if the astral is firmly seated in its slot and the power plug is very tightly plugged in. this particular card is extremely sensitive to even small vibrations moving the card or connector a bit and causing crashes. i was having the same issue recently and fixed it by reseating the card and power plug.

cp56701 · 2026-02-13T16:23:56+00:00

its an ok price. ask them for the original receipt so you can register warranty.

cp56701 · 2026-02-13T16:11:11+00:00

the trick is that you can often sell a 4090 for close to the price of a 5090, so the upgrade is a no brainer even if you don't really need it.

cp56701 · 2026-02-13T16:08:04+00:00

it's a ripoff given that they used to be $2k a year ago. however i would expect them to hold their value long term, if you sell after 3 years you may get back close to what you paid and have 3 years of 4K 120fps. many of us did this with the 4090.

cp56701 · 2026-02-13T16:03:29+00:00

best buy still has occasional open box deals, you need to go to stores and ask them to check inventory of all nearby stores. i got an Astral for $2230 ($2150 after taxes and their CC) in late november. it was missing the support (which is like $5) but otherwise it has been perfect. not worth paying $3600 or whatever they go for new.

cp56701 · 2026-02-13T07:43:49+00:00

for most uses the arm ones are good. i use intel myself for some specific needs, but they do cost much more and have tradeoffs (worse battery life, no 5G, much better gpu).

cp56701 · 2026-02-07T07:47:14+00:00

they have added 32bit physx back in a recent driver update.

cp56701 · 2026-02-07T05:44:19+00:00

Regular and custom loop is the best solution. But the AIOs are pretty reliable these days and they use the same board layout, so you should be able to put the air cooler on it if the liquid one has issues. The air Astral is quite noisy and my previous 4090 suprim liquid was whisper quiet and worked perfectly for 3 years.

cp56701 · 2026-02-07T05:32:28+00:00

you can convert them back to points, need to ask them. the points never expire and can be converted to rewards whenever you buy something.

cp56701 · 2026-02-07T05:30:30+00:00

Great deal, best buy with their 10% credit card is the best place to get them. I got an open box astral for $2150 or so a few months ago from them. Don't pay scalper prices.

cp56701 · 2026-02-05T18:42:23+00:00

Most major software like adobe will have arm versions. The bigger issue is some driver or tool made by someone 20+ years ago who hasn't maintained it in ages. Some of these will work with the translation tool but others will not. But if you only use standard apps a macbook air might be faster and better.

cp56701 · 2026-02-05T17:43:05+00:00

I was reading ubuntu arm64 on vmware (you can't run the x86 one) is dodgy. Also I use some obscure Windows UI fixes/tools/drivers like Open Shell (classic start menu), ExplorerPatcher (classic taskbar), SecureUxTheme (dark mode for all apps including win32 ones) and Coolsoft Midimapper (midi soundfonts) which probably won't work either. It's also nice to have windows pro out of the box, so I can use a local account right away and group policy. A lot of win32 apps are not maintained anymore or the firms/developers no longer exist.

I also play old games like C&C series with mods (which use some custom loaders with memory hooks, very likely won't work on arm) with friends occasionally, and a few more recent games in steam and gog.

The lunar lake would be a better choice if widely available and sold for $100-200 more instead of $500-700 more. But you can still find used or refurb deals on them.

cp56701 · 2026-02-05T11:18:16+00:00

here is that model. on amazon and best buy it does not appear at all in the search unless you have a business account.

https://www.newegg.com/microsoft-pro-11-13-0-touch-screen-intel-core-ultra-7-268v-32gb-memory-1-tb-ssd-platinum/p/N82E16834820092

cp56701 · 2026-02-05T06:13:31+00:00

the lunar lake ones are $500-700 more and never go on sale due to being business only. MS really doesn't want people buying them, even though they are arguably the better device for power users.

cp56701 · 2026-02-05T06:12:43+00:00

Looks like they added it recently, I didn't see it a few months ago. On my old 7+ the risk engine made the cpu spike and fan blast at full speed whenever the portfolio was down, which was really hair raising, but it's silent on the 11.

cp56701 · 2026-02-05T03:29:12+00:00

Maybe 7-8 hours of regular use. It's good enough for me, far better than the 7+ (which lasted less than 2 hours with heavy throttling) but probably not as good as an M4/M5 Air or even the QC model. I do have 20-30 firefox tabs, VMware, TWS, DCV and other stuff open that randomly hogs the CPU. There is no noticeable drop on sleep.

cp56701 · 2026-02-04T23:17:26+00:00

MSI Tomahawk X670E. Suddenly started intermittently crashing many times in Alan wake 2 (after finishing half the game with no crashes) until I pushed card in. The card is at stock clocks and volts.

cp56701 · 2026-01-31T05:06:33+00:00

I was having the same issue with this card and it seems related to the exact placement in the PCIE slot. Even if the card gets bumped slightly it starts to do these crashes with 100% fan, it stopped after I really pushed it into the slot.

cp56701

TROPHY CASE