Benchmarking the new Surface Book 3 15 with GTX 1660 Ti and 10th Gen i7

Microsoft Surface Book 3 13.5- and 15-inch models are set to on sale on May 21. While Microsoft has not changed the fundamentals of its most powerful laptop, it has overhauled the chips that power them bringing them up to speed for 2020.

My Surface Book 3 15 review sample arrived for some testing this week. While it is still too early for general remarks on battery life and the overall experience (though I’m not expecting a radical shift in opinion), I can run some benchmarks to see what that new Core i7-1065G7 and NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (Max-Q) deliver.

Surface Book 3 15 – What’s new at a glance

Before we get to the benchmarks, let us recap what is different from the Surface Book 3 15 over the Surface Book 2 15:

The wire mechanism that controls the display detaching is reportedly three times faster and quieter than Surface Book 2, which is a minor change, but I can report it as accurate.

And here is a full specification comparison between Surface Book 2 and Surface Book 3:

Surface Book 2 15 vs. Surface Book 3 15 specs

Putting the Surface Book 3 15-inch through a few popular synthetic benchmarking apps reveals expected results. There is a slight boost in CPU performance when switching from 8th Gen to Intel 10th Gen Core i7, but the significant increase comes from the GTX 1660 Ti graphics card, which is significantly faster (especially on CUDA). The tests, as always, are run with the laptops plugged in and set to maximum performance in a 70-degree Fahrenheit (21 degrees Celsius) room.

Running some other 3DMark benchmarks like Time Spy, Night Raid and Fire Strike show how the GPU shifts favorably for Surface Book 3 but falls short of most gaming laptops.

3DMark Graphics

For the full review, I’ll include comparison scores for the above 3DMark ones, though you can easily compare them to 3DMark’s online database. For example, the Surface Book 3 is more potent with its 4,979 score on Time Spy, while the Surface Book 2 only managed 3,557.

I’ll also toss in some gaming benchmarks and framerates to see just how much better the GTX 1660 Ti is compared to the older GTX 1060 used in Surface Book 2.

While Microsoft is offering an option for NVIDIA Quadro RTX 3000 graphics, please make no mistake that option is not only pricier, but it won’t be any better for gaming or general consumer applications. Indeed, due to the lower core clock rate, it will likely be worse. Quadro is optimized for 3D rendering and CAD applications, where its memory system is ideal for more precise work versus gaming, which is more reliant on faster core speed.

The Surface Book 3 15 charger is now 127 watts versus the older 102 watts that came with Surface Book 2. The Surface Book 3 can utilize 120 watts with 7 watts for the Type-A port found in the base. This improvement in wattage addresses a power-draining issue with the Surface Book 2, which, while rare, was a problem for some. Even though the charger does not seem bigger, it certainly is heavy (1lb, or 455G). Luckily, it is still a dual-prong plug without a ground, which makes it great for travel.

Dolby Atmos sound tuning is also here. The physical speakers are unchanged with Surface Book 3, but Dolby Atmos gives more spatial representation to audio and it sounds great. But due to the lack of a dedicated subwoofer, audio remains a little bit less rich than preferred. In theory, I can’t see why this software tweak can’t be implemented on Surface Book 2, save for the licensing cost.

Surface Book 3 15 Consumer

For configurations, Microsoft is offering multiple for Surface Book 3 15, with 32GB of RAM being the most common choice. Surface Book 3 is aimed at software developers, creative “doers,” social creators, architects, and engineers, and it seems to succeed in that regard with this refresh.

If you have any questions regarding Surface Book 3 15, leave them in comments, and I’ll try to answer them in our review due next week.

Oh, and for those wondering, you cannot switch the tops of Surface Book 2 with Surface Book 3. Doing so causes it to get jammed on the base, and you’ll have to do a manual release, which is not fun at all. Do not ever attempt this maneuver, as it won’t work anyway (Microsoft seems to have reversed the magnets to avoid confusion when lining the two parts together, not that it stopped me from trying).