Surface Book 2 Task View Lag (and other high-resolution laptops included)

Anonymous
2018-04-08T15:54:29+00:00

Ever since I got my Surface Book 2 (15 inch), Windows UI performance was quite sluggish. Windows framerate drops noticeably when opening Task View even with only one or two windows open, and switching desktop also experiences stutter. 

I tried to diagnose the issue myself, by installing latest drivers for UHD 620 graphics from both Microsoft and Intel. I tried reinstalling / uninstalling drivers for GTX 1060. None of these worked, and I have reinstalled Windows several times but nothing has changed.

However, one "solution" to this problem was to decrease the screen resolution to 1620*1080 @ 100% scaling, which mitigated the issue significantly. The usage of UHD 620 graphics is much lower (shown under graph labelled "3D") with lower resolution and animation became much smoother. Upon research I discovered that this issue is not specific to my device. Many other laptops with high resolution displays were experiencing the same problem.

Here are some links to thread discussing seemingly similar issue:

4k laptop lag in Windows 10 UI animations

Laggy animations and effects at 4K resolution (running Windows 10)

Windows 10 Animation lags

Lag with Surface book 2

Is it that the Integrated Graphics Card in these laptops are not powerful enough to drive such a high resolution display? If so, the solution is not to lower the resolution as I did - that is just a poor excuse. Even my MacBook Pro Retina from 2012 performs better on MacOS than my Surface Book 2 does on Windows.

OR it is very likely that Windows 10 optimization on high-resolution laptops is just poor. It is ridiculous that such a high-end laptop experiences lag within its native OS only with few windows open; if Apple can do well with their animation on MacOS, there is no reason for Microsoft not to be able to do it.

Please look into this issue and fix it, Microsoft.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Performance and system failures

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-11-11T09:52:33+00:00

    Just save yourself some time and buy a MacBook. Windows became a joke. I was also a huge Apple hater and Windows made me so angry that I switched to Mac just out of some internal protest, and now I wish I did that sooner.

    I had a Lenovo Yoga 920 fully specked, returned it because of lag. Then switched to a fully specked out Surface Book 2 15", same issues followed by constant GPU disconnecting, detachment mechanism failing to work and so on (all of that in a span of 2 weeks), returned that one. Tried a friends XPS 15, saw the same problems, said f*** it and bought a Macbook Pro a few weeks ago.

    I'm just sick of troubleshooting stuff every few days, fixing, then a new update comes, steals an hour of your work time and makes even more problems.

    With the Mac it's a refreshing feeling to open up the laptop and just start working. I lost 20 hours on troubleshooting the SB2, 20 hours that I could have worked and earned money!

    My thoughts exactly! I became really frustrated because the SB2 didn't deliver what you'd expect from a device with that price tag and advertised as a powerful machine. And it's THEIR OS with THEIR device, geez! You'd expect to run better than any other Laptop+Windows combination!

    Guess what, 2 days after my post I did just that: returned the SB2 and got a Mac instead :)) I couldn't take it anymore, was so frustrated for paying that much money for a device that actually prevents you from being productive. I was only hesitant to do that because I had a friend at the store I bought it from, and he added an extra 5% discount for me, somehow. Was thinking I'd get him into some trouble, but then I was so frustrated that I asked him if it's ok to return it. And the moment he said "it's fine", I reseted it and then next morning I went to return it. And, like you, I wish I had switched to a Mac sooner! I can't believe I worked on Windows laptops all these years :)) I am really really happy now! And I also used to say "I don't need a bigger touchpad", but this one is amazing. And even more than the size, I like it's responsiveness and force feedback for the hard press, instead of a mechanical hard press. It works the same no matter where you want to hard press, as opposed to the surface one where, if you want to do a hard press in the top part, it doesn't work unless you put some really really hard pressure (I think you might even break it if you'd do that all the time). Comparing it to the Mac's touchpad, now I realise that the SB/2 touchpad is a cheap excuse for a touchpad, even though it's better than on any other Windows laptop I've seen.

    And as for battery life, I get about the same while working, BUT there are 2 things to consider:

    #1 - I believe the MacBook's battery life is advertised to be less than that of the SB2's (won't search again now, so if I'm wrong...) so: points for that! I get the same, even though it was advertised to be less.

    #2 - guess what, while at my desk I can simply keep the Mac plugged in and not worry! I even know people that have been keeping their Macs plugged in all day, for 4 years, and their Mac is still fine (although I wouldn't keep a device for that long). That is one thing you can't do with the surface book, because the battery heats up and in combination with the cpu also heating up, those temps make the battery in the display inflate and ruins your whole device, and you're left with a base that does nothing on it's own. And if (like most people, I guess) you didn't buy extra warranty, you're screwed. You've paid over $3000 (in US, but much more in Europe) for a device that keeps you from being productive for 1 year and 2 months, and then it also breaks.

    Sure, I wouldn't go as far as also replacing my desktop with an All In One or something. I don't have an issue with Windows per say, only with the SB2 not delivering. Plus, that's working perfectly fine (the desktop), I don't have issues with it. And it's nice to have for when you need some real power and occasional gaming. Although, I was surprised to see there ARE top titles that work on Mac. I couldn't believe it! Sure, they're quite a bit behind, but still for what I play: I've actually found Rise of The Tomb Raider and F1 2017. I guess Shadow of The Tomb Raider and F1 2018 will follow. But from "didn't even think there would be top games and a Steam version for Mac" to "finding top titles"... I was pleasantly surprised!

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-11-12T02:52:38+00:00

    still have this issue on my xps 13 2018 4k

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-11-24T15:23:59+00:00

    Has anybody found a solution? Have the exact same problem on my HP Spectre x360, and guess what it is running? Yep, Intel UHD 620 graphics card. Maybe it's because the Intel graphics card in not adequate for 4K? Hmmm....

    Btw, if there is any solution, please let us know down below, guys!

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-12-12T02:38:59+00:00

    Same problem here.  So annoying. Task View lag and freeze.

    Fix it or I will return this laptop and recommandto  everoyne to not purchase MS products.

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-12-14T02:28:04+00:00

    SB2 is very, very laggy with MS Excel and the SB2 screen at 4K.  So laggy that I am continuously frustrated with the dang thing.  Works ok with 1920x1080 external monitors connected with USB-C.

    I'm very disappointed also, and won't recommend to others who use Excel.

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