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
    2018-08-21T13:26:25+00:00

    I have a Surface Book 1 and I'm having similar performance issues.  It's *incredibly* frustrating to spend tons of money on this computer and have performance issues.  This is a Microsoft-built computer running Microsoft Windows!  You'd think Microsoft would make absolutely sure that their own OS would run flawlessly on their flagship computer.  But, no.  Honestly, this will keep me from recommending a Surface Book to anyone who asks.  I love the hardware, but the quirky performance issues are a real drag.  And the bugs...my god Microsoft, I'm uncovering new bugs with Windows 10 almost weekly.  And once Windows 10 seems OKish, Microsoft issues a new OS version with new bugs.  Then they come out with cumulative patches that are nothing but quality "improvements" to fix bugs.  Not sure what's going on with testing at Microsoft, but it's frustrating. 

    That being said, my workaround to the UI issues has been to disable most Window visual effects:

    1.  Hit Window key + R.

    2.  Enter sysdm.cpl.

    3.  Go to Performance.

    4,  I selected "Adjust for best performance" and then added a few features back in.  Seems like getting rid of all of the "animations" and "fades" has improved things dramatically.

    I still have my resolution at max (3000x2000 for Surface Book). There are some minor lags, but it's much better.  Knocking down my resolution does the trick too but the screen's not nearly as clear when I do that.  I prefer running full resolution with minimal visual effects.

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-06-11T14:38:13+00:00

    It's extremely frustrating. I don't know if they will ever fix it... The animation is also terrible on my Surface Pro 6. What I found helpful was to turn off animations all together. To do this, open settings and type in 'animation' in the search box. Click on the option that says something like 'Show animations in Windows' and uncheck that box. I know its not ideal but at least it makes it much faster. Give it a shot and hopefully you can find it helpful.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-06-18T14:14:21+00:00

    I've had this problem since the first day I bought my laptop (ASUS ZenBook UX510 with 4K display) which was about 2 years ago (I even posted a question here, which you mentioned and linked to).

    Unfortunately, they've done nothing about it, even when they foud out that even their own devices (Surface Book 2, etc.) have this problem.

    I'm really frustrated, I don't know what else to do to fix this problem.

    I think the reason behind this problem comes down to the fact that Intel onboard graphics cards do not have enough power to handle animations on high-resolution displays; however, if that's true, it'd be such a shame for Intel and even the manufacturers.

    I'm really exhausted by this, most people don't care or they don't notice this issue in their devices, or they even think that it's normal! So they don't complain about it, and therefore Microsoft and Intel don't care either.

    Please if you are someone in charge and can help us, don't hesitate, it'd be highly appreciated.

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  4. 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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  5. Anonymous
    2018-11-07T12:00:16+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!

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