Microsoft has just created the closest thing to an Apple iMac for gamers
Last week, Microsoft has unveiled its brand new Surface Studio all-in-one Windows 10 PC, with an impressive set of features, and a design that defies almost everything we know about Microsoft, in the past 40 years.
Even when looking back to the Surface Book, on its first unveiling, last year, the difference in reactions to this new desktop device are indeed quite different, and it’s not hard to understand why. For one thing, while the Surface Studio may seem like Microsoft’s response to the Apple iMac, it is actually something else entirely, with a distinctive form that separates it from virtually any other all-in-one on the market.
In no uncertain terms, what Microsoft has done is simple: it merged the power of a desktop PC, the simplicity and user-friendliness of a tablet, and packaged it into a shell with a design flare that is typically Apple’s prerogative.
Prior to the announcement of the Surface Studio, the headlines read along the lines of “why would Microsoft make a desktop PC? It’s not the 90s anymore!”, but after seeing what Microsoft has done with this product, it’s hard not to turn for a second look.
When looking at the specs, it becomes even more apparent that Microsoft is looking to appeal to a wider range of consumers, not only artists and content creators, but also gamers.
The Surface Studio is powered by a 6th generation i5/i7 Intel Core processor, and supports up to 32GB of RAM and 2TB of hybrid storage, which is somewhat similar to the fusion drive available on the iMac. The entry-level graphic support is handled by a 2GB NVIDIA GTX 965M, while on the high-end, the system can be configured with a 4GB GTX 980M graphic card.
Up until the inception of NVIDIA’s 10-Series, such as the GTX 1080 or the Titan X, the 980M was one of the best graphic cards available on a portable PC.
To gamers, this means that while expectations should be measured, most high-end games will run just fine, even if they won’t run at 60fps, or using super-high settings.
The same, after all, can be said about the Surface Book, which has considerably lower specs than the Surface Studio, while still offering performance well above the average laptop or tablet.
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