Microsoft's Upcoming Surface Go 2 Could Arrive With Outdated Amber Lake CPUs

Microsoft Surface Go

Microsoft Surface Go (Image credit: Microsoft)

Hardware finder @_rogame has dug up Time Spy submissions for two unknown Microsoft devices. Given the specifications and hardware, the device might be the company's upcoming Surface Go 2.

As a quick recap, the original Surface Go leverages Intel's Pentium Gold 4415Y (codename Kaby Lake) processor. The 14nm chip has two cores, four threads, 2MB of cache and runs with a static 1.6 GHz clock. The recently exposed Time Spy entries reveal that the Surface Go 2 could be available with two different processor options.

The first configuration points to the Core m3-8100Y (codename Amber Lake-Y), which is the more powerful option of the two. The Core m3-8100Y adheres a two-core, four-thread configuration with 4MB of cache. It has a 1.1 GHz base clock, but flaunts a 3.4 GHz boost clock.

The other configuration consists of the Pentium Gold 4425Y (codename Amber Lake) that also has two cores and four threads. The processor has a fixed 1.7 GHz clock, which is 100 MHz faster than the previous Pentium Gold 4415Y.

The Pentium Gold 4415Y comes equipped with the Intel UHD Graphics 615 iGPU that runs between 300 MHz and 850 MHz. It's the same iGPU that's on the Pentium Gold 4425Y and Core m3-8100Y. Nonetheless, the latter has a slightly higher boost clock at 900 MHz.

For reference, the Pentium Gold 4415Y scores 1,007 points in the processor test and 288 points in the graphics test. According to the Time Spy submissions, the Pentium Gold 4425Y scores 1,089 and 292 points in the processor and graphics tests, respectively. This represents a 8.1% upgrade processing and 1.4% in graphics.

Meanwhile, the Core m3-8100Y puts up processor and graphics scores of 1,380 and 303, respectively. It's up to 37% faster than the Pentium Gold 4415Y in processing and 5.2% in graphics.

As for the Surface Go 2's other potential specifications, both units were spotted with 8GB of memory. However, we would expect Microsoft to offer the device with 4GB of memory as well. Out of the two units, it appears that only the Core m3-8100Y will have LTE connectivity. 

The Pentium Gold 4415Y model had a 128GB SSD while the Core m3-8100Y was paired with a 256GB SSD. The hardware leaker claims that the SSDs inside the Surface Go 2 are of the same type that are found in the Surface Pro X and Surface Pro 7. This means that the SSD adheres to the not-so-popular M.2 2230 form factor.

A report from publication Petri suggests that Microsoft could launch the Surface Go 2 alongside the Surface Book 3 in Spring at a New York City event. With the recent coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemia, the company will probably turn the event into a online livestream.

Zhiye Liu
News Editor and Memory Reviewer

Zhiye Liu is a news editor and memory reviewer at Tom’s Hardware. Although he loves everything that’s hardware, he has a soft spot for CPUs, GPUs, and RAM.

  • TCA_ChinChin
    A product that IMO has so much potential yet microsoft seems to not care about. Makes me a little sad.
    Reply
  • twotwotwo
    ARM makes so much more sense here than for the Pro X. Maybe needing x86 emulation, and Qualcomm's pretense to being ready for the high end, pushed MS to getting a beefier chip and so a pricier device.

    ARM is still in the period where it's making big strides each gen. I suspect the right Surface gets built eventually, once folks who aren't QC can license some huge-core ARM IP and fab it on a good process, so you get cheap ARM chips that can take on cheap x86 ones in computer-y settings. It is somewhat disappointing right now 'cause all the parts are there, but haven't quite been put together the ideal way.

    I'm sure more things get ported, too. MS being a cloud provider, I wonder a bit about ARM devices streaming huge apps (Visual Studio, games, etc.) run remotely as another way to sidestep their legacy troubles.
    Reply
  • daglesj
    Erm do people really care about this right now? If I was most major tech corporations I'd be shelving a lot of these types of product.

    Cheap, cheerful and repairable will be the future for a while.
    Reply