Is Your Windows 8 Tablet Fast Enough For PC Gaming?

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Why should Nintendo's 3DS XL, Sony's PlayStation Vita, and Nvidia's Shield have all the fun? We take Dell's Windows 8.1-based Venue 8 Pro, powered by an Atom processor, and try turning it into a portable PC gaming console with a handful of upgrades.

How We Tested Tablet-Based Gaming

We're testing Dell's Venue 8 Pro differently than we would a desktop PC. To begin, we aren't comparing it to anything, so there's little value in charting performance. Rather, my goal is to demonstrate that playing PC games on a tablet is viable (or not). With that in mind, I chose to record video of actual gameplay to illustrate the usability of our chosen titles with a real representation of frame rate.

It turns out that video does a pretty good job of this. With that in mind, here are the specifications of Dell's Velue 8 Pro:

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Header Cell - Column 0 Test System
CPUIntel Atom Z3740D (Bay Trail), 1.333 to 1.833 GHz, Four Cores, BGA1380, 2 MB L2 Cache
MemoryDDR3L, 2 GB, 1600 MT/s, CL 9-9-9-24-1T
GraphicsIntel HD Graphics, 4 EUs, 313-688 MHz
SSD32 GB NAND
Software and Drivers
Operating SystemMicrosoft Windows 8.1 32-bit
DirectXDirectX 11
Graphics DriversIntel Graphics Driver 10.18.10.3349
Don Woligroski
43 Comments Comment from the forums
  • batman2142
    Same article with SP3 would be a worthy read since it gives a chance to see how their HD4400 vs HD5000 on the variants match up, and if possible a projection on what the newer chipset that wont be making into the current SP3 but might make into the refresh by holiday season?
    Reply
  • AMD Radeon
    Great Review :)

    Finally i see one noticeable advantage of Windows Tablet over Android
    Reply
  • blackmagnum
    Burn your hands on the tablet while gaming, why don't you?
    Reply
  • iPeekYou
    "...turning it into a portable PC gaming console..."

    Does not compute
    Reply
  • K-beam
    Awesome article, Don, I have had the same thoughts recently. I think we would have appreciated some more info especially on:
    - Battery (maybe most important when you speak of portablility) - how long does it last with this model. I was eyeing the Asus Transformer Book T100TA, which they say has a quite respectable battery (but is also more expensive)
    - Does a PS3 controller (free, if you have a PS3) work with it?
    I would ideally have liked to see a mention of the Prince of Persia / Max Payne (1+2) / (Older) Tomb Raider / Splinter cell (1-4) and similar older third-person adventure games. In my opinion those work marvellously with a PS3 gamepad. Ah, I forgot - I wonder whether the touch would work directly with games from the Monkey Island series. Ah, another great genre for playing on a tablet, that was totally missed here - turn-based strategy games like the Heroes of Might and Magic series and Civilization (4). And also the grand-daddy of "modern" open-world FPSs - FarCry 1 :)
    The biggest risk with those games is still compatibility with touch/Win 8.
    An expanded re-visit maybe when the new generation of chips come out from either from Intel or AMD?
    Reply
  • CaptainTom
    I mean isn't the controller choice obvious: PS4. It connects via bluetooth and has a touchpad so you can control the menus with a mouse.
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    If you bought a Surface Pro 3 it probably wasn't to play games, but nice to know it is one of the best performers out there in the tablet range
    Reply
  • ScrewySqrl
    What I want to know is why has no one pushed an AMD APU into one of these windows tablets for gaming?
    Reply
  • K-beam
    I am also thinking SteamOS as dual boot...
    Reply
  • K-beam
    What's up with these multiple posts!!! Sorry for the splamming, it seems every time the page gets refreshed, the post is re-submitted!
    Reply