Surface Studio 2 benchmarks show a system with unimpressive hardware | Computing

Benchmark results that are purportedly from Microsoft’s second-generation Surface Studio have appeared on the Geekbench website, and though the scores it achieved are notably higher than those put out by the original Surface Studio, they don’t exactly blow them away. That could be because the hardware configuration isn’t exactly class-leading.

The original Surface Studio debuted in 2016 and was designed to be a compact all-in-one with touchscreen functionality that enabled hands-on design work and the use of its innovative Surface Dial tool. It was an expensive, but impressive piece of kit with a unique use case that meant it was practically unrivaled in terms of performance and interactivity. The Surface Studio 2, however, doesn’t appear to do much more than that, as per MSPowerUser.

Despite Intel having released two generations of CPUs since the original Surface Studio was unveiled — and being on the verge of debuting another — the Surface Studio 2 benchmark results suggest it’s using an Intel Core i7-7820HQ. That’s a more powerful CPU than the 6820HQ found in the original Surface studio, but not by much. An eighth-generation alternative would have been preferable.

The RAM speed is reported as 1,200MHz, though that is likely a halving of the double-data-rate (DDR) RAM, and therefore operates at a respectable 2,400MHz. But that’s only a couple of hundred megahertz faster than the original Surface Studio — although it does appear to come with 32GB, rather than the typical 16GB of the first-generation all-in-one.

This results in performance that is in some cases less than 10 percent greater than that of its predecessor. Where the Surface Studio scored 4,225 and 14,417 points in single and multi-core tests, respectively, the Surface Studio 2 managed just 4,680 and 15,915. Most individual tests detailed on the results pages paint a similar picture, although some scores like crypto score are improved by even less of a margin.

It’s worth noting, though, that there have been a number of Surface Studio 2 benchmarks over the past few weeks, with slightly different configurations, such as faster and less RAM. That impacts performance a little, with some scoring slightly higher thanks to that speed bump.

None of this tells us much about what graphics hardware the Surface Studio 2 is running. The original all-in-one came with options up to an Nvidia 980M. We would hope at least Pascal 10th-generation hardware is present in the new build, as that could provide a nice performance improvement in graphically taxing settings.

Although these results might not be the most exciting for those interested in buying a Surface Studio 2, we’ll get to learn more in the very near future, with Microsoft expected to unveil a lot of new Surface hardware at its upcoming October 2 show.