Gears 5 on Surface Book 2 ... not compatible

Zyxtomatic · Sep 16, 2019

So I do a lot of gaming on my Surface book 2 15" with a GTX 1060 gpu. It's plugged into an external 1080p monitor, and it works really well. I bought Gears 5, excited to try it out. However, it looks like this game *requires* Windows 10 update 1903.
That's all well and good, and I keep my laptop updated, but Microsoft has *blocked* update 1903 on the Surface Book 2 with a dgpu. So I literally cannot install 1903 on this laptop at this time.

Is there a possible workaround for this? What does update 1903 provide that Gears 5 requires. I play a lot of games from various game services (Steam, Epic, Twitch, MMOs, you name it). I've never had any problem with any game, even current AAA games.
None of them require update 1903. What on Earth does Gears 5 need that update for?

I do know there is a way I can force the update by manually installing it, but that seems risky given the dgpu issues they've had with that update and given Microsoft specifically blocked that update on the Surface Books with dgpus.

Anyway, I guess I just have to wait for MS to finally (someday) release 1903 for Surface Books.

:)

HypnoticSpeck

Hi. For Windows 10 games, you will need to get a powerful desktop PC to play it. It will never run properly on laptops.

This is one of the worst responses I've ever seen and doesn't even address the question being asked.

First of all, I use my Surface Book 2 all the time as my game system away from home, there is nothing like being able to play one of Microsoft's Anywhere games when stuck for a couple of hours at a location with nothing to do.

Second, the question is a valid one, there are those of us who want to use our setups to their full potential, and Microsoft has us stuck between a rock and a hard place... we need an update to install a game, and can't until they lift the block.

Not sure how you became a Microsoft Ambassador, but by your response not sure either Microsoft or you understand what an Ambassador is?

Zyxtomatic

The update has changes to gaming features specifically.

Performance, rendering and etc I believe.

When I updated my gaming PC for it, that was in the description.

So I'm guessing that's what the update is for.

Ah, thanks. I wasn't aware it included gaming specific features. I'll have to look up the release notes.

Zyxtomatic

Hi. For Windows 10 games, you will need to get a powerful desktop PC to play it. It will never run properly on laptops.

You might want to check the benchmark results? From what I'm seeing, a 1060 6gb (which my laptop has) is handling the game at ultra settings, 1080p, at 72 fps. We're only talking 1080p here, not 4k. Granted, the benchmarks are for a desktop 1060, not a laptop
version, but I've found my laptop results to be reasonably close to the desktop equivalent on most other games. I'm sure Gears 5 will be fine with a bit of tuning in the settings.

For what it's worth, I do have a burly desktop gaming rig as well. The laptop is just for gaming while I travel for work (which is a lot), or when I have a friend over who wants to play along.

I suppose I'm just frustrated that Microsoft can't figure out how to fix a major update (1903) on their own Microsoft branded laptop :-\

Geth

The update has changes to gaming features specifically.

Performance, rendering and etc I believe.

When I updated my gaming PC for it, that was in the description.

So I'm guessing that's what the update is for.

Radiant Sword X

Hi. For Windows 10 games, you will need to get a powerful desktop PC to play it. It will never run properly on laptops.

Gears 5 on Surface Book 2 ... not compatible