The Microsoft Surface Book 2 has a problem staying charged when handling graphic-intensive tasks such as gaming, even if it's plugged in.
Users have been complaining that the Surface Book 2 continues to lose power while gaming even if it's connected to a charger. As it seems, graphic-intensive applications drain power much faster than the device can charge, so the Surface Book 2 is losing power even while plugged in with the official charger.
Surface Book 2 Battery Drain Issues
It's worth pointing out that the Surface Book 2 doesn't have battery drain issues at all times, just during heavy GPU usage or gaming. If the power settings on the 15-inch laptop are set to maximum performance, some games will cause the battery in the keyboard base to drain while plugged in.
The battery will drain more or less depending on the game, screen resolution, and maximum GPU load. Microsoft has confirmed the issue and explained why this occurs. The company highlights that the Surface Book 2 aims to offer portable performance and power and it's suitable for engineers, developers, designers, and other professionals in the STEM fields. However, in some cases, the device's battery may not be able to keep up.
Why The Surface Book 2 Power Drain?
"The Surface Book 2 Power Mode Slider is provided as a means to give the user control over the range of performance and battery life. In some intense, prolonged gaming scenarios with Power Mode Slider set to 'best performance' the battery may discharge while connected to the power supply provided in-box with Surface Book 2," Microsoft explains to The Verge.
Nevertheless, Microsoft says that despite the power draining even while charging, the Surface Book 2 will never drain completely.
It seems the laptop was designed to push 95 watts of power from the charger, but that is not enough to fuel the processor, GPU, and other components at maximum performance, during graphics-intensive applications. In max performance mode, the processor needs 25 watts by itself, sometimes sucking even 35 watts. The Nvidia GTX 1060 needs up to 80 watts, which, combined with the processor, suck up to 105 watts of power while the charger only delivers 95 to the device.
Not A Gaming Laptop
Consequently, the charger delivers less power than the device needs to work at peak performance, during heavy gaming sessions or other tasks that weigh heavily on the GPU. Using more battery-efficient settings, meanwhile, can affect the gaming quality and experience in some cases. As for how rapidly the battery drains in max performance mode, it depends on the game but overall it's reportedly losing at least 10 percent per hour.
The Microsoft Surface Book 2 has many good things to offer, but these battery drain issues highlight that high-end as it may be, it is not a gaming laptop.
