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My son has challenge me to an Ark Survival Evolved death match (this can only go one way) and although my Surface has 256 GB storage I don’t really want to use it up with large games such as the 40 GB Ark.
In an earlier post I discussed installing a Class 10 U1-3 Micro SD card for use as a D: drive. I have successfully installed Ark to this drive and it hosts the ark server and plays really well even on Wi-Fi.
The only problem I have is the weird behaviour of the Steam window in which Ark runs. This does not snap or maximise correctly. After several hours faffing about I found that
- Launch with “Low Memory 4 GB”
- Set screen resolution to 1280 x 768
- Set windowing to “WindowedFullScreen”
- Graphic quality to “Medium”
This gave me a frame rate of about 7 FPS and it looked nice. I will update this post with more details if I can get consistent behaviour or find better settings. Please make your suggestions in the comments below.
To back up the game I use GoodSync to copy the game files
D:\_SteamGames\steamapps\common\ARK\ShooterGame\Saved)
to
c:\…\OneDrive\_backup\ark
These are only about 250 MB which is OK on C: and is then nicely backed up to the cloud and recorded in File History.
Dr James Bayley 
I’m evaluating surface pro 4. For you what is a big limit of this device?
The Surface Pro 4 is super-premium device with a price tag to match. The key issues are is that Windows 10 and the Surface Pro 4 firmware are both a bit buggy but getting better (https://www.thurrott.com/mobile/microsoft-surface/64224/microsoft-issues-long-overdue-surface-book-firmware-update) and the lack of ports.
It does not have an Ethernet port and only has one USB port. To make life easier I bought a Displaylink dock (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Plugable-UD-3000-Universal-2048×1152-Ethernet/dp/B00ATU4PFM/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1456253974&sr=8-3&keywords=plugable+displaylink+dock).
It has a mini-dvi port on it which means that you need an HDMI and VGA adaptor in your bag if you are going to project on a client site.
It is also not very sensible to put an i5 processor in a tiny box. The fan goes sometimes but actually it works silently most of the time.
In summary. If you want a very expensive tablet that turns into a real laptop and also has an amazingly good 12″ screen with a stylus that works brilliantly it is the thing to buy. It will only get better as the software and firmware is patched.
The downside is the lack of ports.
If you don’t really need the super light tablet mode or the pen a strong alternative is the HP Spectre x360, Lenovo Yoga 700 or Dell XPS 13. These have more ports but still not Ethernet.
Great.
I’m searching a powerfull portable tablet that run like a laptop I’ll evaulate surface…
Have a good day