Gaming on Surface Book 2 Drains Battery Even When Charging

With the Surface Book 2, Microsoft offers something for everyone thanks to the convertible nature of this 2-in-1 laptop. However, it seems the 15-inch Surface Book 2 has a power problem that will rear its head if you use the laptop for prolonged and intensive sessions; when gaming, for example.

The Surface Book 2 uses an Nvidia 1060 GPU, which kicks in when required for more graphically intensive work. Users can also adjust the Power Mode Slider to "best performance" to ensure they are taking full advantage of the GPU. However, the CPU can draw up to 35 watts and the GPU up to 70 watts of power for a grand total of 105 watts power draw. The laptop ships with a 102-watt charger, but only 95 watts of that reaches the device.

Under normal circumstances, where the GPU is only called upon intermittently, that isn't a problem. However, if you are using the Surface Book 2 to game, and it's a very intensive game such as Destiny 2, the laptop will draw the full 105 watts of power. So even if plugged in and charging, the battery will drain.

The Verge confirmed with Microsoft that it is indeed possible to drain the battery while charging under certain circumstances. Specifically, "in some intense, prolonged gaming scenarios with Power Mode Slider set to 'best performance.'" However, Microsoft explains that "through power management design, the battery will never drain entirely, ensuring that users are able to keep working, creating or gaming." In other words, the laptop will throttle back performance automatically regardless of the settings you chose.

As noted in our review, we "tested this, running The Witcher 3 for four hours at 1080p and high settings, and the battery did drain somewhat despite being plugged into the wall. It stopped reducing at about 90 percent, (the second battery stayed at 100 percent) charging up intermittently to stay around that level. As such, it does seem like there's something to the charger wattage being insufficient, but it hardly came close to running the battery out, and the discrete graphics never switched off."

The Surface Book 2 is an all-round device, not a gaming laptop, but it will inevitably get used for gaming. For the most part it will cope, especially if you opt for a power mode other than best performance. Just be aware that playing the latest and most intensive games on the highest settings may eventually see the Surface Book 2 quite literally run out of power.

If you find that is happening repeatedly and throttling kicks in, it's probably time to consider investing in a gaming laptop.