Surface Studio is Updated for Windows Mixed Reality

Surface Studio is Updated for Windows Mixed Reality

Surface Studio owners can now access some pre-release drivers to improve Windows Mixed Reality compatibility and performance.

These drivers are a subset of the often-massive driver and firmware update sets that went out to several other Surface devices earlier this week. Surface Laptop, Surface Pro (2017), Surface Book and Surface Pro 3 were all updated, in part to address issues with Windows Mixed Reality.

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Those updates are available normally on Windows Update. For Surface Studio, however, Microsoft has a different plan.

“An NVIDIA GTX driver update and Marvell Bluetooth driver pre-release update for Windows Mixed Reality support are available for all Surface Studio devices,” the Surface Studio Update History website notes. “We are providing an early preview of the Windows Mixed Reality drivers on Surface Studio for our early adopter community [now], then the finalized launch drivers will be provided later through Windows Update.”

To access these pre-release drivers, please visit the Microsoft Download Center.

The following pre-release drivers are available:

NVIDIA GeForce GTX driver In Display adapters 22.21.13.8290 required to support Windows Mixed Reality features.

Marvell AVASTAR Bluetooth Radio Adapter in Bluetooth 15.68.9120.47 required to support Windows Mixed Reality features.

Marvell AVASTAR Wireless-AC Network Controller in Network adapters 15.68.9112.23 required to support Windows Mixed Reality features.

 

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Conversation 8 comments

  • BoItmanLives

    21 October, 2017 - 12:35 pm

    <p>Niche of a niche. Not sure what MS bothered since the GPU in a surface studio can't drive proper VR.</p>

    • Tony Barrett

      21 October, 2017 - 4:32 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#209339"><em>In reply to BoItmanLives:</em></a></blockquote><p>Indeed. Such a tiny, tiny fraction of a fraction of users. Still they're the ones who bought these eye-wateringly expensive systems, so maybe they'll find it useful, but it is a strange update for a system never designed for VR.</p>

    • ecumenical

      21 October, 2017 - 5:31 pm

      <blockquote><a href="#209339"><em>In reply to BoItmanLives:</em></a></blockquote><p><br></p><p>Since the minimum spec for Windows mixed reality calls for integrated graphics, I'm sure the Studio GPUs can handle it fine. </p>

      • BoItmanLives

        22 October, 2017 - 12:31 am

        <blockquote><a href="#209414"><em>In reply to ecumenical:</em></a></blockquote><p>I bet you think Microsoft's "minimum spec" has something to do with proper VR. It doesn't. Integrated graphics can't drive anything more than playing videos, making these knockoff VR HMD's expensive ($400-$500) personal theater devices.</p><p><br></p><p>For proper VR you need a Rift/Vive and an Nvidia 1070, 1080 or ideally 1080Ti, period.</p>

        • CaedenV

          22 October, 2017 - 8:42 am

          <blockquote><a href="#209454"><em>In reply to BoItmanLives:</em></a></blockquote><p>personally I agree with you. "Proper VR" is for gaming and 3D interfaces. And that required a minimum 1070 (got my eye on a 1070ti in a few months if it really comes out), but really GPUs will not be ready for prime VR capability until next gen chips become available in a year or so. 4K per eye is the true minimum for immersive VR experiences.</p><p>But I think that most VR applications are really about screen real estate instead of gaming. Psudo-big screen movie watching ($400 headset compared to $2-3000 TV) is a tempting idea to a few of my friends. At work I constantly have a ton of stuff open across 4 displays, and I really wonder what it would be like to be able to spread out beyond the confines of those 4 screens and be surrounded by a 360* view of windows. Always up and active monitoring panes, a chat/communications area, and an active workflow area would be pretty cool.</p><p><br></p><p>Point being; for movie watching, 2D windows apps running in a simple 3D space, and other productivity work really can run on an integrated GPU. Even simple games like those found in the MS store or Minecraft will work just fine with an iGPU in low res VR. The big issue isnt poly-count, the big issue is latency to make this really work without making people throw up every time they move their heads.</p><p><br></p><p>Most importantly, the gaming crowd alone cannot and will not make VR a survivable market. We need those 'filthy casuals' to join in and buy headsets (and the software that runs on them) to really make the market take off.</p>

  • JackWang

    22 October, 2017 - 6:19 am

    <p>Probably trying to clear excess inventory, otherwise would be upgrading GPU and CPU rather than drivers.</p>

  • Mike_Peluso

    22 October, 2017 - 5:56 pm

    <p>Surface Studio is comically expensive but it's an amazingly beautiful machine. If MS would put in a quad core laptop chip and one of the 1080's configured for mobile. i.e. if I could get that system to both be a productivity monster and passable for good gaming and VR, I think I would serious consider that as my next PC. Considering how modest my means are compared to the cost of the device, my comment is actually much more telling about how desirable that combo would be for me than it would appear on it's surface (pun intended) :)</p>

  • gregsedwards

    Premium Member
    23 October, 2017 - 1:48 am

    <p>I'm hopeful they'll get around to updating Surface Pro 4 graphics drivers soon.</p>

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