Microsoft’s next-gen Surface Go tablet could be coming soon, and it will likely be available with a choice of an Intel Pentium Gold 6500Y processor or a Core i3-10100Y chip.

That’s according to a report from WinFuture, which spotted evidence of the Surface Go 3 in a recent listing on the GeekBench website. Keep in mind that there’s nothing at GeekBench that uses the name “Microsoft Surface,” but WinFuture has a pretty good track record of piecing together the clues, so it seems likely that this is indeed Microsoft’s next entry-level Surface tablet.

Microsoft Surface Go 2

Both the Pentium Gold 6500Y and Core i3-10100Y chips are 5-watt processors with two cores, four threads, and Intel UHD 615 graphics. They’re the latest additions to Intel’s Amber Lake-Y lineup, having quietly been added to Intel’s product list earlier this year. But so far I’m not aware of any commercial devices available with either product.

While these chips don’t offer the same level of performance as a typical intel Core processor, they’re also likely a step up from the Intel Atom-based Celeron or Pentium Silver processors with similar TDPs, despite the fact that these Amber Lake-Y chips are still manufactured using a 14nm process while the latest Intel Jasper Lake chips are 10nm processors.

Here’s a comparison of the two chips that will power the Surface Go 3

Pentium Gold 6500YCore i3-10100Y
TDP5W5W
Cores / Threads2 / 42 / 4
Base / Boost Freq1.1 GHz / 3.4 GHz1.3 GHz / 3.9 GHz
GPU Base / Boost Freq300 MHz / 900 MHz300 MHz / 1 GHz
GPU Execution Units2324

Both processors can also be configured to run at power levels as low as 3.5 watts or as high as 7 watts, and both support LPDDR3-1866 or DDR3L-1600 memory.

Theoretically either chip can work in systems with as much as 16GB of RAM, but according to the GeekBench listing, the Pentium-powered Surface Go 3 will have 4GB of RAM while the Core i3 model will have 8GB. It’s possible other configurations will be available, or that specs could change before the tablet is released to the public.

GeekBench tends to be a source of leaks like this because device makers often test pre-production hardware before it’s released… but sometimes it can be a source of inaccurate leaks precisely because people are testing pre-release devices rather than finished products.

So it’s also possible that we’re looking at test results for a device that may never see the light of day.

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23 replies on “Microsoft Surface Go 3 specs leaked (maybe)”

  1. I only care about the higher CPU model of the Go.

    The 10100Y doesn’t seem like much of an upgrade for a Go 3. Maybe this is a Go 2+ or the “Go 2 Intel stopped selling the previous CPUs” model.

  2. All that matters to me is how good the base-price version will be.

    I’ve come to learn to be much less excited about the upgraded tiers of a Surface product. All Surface products are priced ridiculously above the base model.

    This product will start at $399 most likely, and then the prices will jump $500/600/800/900 for more RAM and storage, and the i3 upgrade.

  3. If true, Surface Go 3’s performance jump is basically confirmed to be minimal at best it seems. The Surface Go 2 at least brought a nice jump in performance thanks to the M3 tier. These have mildly improved boost clocks for the M3 and a still underwhelming Pentium base model. It seems the Surface Go 4 will be the actual one to look forward to since that will be guaranteed be finally off of the tired and boring Skylake treadmill and on a peppier modern microarchitecture. Maybe Alder Lake (or better) by then? One can hope!

    1. Correction: The Pentium model is the one getting most attention with the M3 being more ho-hum. Reiterating my comments to Reis, the Go 2 was a far greater jump than this. Only if you can get by with 4GB of RAM should you consider the Pentium model, which is the one that is finally getting the serious attention it has long needed in CPU performance. What happened here is the Core m3-8100Y has been rebranded as the Pentium® Gold 6500Y. If you check Intel ARK, the clock speeds are EXACTLY the same between those two. Meanwhile, a higher clocking 10th Gen i3-10100Y, that is looking like it will be ~10% faster than the Go 2’s M3-8100Y, is now taking the top spot as the Go 3’s higher end model. This is like the Surface Pro 5 was to the Pro 4: the most minimal of performance improvements. I wager we will finally get something more worthwhile than a Skylake derivative with the Go 4.

  4. Isn’t the Surface Go 2 already using an Amber Lake CPU? Doesn’t seem like much of an improvement even if Intel makes a new SKU.

    1. Maybe Intel isn’t making the old CPUs that are in the Go 2 anymore and MS is testing these ones. More of a chip shortage thing?

      1. Could be. Both small and big companies have been caught swapping components with/without notice during this chip shortage. The 8100Y was already pretty old when the Go 2 was released.

    2. They are rebranding the last gen’s CPU as a Pentium and introducing a new i3 model with maybe 10% better performance. So on the one hand, they are now fixing the Go’s Achilles’ heel of performance. On the other, though, the base model’s memory size of 4GB is now the major sticking point.

  5. Jasper lake pentium are better than 7th gen core i7 7500u. I won’t be surprised if these soc failed to reach pentium N6000 perfomance level.

    1. Core i7-7500U gets much better single-core performance though, as do Core m3-8100Y and Core i3-10110Y Amber Lake chips.

      Based on the model numbers, I’d expect the new chips to fall just below the 10110Y, but since it’s newer and has a higher base clock, it might actually be faster. Then again, it’s a 5W chip instead of 7W, so who knows?

    1. I don’t tend to report the benchmark scores for leaked/pre-release hardware because I don’t know how accurate/relevant they will be. But you can always click the link to Geekbench to find out.

  7. I really hope this is wrong, if not what a joke. Surface go specs (and to a degree surface specs in general) have always disappointed but I think this might be a new low.

    They have jasper lake available and they choose the old 14nm stuff? DDR3 in 2021 or worse 2022? Couldn’t they get a SoC from AMD like the steamdeck scaled down to the tablet power? Or go ARM, isn’t windows 11 supposed to be better with it with 64bit emulation finally coming?

    Seriously, i hope this is wrong, it will make no sense to bring it to market otherwise

  8. Cool. I’ve been thinking of upgrading my Surface Go 1 LTE. I wonder when the Go 3 LTE will come out. Might wait for it or just get the Go 2 LTE.

    1. If these rumors are true, save you money and just get a clearanced Go 2. The Go 2 was a far greater jump than this. Only if you can get by with 4GB of RAM should you consider the Pentium model, which is the one that is finally getting the serious attention it has long needed in CPU performance. What happened here is the Pentium m3-8100Y has been rebranded as the Pentium® Gold 6500Y. If you check Intel ARK, the clock speeds are EXACTLY the same between those two. Meanwhile, a higher clocking 10th Gen i3-10100Y, that is looking like it will be ~10% faster than the Go 2’s M3-8100Y, is now taking the top spot as the Go 3’s higher end model. This is like the Surface Pro 5 was to the Pro 4: the most minimal of performance improvements. I wager we will finally get something more worthwhile than a Skylake derivative with the Go 4.

  9. Would there be a noticeable real-world performance difference between the higher end Surface Go 2 and this one with the Core i3-10100Y?

    1. Very much doubtfull, they’re basically the same cpu with some slight improvements (slightly lower power and higher clock speeds)

      You can see them side by side on ark ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/compare.html?productIds=185282,213356

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