I didn't know where else to put this, so since the Surface is a MS product and will undoubtedly see plenty of Microsoft Studios games, this seems about right.

I'm waiting until the Surface Pro comes out as it is the perfect replacement for this hefty laptop I have. It's many times more powerful and many times smaller and more portable, plus it looks stunning and from the videos it's buttery smooth.

My only question really is it's power in the gaming section. I'm obviously not going to use it to play something like Guild Wars 2 or The Witcher 2, but I'm talking about older games - until what era of games do you think the Surface can handle?

In case you don't know the specs, the Surface has an Intel Ivy Bridge i5 with Intel HD Graphics 4000, 4GB RAM. I have no experience with any of the i5 processors nor Ivy Bridge nor the newest Intle HD Graphics. The computer I have has a very old Intel HD integrated card, but I've heard that the newer ones, especially the sandy bridge ones, are quite potent. Can anyone give me an idea about the types of games this beast will be able to run?

EDIT: Just to reiterate, I'm not going to be using this solely as a gaming machine - I'm a student who will find the Surface completely useful in every aspect of what I am doing, but gaming of course is always fun on the side.

Intel HD 4000 is very capable of playing new games and high fidelity games. I can play starcraft 2 perfectly fine on an core i5 processor (Sandy Bridge). You can play most games on the new Intel integrated graphics solutions. The issue comes with the resolution of the screen. You didn't mention the resolution of the Surface Pro. But, like I said even the games you mention should be able to run ok at low or medium settings at a reasonable resolution. So, you can expect a lot if that was your main question.

As a side note I am quite impressed by Intel's solution. A few years ago any integrated graphics solution would have been scoffed at for lack of performance.

It is defiantly worth your time to check out game performance benchmarks on Intel integrated graphics. Just do a quick search on that and that will give you the potential.

I'd take a guess and say indie games will thrive in the Surface Pro whilst some bigger budget titles will be dependant on the specs a bit more. I personally wouldn't mind going down to 720p for some games especially on a smaller form-factor like a tablet, however I personally want to retain 1080p resolution for the Surface Pro whenever possible. I feel this will strangely be an awesome device for stuff like point'n'click adventure games, RTS games and turn-based games like Dungeons of Dredmor.

Like you I can't wait for the Surface Pro.

@rickyyo: The resolution for the Surface Pro is actually "full" HD 1920x1080. The RT, the one coming out on Friday, has a lower resolution. Wow, that's really great to hear what you're saying about the new intel HD cards. I'm even more pumped now!