Hi, sorry as I’m sure there are hundreds of similar topics around this, but I’m a bit of a novice on PC specifications.
I’m looking at getting a new laptop for work/home but I’ll also use it for Zwift if it can do better than a 5 year old ipad (which I guess it will!)
I’m looking at a machine with specs as:
3840 x 2400 resolution
Intel® Core™ i7 11390H (11th Generation)
NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3050 (4 GB)
16GB RAM
Will that be happy at 1440? Could it even do 4k, as it has the horizontal pixels but not vertical?
If it will struggle at higher resolutions, I think I’ll probably go for a more standard laptop with 1080p as I don’t think I’ll get any other benefit from the higher res screen
On a side note, can anyone tell me the naming convention of GeForce? I’ve got no idea how a 3050 compares to 1060 - is 30xx the series and xx50 the position in that series? Are older xx60s better than newer xx50s?
Can’t speak to any of the graphics spec above and their effect on Zwift, but you didn’t mention SSD disk, has no effect on graphics but huge effect on Zwift general operation. Almost a must.
I’d like to hope that a laptop of that spec wouldn’t be shipped with a mechanical disc but you just never know. Moving to an SSD revolutionised my setup.
yeah it has SSD. Only 512GB but that will be fine for my use.
I’m still trying to justify the extra cost of this vs one that will be good at 1080p. The reality is, once I get a sweat on, my glasses come off and the resolution doesn’t really matter too much!!! I’m just a bit bored of having a laptop that gets pretty weak after a few years and I’m hoping spending a bit more money will delay that, but maybe that’s a chat for another forum
The difference in graphics profile should also be considered. Zwift assigns either basic, high, or ultra profile based on the GPU. Your ipad is probably getting the basic profile with low detail and less shadows, etc… the laptop with a 3050 will get you the ultra profile with the highest detail regardless of 4k or not. It will look completely different than what you are used to.
These answers are spot on, the 3050 will run the ultra profile, which is capable of 4k if the screen you’re using supports it.
The one thing I wanted to add here is about the Nvidia GeForce naming conventions.
The first 2 numbers on the designation are the series number, the bigger the number the newer the series. so 10xx is the earliest series in this production line, and as I recall the 40xx series is slated to come out later this year.
the second two numbers refer to the production model, again the higher the number the better the model, these start at xx50 and go to xx90. so currently the 3090 is the highest available production model.
The GT, GTS, GTX, RTX refers to different performance levels. GT being the lowest performance followed by GTS, GTX, and finally RTX. the biggest difference between GTX and RTX is that the RTX has realtime ray-tracing capabilities for lighting effects, and the GTX model doesn’t.
To the best of my knowledge Zwift doesnt have ray-tracing support, so if this computer is being used for Zwift and not other games, feel free to save the money and get one of the GTS or GTX models, they both will perform wonderfully for Zwift.
This is a very general breakdown, but I hope it helps.
That should run it fine, it’s more than powerful enough for running 4K.
For the screen you may be better connecting it to a bigger external screen like a 4K TV. SSDs help with the general performance of the OS and applications.
I added search to https://zwiftalizer.com a few days ago to help answer this type of question. Type the CPU and GPU model into the search text box or form a URL like this: