When I bought a 3rd gen Apple TV 4K device last year I remember reading somewhere that Zwift was working on optimisation for the Apple 4K TV. I was pretty excited about this because it only runs the basic graphics profile. However, there has been no news on this since. Does this mean it’s not happening?
Btw… I know for some graphics don’t matter, but it does for me. Unfortunately, I have no interest in gaming outside of Zwift so can’t justify dropping the coin required for a gaming PC setup.
They haven’t shared anything about when this might happen, and I would not read their signals as a commitment at all. A high end gaming machine is not required to run Zwift with the best available graphics, but some kind of dedicated GPU is needed.
Endless posts asking for this but not a hint from Zwift about a graphics update.
When you only ever use ATV for Zwift, the graphics are the graphics so you just get used to it but when you happen to watch something on Youtube (GPLama example) when they’re clearly using a gaming PC, you really notice how naff the ATV graphics are compared
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…because it’s not possible.
Just because it has 4k in the title doesn’t mean it’s capable of presenting Zwift in 4k.
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i’ve no idea exactly what processors/gpu chips apple TVs use but they can only do so much. for what it’s worth i have a pc built specifically for zwift in my shed and it really did not cost much money at all. for the price of an apple tv you can have a good enough PC for 1080p high detail at 60fps probably. the other bonus of that is that a pc will support any other training app or background application you might wanna use too, spotify, discord etc.
I would guess that the Apple Silicon rising tide will eventually lift the Apple TV boat as well since they have the same underlying architecture. As has been said already, the Zwift performance of a specific device, whether TV or Mac, will correspond to how much GPU it brings to the party. Since Apple claims to be going all-in on gaming and AR I would expect to see a future “Gaming TV” product with M2/M3/Mnext performance. Fingers crossed, although my Mac runs Zwift “better” nothing beats the point and click simplicity of the ATV UX. Also, could we get more Bluetooth endpoints? Please?!?!?!? 
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I’m not sure why this would help since Apple TV has always been a native build. I would have more hope for future improvements on an M1/M2 iPad than Apple TV.
AFAIK this limitation comes from Apple, not Zwift
I’m in a similar boat - I really miss the good graphics from using my laptop on Zwift (Ultra 1080p @ 60fps+) with all the graphics - it really does look good.
But the in-hand usage is poor vs my iPAD which is right in front of me - I’m going down the Mac Mini route and hope we now have enough control via the Play controllers to not need to mess with a mouse etc
The Apple Silicon in the new iPADs and iPhones is the same CPU and GPU (barring the number of cores) - so can’t see why they are not using the same graphics as the Macs - and the ATV will probably get M1 treatment next year. Even so the games I’ve played on my ATV look amazing and run fast, so not sure why Zwift can’t either
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He’s talking about the amount of raw power in the CPU/GPU. The Apple Silicon Mx chips are a lot more powerful than the A-series chips currently used in the ATV.
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I would opine that ATV is not at fault for not supporting the glorious user-hostile workout upload hack that consists of “put your ZWO files in a magic folder and cross your fingers.” It’s not really something normal humans should be doing. Luckily, we are clearly not normal around here!
Having a usable-by-mere-mortals “upload your custom workouts” feature in the app is on Zwift. I do think having that plus the banding in club rides would really rock things up over there so here’s hoping it happens someday.
This definitely needs to be improved. A web UI for uploading ZWO files would solve it.
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I add my workouts to the Workout folder on a non gaming PC running Zwift (installed only), run Zwift then close it again…
Workouts will now appear on Apple TV 
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Yes, that is how it works.