Every time I launch a ride/route on Makuri Island the blue screen pixelates whilst loading. Once loaded I am able to ride the routes but all other information such as power, cadence, heart rate, time, distance, other zwifters etc. is all pixelated, apart from the rider nationality flags. I am running Windows 10 on a laptop less than 12 months old. All other routes work absolutely fine, this only happens to those on Makuri Island. Any advice or tips gratefully received.
Most likely a driver issue, has it always done this or a recent thing?
What version of drivers are you using?
Hi Stuart, when Makuri Island first launched it ran ok for the first couple of times, but then started to do it. With a mixture of outdoor riding and fracturing my hip I didn’t have much cause to use Zwift for the last 6 months so it is only now that it is becoming an issue. I’ve just checked my laptop and the driver is a Standard SATA AHCI Controller, Driver Date: 21/06/2006, Diver Version: 10.0.19041.1288. Not really sure what any of that means, sorry.
That’s the driver for your hard drive. We need to check the graphics (display adapter) driver.
Apologies, computers aren’t really my thing. Ive looked under Display Adaptors on my laptop and it lists AMD Radeon™ Vega 6 Graphics.
Now we’re in the right area. What version of driver does it have for that?
It’s under Display Adapters.
It looks to me that’s there’s a newer driver version from March 21.
Run Windows update to see if it finds it. If not go to the AMD website and manually download it and install it.
I suspect that this is your problem - Gibberish / incomprehensible text - even worse after update
It’s an AMD Ryzen CPU, right?
Do try the latest drivers though, as Stuart said.
Thanks Stuart and Steve, that’s much appreciated. I’ll give it a try and let you know how I get on.
It looks like it’s to do with the RAM. I have been advised that Makuri Island requires 8GB and I only have 4GB on my laptop. I downloaded a newer graphics driver, but that didn’t cure the problem. As part of the online verification process the guy on the online help desk was able to do a quick check and advised that I do t have enough RAM for all the additional graphics on Mankuri Island. I’ve ordered an extra 4GB and we’ll see if that works when it gets here. Thanks again for your help on this.
I’m not conceived Jon if I’m honest. @Dave_ZPCMR will give more comprehensive diagnosis I’m sure but I don’t think the increase in RAM is going to affect a display issue like this.
I’d like to be wrong.
Makuri is very intensive on graphics, even setups with some serious graphical power will suffer in Makuri with a drop in frame rate.
4 GB certainly doesn’t sound like a lot of RAM considering that your integrated Vega graphics will use some of that RAM (discrete graphics cards have their own dedicated VRAM).
So with somewhere graphics-intensive like Makuri, I can imagine it being a problem.
Dave will also have a view on this, I’m sure.
There are two very good reasons to upgrade your laptop to 8GB by adding a second stick;
- Zwift produces low quality textures with any less than 6GB of system RAM.
- Having RAM in dual channel (i.e. more than one stick) dramatically improves performance on integrated graphics, particularly Ryzen APUs like the OP has.
Hopefully it’s possible and straightforward. It’s quite common for laptops to have 4GB soldered onto the motherboard and a free slot to supplement it. Got to get to it, if so.
All that said, I highly doubt it alone will resolve this issue which seems to be corruption of data rather than anything performance-related. Same as that other thread Steve linked to. So whilst I’d strongly consider upgrading the RAM for the reasons above, you should also check the RAM itself is okay by running the memory diagnostic test. Reinstall the game using the proper method. If it’s still the same, consider clean installing Windows 10 to rule out all software issues. Beyond that, it may be hardware…
PS: be interesting to know if it’s the same in full screen mode, rather than windowed.
I thought that Dave, seems to be more evidence of performance differences between the two modes.
Already knew this was horseplop, but just to confirm… I’m currently watching a group event on Makuri, using integrated graphics (i3-4160) and 4GB of system RAM. It’s working fine, aside from looking turd of course. Totally as expected.
8GB is better for the reasons set out above, but I really wish they wouldn’t give out rank bad information like this, which may prompt people to go out and spend money they don’t actually need to, when it’s not the cause of the issue at all.
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Thanks for all of the advice. I’ve upgraded the graphics drive and have and additional 4GB on order (there’s an empty slot next to the existing 4GB). Once installed I’ll see how it performs and then run through the other suggestions. I’ll update once done. Thanks again for all of the helpful suggestions.
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