I am currently using a 2018 iPad with our Wattbike Atom which works perfectly but I also have an Elite Direto that I want to hook up to a PC. I have read the minimum specifications for running the PC software and have an old Windows Vista machine that I have installed Windows 7 onto and I am wondering whether it will do the job.
The core spec is as follows:
Win7 64Bit
Intel Core Duo 6600 @ 2.4Ghz
2GB Ram (will chuck 2GB more in)
Radeon X1600 512mb
For what it’s worth the WEI is 4.1
I am not at all fussed about running it at HD resolutions with top levels of detail, I just want it to run and be usable on a 21" monitor. A friend reckons that it should be fine so before spending a few more £££s on some extra memory, does anyone else get away with running Zwift with a similar spec PC?
I am aware that future developments may require more power but for now, it seems a shame not to be able to utilise a perfectly good piece of equipment where I can.
I doubt Zwift will run on that PC, but the only way you are going to know for sure is to download Zwift on it and try. You could just try watching a few riders for a short time to start with.
It definitely won’t run with only the 2GB memory, that’s for sure and although it will only cost circa £30 to slap another 2GB in, I didn’t want to do so if the rest of the machine wouldn’t cut it!
The graphics card might be a problem. I’ve got an old Athlon 64 X2, 2gb ram, but put in a second hand radeon R560 4gb, and Zwift runs fine except for group rides with huge numbers of riders.
If you are spending money on a new GPU you might want to get one a little better. A Radeon R7 250 is inexpensive and has 2GB on RAM and should not break the bank (around $50 I think).
I’d give it a try first. I agree with the others though I would put some more ram in there. I have a six year old laptop that is running a similar speed processor (Intel®Core i5-3210M, 2.5GHz) and with a GeForce GT 640M GPU (similar spec to yours after searching the net). It used to run poorly but I swapped the hard drive for an SSD and it now works really well in medium settings. I connect the laptop to a 29 inch TV and it pretty good (I think people sometimes forgot that its not just the computer but the display is important to). It’s surprising what Zwift will run on.
It runs on one of my low spec i3 laptops with a really slow HDD and 3GB memory so I reckon with 2GB extra memory and then going with the GT710, it will be sufficient to make it work without much cost outlay (relative of course to the cost of my turbo and a monthly Zwift subscription!).
Hopefully I’ll have it all up and running for next weekend when I will do another TDZ stage as a test and I’ll update as to how I get on as it might help others.
More RAM and a better video card. How much will that cost? As @Paul_Allen suggests, I would look at an Apple TV 4K. Both the 32GB and 64GB should be less than $200 USD. I went with the 32GB since I am only using it for Zwift. The only possible issue with an Apple TV would be that it is Bluetooth only. There are devices that bridge ANT+ to Bluetooth, but then that becomes additional $$.
For info adding a GT710 now allows Zwift to load up. It happily runs in 720p whilst ‘watching’ and will be perfectly acceptable for what I need. Once the extra 2GB of memory goes in, that should also make it load up a little quicker. It seems that having a robust, stable online connection is perhaps more important than the recommended specs!
It looks a bit odd on a 4:3 monitor but again, it’s only a bit of fun isn’t it?!
And as a final update… with the extra 2GB memory, the GT710 and an SSD (all of which together cost circa £70), I have revived an older unused PC which now runs Zwift absolutely beautifully! And it makes good use of an older monitor I didn’t want to get rid of as it had such a good quality display. It shows that with a little bit of tinkering you don’t need to spend a fortune to get a decent Zwift experience.
It’s a shame my Elite Direto looks like it is just about to die again meaning I won’t be able to make use of it anyway…
