Hi all, I’ve been using a basic i5 laptop with intel HD 4400 graphics on zwift for a while now and while ok on medium setting I would like to get a new PC so I can run up to ultra with a good fps. I was looking at a AMD Ryzen 3200 CPU with either a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 or Radeon 580/590 graphics card. I wasn’t sure if the CPU was up to the job or needed to go to a Ryzen 5 CPU. I have read that the CPU isn’t as important but how important is it. I will be looking a a new PC and not an Ebay jobby or self build.
If you want AMD CPU…
The Ryzen 3 3200G is with the (old) ZEN+ Architecture.
The Ryzen 5 3600 is with the newer ZEN2 Architecture. It has a better IPC (Instructions per Core). The only advantage from the Ryzen 3 is the integrated GPU. But you don’t want to use that for a gaming rig (or for Zwift).
Zwift uses OpenGL. Nvidia is better at that (old) language, so a Nvidia GPU is better for Zwift.
I would look for a Ryzen 5 3600 on a B450 Chipset with 8 or 16GB RAM, a 250 or 500GB SSD and a Nvidia GTX1650(Ti) or GTX1660.
That should work.
I think you will find the i5 easily good enough with a 1660 installed to play with ultra setting, I have that card myself.
Theres not a massive difference upgrading to that AMD.
The i5 9400 is also good but is more expansive. It costs here in the EU almost double as the Ryzen 5.
If you want Intel, a i3 9100 should work also, since it’s also a Quadcore.
The i5 is a Hexcore.
Zwift don’t need many cores.
The thing that keeps stopping me from buying a new desktop is how much difference will the Ryzen 3 3200 and Ryzen 3600 be if I am just using the PC for zwift only as long as I get a GTX 1660 card. I thought it was the GPU that gave you the graphics performance and not the CPU so much so both machines would play zwift exactly the same. If I can spend £600 and not £800 that that would be better for me. I won’t be using for anything else other than zwift. It was mentioned to me on another forum that zwift would be fine on a i5 4th gen 3470 CPU so the Ryzen 3 would be better than that wouldn’t it.
Cool thanks for that. Am I right in saying that’s a pretty old CPU and you can still run 4k. Do you get any glitching with that frame rate. Is it nice and smooth.
Cool so I am trying to understand why people are saying getting a CPU you don’t need. Looking at the AMD Ryzen 5 2600 the benchmark on that is quite a step up from your CPU (hope you don’t mind me saying that lol) so why would you buy a PC with a CPU that costs more when you can spend that extra money on the GPU. That makes more sense to me.
No worry’s my CPU is old but I am happy with it, some day I will itch and upgrade…LOL. I got a used MB CPU and Ram on Ebay for $80 added a $120 GPU and now have a nice Zwift PC.
I would spend my money on a GPU rather than CPU. Zwift don’t even use multiprocessor to its full advantage., most of it is don with a single processor.
But again rather stick with Intel and Nvidia Zwift just perform better on these.
I think anything will be an upgrade from my i5 laptop lol. The other thing I need to remember is if I only buy a 1080p monitor then running ultra will be almost irrelevant lol but it’s better to be there in case I do down the line. I just want to have a nice high resolution and shadows along with all the detail. The other thing is I need to check if I buy a Ryzen 5 2600 PC can I upgrade the CPU at a later date because the CPU isn’t expensive at all.
