Time for a dedicated Zwift box?

I just bought the new Apple TV on Friday, hoping that things will change in future…we will have to wait and see…
I was surprised to see on GPLama’s recent Youtube video just how much Apple TV Zwift is missing when run side by side with a Gaming PC, not only in definition, but in important visual elements, shadows, foliage, it only gives 50% at best of the available elements, trees , grass etc… I prefer to run Zwift on my Windows 10 PC mostly these days. It only has a GT-730 GPU, but I have tweaked the system to display all elements at the best it can squeeze out without unacceptable stuttering…
Surely Zwift could sell or promote a dedicated box that could provide an ‘Ultra’ profile experience with a cost way below that of a Gaming PC? Shouldn’t the aim be to provide the best experience for as many subscribers as possible?

Obtaining Ultra profile doesn’t cost much. The spend only ramps up if you want 4K resolution at a solid 60fps or more, due to the current GPU supply situation. Group ride performance is determined by CPU.

1 Like

I consider 4K at a constant minimum of 60fps at all times to be the ‘Ultra’ experience…
Anything less is unacceptable. I’m set up in front of a 65" 4K TV, and I notice the difference…
.

At all times requires a 5000 series Ryzen CPU or 9900K.

I actually agree with this. Before hardware, zwift should have worked on this. A cheap, available to all standard player dedicated to zwift. I’m sure loads of people would stump up $150 to have s great experience. As zwift would own the build it would be easy to upgrade. The no. 1 thing on Zwifts list should be ease of access and best experience for the maximum no of people. Having loads of different formats of the game and people using low end to top end devices is slowing develpment, impacting user experience and undoubtedly causing zwift hassle in the number of customer service support tickets and negative user experience. There is no way I would stump up thousands of dollars for a piece of zwift hardware when they can’t even get their core product to work consistently for users.

Id happily pay a couple of hundred dollars for an experience with no connectivity issues, excellent graphics and a good ride experience.

4 Likes

Exactly! Well stated.

1 Like

If Zwift would be running on a Sony Playstation i would buy it immediately. But hey, Zwift is not run by sensible people.

5 Likes

Yes, Dave…, but you missed the point. We can go on endlessly talking about the best workarounds and hardware $, but more effort is required from Zwift to help to “provide the best experience for as many subscribers as possible” at a reasonable cost…

1 Like

The closest thing to what you want is Apple TV. If you want better graphics then the hardware demands, complexity and cost all increase accordingly. Your expectations seem completely unreasonable.

2 Likes

Remind me how much a PlayStation costs.

2 Likes

I wouldn’t hesitate to buy a Playstation just for Zwift. It’s more expensive than an Apple TV but it gives us perfect graphics and costs a lot less than a dedicated PC or iMac. Good middle ground and would perhaps persuade some hemorrhoids breeding gamers to get off their lazy asses. Although, some call Zwift a ‘game’…

Nope, it doesn’t.

2 Likes

Yes it is. A playstation 5 costs 499€ and a decent graphics card only will set you back at least a grand.

1 Like

Not sure what you’re classing as decent but that tier of graphics card isn’t anywhere close to necessary to max out Zwift.

1 Like

The GPU from PS5 is nowhere near what a decent GPU can perform.
It’s basically a better Office-GPU. The games are optimized for that.

You can get a used (but still good) gaming PC with a i5-4xxx, 8GB, GTX960/970 for about 150$.

Rather than a creating a hardware device I would imagine (or hope) Zwift are exploring running the game remotely and streaming to a local device much like Xbox remote play.

1 Like

Awesome idea. It’s platform independent as well.

Sure, but for that Zwift would have to reprogram the whole thing with a modern engine.
The old OpenGL based engine would not work very efficient on any server.

1 Like

Sure does. Assuming you want more than an entry level ‘box-store’ PC (as per graphics cards/4K etc.), it will set you back much more than a Playstation.

This would be really smart imo. Users with gaming consoles (whether PS or Xbox) could just download Zwift through their respective stores and ‘boom’, more users.