Time for a dedicated Zwift box?

Nice! An RTX 2060 is way overpowered (aside from a very few select places, like the Watopia jungle) when it comes to Zwift though; like you say the graphics are way behind modern ‘proper’ games. :wink: I’m afraid to say that you’ll find that in a group ride or busy race your group ride will tank unless it’s a very fast i5 you’ve got, because the 2060 will be bottlenecked. That’s just how Zwift works unfortunately.

In that scenario, it’s the i5 that’s bottlenecked rather than the 2060 though, right?

The CPU is the bottleneck, the GPU is bottlenecked. :+1:

LOL. I say pahtaytoe and you say poetahtoe…

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Surely the CPU is bottlenecked through having too much work to process, and the GPU is partially idle?

Personally I would never describe the GPU as being bottlenecked in that scenario.

Pedantry, eh?

Haha, yeah. I consider the CPU to be holding back the GPU, and therefore the former is creating the bottleneck. :wink:

PS: it’s not really too much work, given the CPU doesn’t get maxed out and never uses much more than one core/thread.

a lot less than a gaming pc right now thats for sure XD

If you’re talking modern components, in a brand new off the shelf PC then yes. Fortunately none of which is needed to run Zwift in 4K. :slight_smile:

It’s an i5-10400F , 2.9 to 4.3 GHz CPU which hopefully will be sufficient for the Zwift single core only usage…
I prefer to ride solo anyway, so no big issue for me :slight_smile:

Hi Bruce,

My understanding is that Zwift’s hardware team is designing a Zwift bike (and a Zwift rower) and that their reason for this is so people can more easily “buy Zwift in a box” in a similar way to how they can “buy a Peloton bike”.

A lot of people seem to assume this bike will be like other smart bikes which don’t have computers or a screen as part of it, but I think it’s totally possible Zwift’s new bike will feature all the hardware and screen you need. So I think Zwift is kind of trying to do what you’re asking - a dedicated Zwift box - just maybe without the lower price point because it’ll have a bike and screen attached to it.

Perhaps, but I don’t want another bike or a small screen. I’m happy to be set up in the living room in front of the TV, a benefit of not having anyone around to complain :slight_smile:

I wanted a very small box but (relatively) optimal performance, so took a chance on Intel’s “Phantom Canyon” NUC, with i7-1165G7 and RTX2060. My observations:

  1. It works at 4K ultra with satisfactory fan noise (earbuds in though)
  2. Tried 8GB of RAM at first, but frame rates hover at 60fps; when upgraded to 16GB dual channel peaks go up to 90fps (depending on worlds).
  3. The recent worlds are increasingly complex and demanding. Makuri looks beautiful, but frame rates now average less than 60fps.
  4. The just-launched Unreal 5 platform offers such a quantum leap in 3D performance; other options are not even close. But since it accepts full resolution artwork any current worlds are unlikely to be imported – which means all new worlds. I speculate that Makuri was drawn at full resolution, but “watered down” for the current engine.

Phantom Canyon was a great compromise at the time of purchase; but people looking to buy now should reserve performance headroom for more complex future worlds.

Nice PC, you’ve paid a huge premium for the form factor but there’s not really any alternative if it has to be so small. Dropping below 60fps on that hardware is ridiculous though. I’ve moaned about it elsewhere: Game performance on Makuri Islands

PS:

:wink:

I would expect that the cost would be higher than an Apple TV …but far cheaper than a a gaming PC…

I’m hoping the new Steam Deck will be powerful enough for high / ultra graphics for Switch

Integrated graphics, so Medium profile at best unless they make a custom profile for it (which would be fairly unprecedented).

But why would you want to run Zwift on a Steam Deck?