Upgraded graphics card to RTX2060 Super & no FPS improvement

I have just upgraded my laptop with an external Alienware Graphics Amplifier (AGA) and put a RTX2060 Super 8Gb card in the AGA hoping it would give quite a performance boost from my old GTX1060 6Gb internal GPU in my Alienware 17R5 laptop.

Fired it up full of anticipation and I’ve seen pretty much no improvement. I ran Zwiftalizer to check the external GPU was actually being used, and as the photos show above it is. I’ve updated all the drivers to the 2060 so I’m now scratching in the dirt for answers.

Laptop is Core i7-8750H, 16Gb RAM, and running on M2 drives (both).

Is my projector which maxes out at 60fps holding the whole system back, or am I missing something?

Many thanks in advance for any pearls of wisdom.

Check zwift insider article.

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Your projector is the bottleneck. You’d need to upgrade to a display with a higher refresh rate (e.g 144hz) to go above 60fps

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I’m 99% sure that you have V-sync (or similar different named Nvidia solution) turned on. I’ve better FPS with 1060 3Gb with V-sync turned off. Look for Nvidia Control Panel ->Manage 3D settings-> Program Settings → Zwift.exe (add it manually if it’s not there).

Set the followings to Off:
Max Frame Rate
V-sync

You’ll experience above 100 FPS most likely with that setup, although without V-sync and capped maximum, occasionally you can experience screen tearing.

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Thank you for all your tips and advice.

Just by plugging the laptop and AGA into my AW 24” monitor it jumps straight up to the high 110’s maxing out at 128fps without any config tweaks.

I purchased the projector on the cheap for a more immersive riding experience With the Tacx Neo, it’s a 1080P/60Hz BenQ but it’s only used for Zwift in my gym, nothing else so I don’t want to drop big money on a projector for limited use.

I think Ill send the 2060 Super GPU back and just keep using the onboard 1060GTX as I’m not going to see any tangible benefit for the extra spend on this particular application / set up. Shame as it looks immense on a small monitor! That said, the coil whine on the GPU was unbelievably loud which won’t be missed

Well if it’s pretty much a constant 60fps and not dropping much in large groups then it’s all good :slight_smile:

Somewhat bizarrely I overclocked the CPU tonight and went back to running on the standard GPU on the projector and my framerate has topped the 60fps limit of the projector with the GTX1060? This was running a DVI cable.

Given the 2060 Super couldn’t achieve this makes me wonder if it was because I was using hdmi.

Not a big issue, the results are fine, just not particularly clear cut to understand where it’s worth investing in upgrades.

If your monitor is 60hz, then you want to cap your fps to 60. Use a displayport cable. Enable vsync. Any frame drops will be be due to the single core processor. Even better, use g-dync (adaptive-sync) if your monitor supports it.

A 1060 or similar is all you need from a graphics card. Anything above that is overkill. FPS issues tend to be due to A: Zwift and B: single core processor capability.

Zwift’s graphics engine is aging - it was created to run on the Apple TV fourth gen which was $99 in 2015. You might get better use out of your hardware if you arrange a 4K display, but even then the graphics won’t change (texture quality, shaders), only the resolution. I expect, or hope, for a graphics overhaul after the next Apple TV comes out, which might be this year.