Hi, bit of background. Trying to get back into Zwift after a while away, new year health kick etc. Set up is a dedicated PC in my garage connected to a HD telly. I had a an ancient eBay purchase that ended up being so slow that contributed to me not bothering and cancelling my sub. Vaguely tech savvy and can Google with the best of them but by no means au fait with full blown tech speak it seems to be required to get best out of a PC to run Zwift.
Took said PC to a local IT shop who basically advised to chuck and got a basic refurb from them. Zwift now loads pretty quickly but lag and âglitchinessâ is awful, even on lowest resolution. An evenings googling (of articles Iâm able to understand) hasnât helped much, but tried 2 basics I understood, turned off video screenshots and increased the zwift.exe priority to âabove normalâ, with no discernable difference.
Reading what I can understand on the âUltimate Guideâ on ZwiftInsider, I get the CPU is generally the limiting factor for performance, Iâm just wondering whether a semi decent graphics card would be worthwhile given other specs:
I5 8500 3ghz
256gb SSD
8gb RAM
Windows 11
Geforce 210 (which I gather is basic, bottom rung, dross!)
Aside from the GPU, the PC specs are more than enough to run Zwift. I canât say if there are other issues with the system but those specs are OK if you swap out the GPU.
WiFi is grand, when I first got the tower home it was inside in the warmth while I updated/set it up for the first time and it was just as bad. Garage is adjacent to the house so physically only a few metres from the router. Iâm not after breaking the bank or super performance, just some semblance of smoothness would be nice! Will see what I can find used. Would a cheap 600 or 700 series GTX with 2gb suffice or may as well do some digging to get a later model?
Network performance wonât affect frame rates. When I query zwiftalizer.com history of performance with that GPU, itâs really bad, and it gets the Basic graphics profile in Zwift.
Your GPU choices will be governed by the power supply in the PC and the format of the case. If itâs a typical mini-tower with no major space restrictions, I would pick a 1050 Ti as the lowest spec worth buying, with Ultra graphics profile in Zwift and low power requirements. If the PSU doesnât have connectors to power a GPU then you can shop for a 1050 Ti that doesnât require external power. A GTX 780 is a stronger GPU but requires external power, and a lot more power. A GTX 770 is pretty close to the 1050 Ti in terms of performance and also gets Ultra profile but again requires much more power. Below the 770 you lose the Ultra graphics profile, so unless a 1050 Ti is beyond your budget I would look at that as the minimum worth getting.
Youâre right, the processor is not that limiting a factor. Upgrade the GPU (but you may also need a bigger power supply). From Ebay I bought an i3 9th gen based office tower system for ÂŁ140 and added a GeForce GTX 1060 which I got on Ebay for ÂŁ40. This system happened to come with an upgraded power unit with the right connectors for the better GPU though. I get 60FPS, Ultra Profile and connect to an old 42in HD Sony TV. It looks great.
Reverting to integrated graphics has sorted me out to be getting on with, to at least renew my sub! If I get back into things properly, Iâll shop around for a 1050 ti, canât see any extra cables free from the PSU for external power.