Hi there.
My laptop is overheating when using zwift. This seems to be getting worse and more frequent. I’m pretty sure that it’s not my laptop as its quite new and specs are high (loads of ram, 8 core processor etc.).
I have a 1GB speed fiber optics internet connection, the fastest available so this definitely is not the problem.
Also, I make sure that no other programs are running in the background to reduce processor load.
What’s wrong??
Is zwift so intensive regarding processor power consumption and this causes my laptop to shut down due to overheating??
Can you post the complete specs of your laptop.
Loads of RAM and CPU cores don’t help in Zwift, it only cares about GPU for detail and CPU clock speed when you’re in a busy event.
It stresses a PC in some unfathomable ways. To put it into context, it can highlight instability with ease on a system that appears to pass a variety of well known thermal and stress testing tools such as Prime95 and Aida64.
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- 4th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-4720HQ Processor with Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0
- 43.9cm (17.3”) , Toshiba TruBrite® HD+ TFT High Brightness display with 16 : 9 aspect ratio and LED backlighting
- Hard disk 1 TB
- Smart silver finish with line pattern and glossy black elements, black keyboard
- 8,192 (1x) MB, DDR3L RAM (1,600 MHz)
- AMD Radeon™ R9 M265X Enthusiast Graphics with AMD Enduro™ Technology
- maximum life : up to 4h45min (Mobile Mark™ 2012)
That laptop is not that new, my guess is it is about 5 to 6 years old.
It should be within the recommended requirements for use with Zwift.
What are the graphics settings are you using within Zwift. Try a lower setting and see if that helps.
Laptops have a tendency to overheat more than a desktop so you need to make sure that it has plenty of room to breath (nothing blocking fans/vents).
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Thanks for your reply! The laptop is not quite new indeed. Pretty sure the specs are way above the recommended specs for zwift, although… I’ll check it just to be sure. The requirements may change every few years or so…
I always use lower graphics settings but ill also check this.
And my laptop does overheat more than a few years ago. (e.g. multiple tasks such as gaming etc.).
I was already planning to open up the laptop and see if there may be loads of dust inside, which obviously could also be contributing to overheating…
I also read some posts about other users having more or less similar issues due to updating zwift. In most cases, restarting the laptop seemed to work.
Update: I tried Zwifting today and surprisingly (or not??), my laptop shut down due to overheating at exactly the same time as yesterday??
Anyone any idea if this can be caused by something else?? Isn’t it weird that the same issue occurred at exactly the same time? Even the seconds match! I believe it was 10 mins and 7 seconds or thereabout… #confused
Could it be the automatic screenshot? Try changing the setting to ‘Only My Shots’.
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Sorry - this has nothing to do with Zwift, and everything to do with your laptop.
Laptops are designed to manage their temperature. It appears yours doesn’t do it that well. Whatever program is running is irrelevant (only it being more efficient at exerting high thermal load than others…)
Make sure you have everything updated (Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework Driver, to name one…).
A new laptop might do the trick as well…l 
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Cheers. I have spent a few hours yesterday figuring out what could be wrong and updated a lot of components/drivers/etc. Will hopefully do the trick for now.
I don’t have around 1000 euro laying around for a new laptop, but this was definitely also my first solution!!
Seems like that direct drive trainer is going to have to move to number 2 on my wish list…
By the way, I downloaded the Zwift app on my smartphone. I guess that I can now cast the screen to my smart TV and play zwift via my mobile right?? Haven’t used this before, but it seems like this must be possible.
(if my smartphone doesn’t behave like my laptop that is… 
)
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That is the problem “LAPTOP” you can get a cheap used desktop throw in a GTX970 and you will be a happy Zwifter. You will be surprised how cheap used pc are.
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Or an AppleTV would be a good option.
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Hey mate, I was having the same issue. This is what I found:
I was running my laptop on High performance mode. So essentially the CPU was overheating as it was exceeding the max temp.
Fix: Set power to balanced mode.
Then, Windows menu → settings → power and sleep → additional power settings → balanced mode → change plan settings → changed advanced power settings. scroll down to ‘Processor power management’, click the +. click 'maximum processor state.
You will see this set to 100%. change this to 80-90%. Save. Restart. and you shouldn’t have the issue of overheating, and shutting down.
Hope this helps. This worked for me. I was having the same issue with Zwift and RGT and when rendering videos.
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Cheers! Thanks for the tip! I believed I already tried this one, but I’ll check just to be sure…
I’ve been using zwift on my android phone which does work, but obviously lacks the great experience of a wide screen TV…
(didn’t even bother to use the pc anymore due to the risk of me throwing the pc out of the window!!)
Try cleaning your laptop, the fans etc. After 5-6 years that is going to accumulate a pile of dust and crap inside it that will make it throttle and overheat when under load like that which Zwift generates.
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Thanks! I have opened the laptop and removed some dust.
Although I think it helped, not a major benefit though…
All little things help??
oh damn… hmm… it fixed mine right up. but I had to set processor state to 80%.
But also there were 2 places to change the state to balanced power. 1. in the system tray ( bottom right of your screen) 2. was the in windows settings/power and sleep settings. I had to change both for it to work.
I know what you mean. I have an Ultrawide Monitor. Didn’t want to compromise and use my small phone screen… haha.
Fingers crossed you find the issue. Much easier to read all the metrics on the screen once you do.
Thanks man!
Hi all,
I started using zwift years ago with a MacBook Air 2014 and had the overheating issue right away, I though was because my MBA was too old.
I got the new MacBook Pro 2021 weeks ago which is more powerful ( 10-Core CPU; 16-Core; GPU;16GB Unified Memory; 1TB SSD Storage; apple chip) compared to the MBA, to my surprise, this new MBP overheated too, not as crazy as the MBA but it was hot enough to notice it, couldn’t tell if the fans were running crazy.