Zwift Boot Time on Win11

General Discussion
1

Coming back to zwift after summer outdoor riding. After most recent zwift update, I noticed it takes a crazy amount of time for zwift to boot. I have a wired, dedicated PC with GPU running Win11 on a very fast and reliable internet connection. All drivers and s/w completely up to date.

I noticed that it takes about 3 to 4 minutes to boot from the sign-in splash screen to home page. Sign-in and pairing happens automatically and quite fast. Time between signed-in and pairing screen as well as time after pairing to loading home page is ridiculously long. Once in-game I have no issues and always running at or near 60fps.

Wondering if others are experiencing this and what should I expect for a typical boot time on a PC Win11 with loads of RAM, fast reliable network, and dedicated GPU.

2

Not quite sure which part of the process you’re referring to, but Let’s Go to pairing screen should be no more than 40secs. It’s typically 25-35secs. Pairing takes 5secs or so and you should be at the home screen.

3

Just timed it on my system, a quasi-gaming laptop with dedicated GPU and SSD.

40 seconds flat from clicking “Let’s Go” on the Launcher screen to arrival at the pairing screen.

Are you running a spinning hard drive or solid-state-drive?

4

I just timed Let’s Go to Pairing, and yes, it took around 40 seconds. As mentioned pairing happens extremely fast. This morning total time from zwift cold start to Home Screen took 2.5 minutes.

Does it take longer to boot during times of high usage, ie, high number of zwifters currently in-game? Yesterday’s long boot time could have been an anomaly but it sure pressed my patience.

Thanks for responding.

5

Nope, SSD.

6

No, makes no difference. So you mean in between pairing screen to seeing the home screen takes minutes? That’s very odd, it should be near instant.

Do you have any cloud sync software installed, like OneDrive?

7

Click on start menu to ready to ride: 30 seconds on Win 11 updated, HP30L, RTX3070, Tacx Neo, Wahoo TickR Fit, Fiber 50 up & down.

8

Turns out my Nvidia driver and physics package were out of date. I made the mistake of relying on Windows Device Manager to update driver. When I went to Nvidia’s website I discovered that an update was available. Installed Nvidia’s Geforce Experience s/w which now will auto update and allows me better management of software.

Boot time now at 45 seconds. So problem solved. Thanks for the help,

9

I wouldn’t bet my life on it, but doesn’t the first launch of Zwift after an update take a while longer on PC? It certainly does on my mobiles, not so bad on my new Poco F3, but an age (minutes) on my old Mi A2.

10

Profile - Steve_Clowes - Zwift Forums Hmm. If true this certainly could have contributed to my problem yesterday.

1 Like
11

Reinstalling the driver has clearly helped solve your problem, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using the stock driver from Windows Update. GeForce Experience is unnecessary bloatware. PhysX isn’t required for Zwift, it’s not used.

Anyway glad you’re sorted. Chances are you just needed to clear the Nvcache.

12

Other way around on PC. After a new install/update it tends to start more quickly than usual. Same as repeated starts with the PC already on.

13

Good to know. I noticed that GeForce Experience is not compatible with zwift anyway. Will most likely remove the s/w. Thanks for the info.

14

Also good to know. Will pay more attention to boot times with future updates. Thanks.

15

You should be able to use the overlay features etc, but if you mean it doesn’t formally recognise Zwift as a game - that’s not unusual. It doesn’t do any harm, it’s just not required. Being on the latest driver makes no difference whatsoever for Zwift. :+1:

16

You should temporary stop the OnDrive synch. Perhaps it boots a little bit faster.

17

Thanks Tom. I believe I have this disabled but will check.