I’m interested in the Surface Pro X. It runs “classic” windows apps if they are 32bit and windows apps compiled for Arm processors that are 32 or 64 bit.
Anyone tried it?
Windows 10 ARM-Based PC doesn’t run Zwift. Here is an official Microsoft FAQ covering some of the restrictions with Windows on ARM. Surface Pro X app compatibility - Surface | Microsoft Docs
Thanks - I was afraid of that. I’m familiar with the restrictions of Windows on Arm, I just wasn’t sure if the Zwift installer included a 32 bit option, or if they offered a Arm64 version. That’s a bummer as its the one thing I currently use on my Surface Pro that wont work on Arm. Maybe I’ll just keep the old Surface around as a dedicated Zwift and couch browser machine…
For what it’s worth, there’s now an OpenGL compatibility layer available (at least for my Pro X on an Insider build) which enables up to OpenGL 3.3 support on the Pro X. I can’t link to it but if you search for OpenGL in the Windows Store you should find it.
That doesn’t solve the entire problem yet. Zwift also requires x64 support. But Microsoft has promised x64 emulation coming to Insiders this month. So we’ll see.
(Note, I already have a gaming PC, and a standard Intel laptop in addition to a phone that could also run Zwift. But it’d be nice on occasion to use the Pro X).
Hi @Joe_H3 and @Paul_Allen2, eventually…did you manage to run Zwift on the ProX?? I’m curious because I like it, and otherwise I would use it for Office 365, and I understand that 365 works well on it.
Nope, it still won’t run on the Pro X. Maybe when the x64 emulation comes out though.
Thanks @Joe_H3, indeed maybe with this emulation things will change. I read it was coming in November so it should be already out.
x64 emulation is now in a preview build. However, even with the OpenGL compatibility pack installed, Zwift unfortunately crashes on load.
Thanks @Joe_H3 for the update!!. What a pity!. It would have been great to have this option.
I believe Microsoft should be more active with this. In general I don’t like Apple but it seems, regarding M1 chip, Apple is getting things done much better.
To be fair, this is the first preview build to add any x64 support, it’s still clearly a work in progress on Windows. But yes, Apple hit the ground running whereas Microsoft has been talking about this stuff for longer with less to show for it.
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Microsoft’s new Insider build notes that they’ve fixed issues with Zwift x64 emulation. But I get only as far as loading into the world and then a crash.
Edit: it crashed 3 of the 5 times I’ve tried. the other two I loaded it up for about 5 minutes each time and it didn’t crash, but had godawful performance (like only a few frames per second). I wonder if the world was more crowded when I tried earlier, and the performance was so bad as to cause a crash due to the extra rendering… but then when I tried the 2 most recent times, it was less crowded and worked without crashing?
Really? Do you have a link to this please?
I can’t include links in my posts, but if you search for Insider build 21292, you should find it fairly easily.
But like I said, it’s still unusable in emulation on a Pro X (SQ1, not SQ2 - I wouldn’t expect many differences though). Literally was getting 1-5 frames per second the two times when it didn’t crash. At 576p, using the basic profile.
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Nice one, thanks. Surprised to see it mentioned by name, but pretty cool.
I’d assume that’s likely based on my posts in the MS Feedback Hub about it not working, since it was some of the first x64 app feedback they received in there. But who knows, maybe there’s a bunch of people at Microsoft who want to use Zwift as well. 
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My girlfriend just got the Pro X, and one of the things we were excited about was running Zwift. This incompatibility issue seams crazy - Zwift runs perfectly on the Mac Pro with the new M1.
Any updates on this issues?
Thanks!
Unfortunately, no. I love my Pro X, but the M1 is about 2.5x faster than it.
And that’s just native code. For Zwift you have to take into account that x64 emulation on Windows on ARM is still in very early beta, and you’re also needing to use a beta OpenGL->DirectX layer.
Apple’s Rosetta 2 is in much better shape (and in some ways they were able to customize the hardware to optimize for emulation).
Your best bet is going to be if Zwift is ever ported to be ARM native on Windows, but I doubt the market is there for that.
Zwift Team, PLEASE compile for Windows on Arm!! I would love to use my Pro X for Zwift.
For what it’s worth, I just tested (watch only, I wasn’t riding) on Windows 11 preview build 22000.65 on my Surface Pro X (SQ1). It looks real bad, and it’s got a really low framerate, but it seemed like it’d have been tolerable in a pinch. The peak at the beginning seems to be the menu, filtering that out it’s more accurate to say that the game itself ran from 5-14fps with an average of 9fps.
Any update here? I just downloaded Zwift for the first time onto the Surface Pro X and have been so confused all day what I am doing wrong until I came across this thread.