I just purchased a new Microsoft Copilot Surface Pro with an OLED screen last night. It’s super-nice bordering on decadent compared to the old Windows computer I was using. Everything is up and running fine and I did a ride today. The colors on the tablet are perfectly fine with other applications, and the colors in the Zwift homescreens look great, but the colors in the Zwift worlds are extreme! It’s like I’ve been transported into a pastel world, with pastel pinks and and purples and powder blues, etc… The rocks on the mountains, helmets, and bicycles in particular are the most nauseating, but it’s all way, way off. After looking at the screen for even a few minutes, my eyes/brain become very unhappy. I attempted to adjust color settings on the tablet, but no luck. I couldn’t really find any major color setting choices within the Zwift settings. I uninstalled/reinstalled Zwift, but no luck. Has anyone experienced this and have a solution?
TL;DR You’re probably slightly fortunate it runs at all on an ARM64 processor. You’re running Zwift under x86_64 emulation right now, expect some things to not be quite right, but also expect it to get better, though it could take a while.
This is reminiscent of when the M1 Macs were launched. We waited a good while for ‘official’ support for that, and it ran under Rosetta until a native ARM version of Zwift was finally launched (22 months after Apple Silicon Macs first shipped).
What you really need is for a Zwift-provided ARM64 version of the app for Win11.
From the Zwift support article:
PCs using 64-bit ARM processors, like the Microsoft Surface Pro X—are not supported at this time
If you’re running it in full screen mode, also test in windowed mode and see if there’s a difference.
Thank you for this information! I’ve never been good at reading instructions, so I must admit that I didn’t even think to research this compatibility thing before buying the tablet. Oh, well, it’s still a cool little tablet. I guess I’ll use my Apple MacBook for the foreseeable future…
Has anyone run zwift on surface pro with a snapdragon processor?
I often use an old i5 CPU Surface Pro 4, other times I use my old Xiaomi Mi A2 (great ANT+) mobile and rarely my zippy Poco F3 mobile.
Bad idea. Not supported on ARM CPUs, runs poorly in emulation.
Do you know anything about app updates and compatibility with new devices?
All I know is that Zwift have not shared any information about whether they will support Windows on ARM or when that might happen.
I have heard that Microsoft is testing enhancements to their emulator so that might result in an improved experience. I doubt it will be a great platform for Zwift but it might become usable.
Hi @Krzysztof_Kempinski welcome to Zwift forums.
Shuji at Zwift HQ here. We do not support PC’s that run on ARM chips. Please see this article for devices we do support.
Will zwift work with these processors in the future?
I have a new Microsoft Surface Pro 11 on which I am trying to run Zwift. The Zwift program crashes routinely and prior to crashing there is a lot of video flashing indicating that it is not rendering quickly enough. I have come to understand that this is because the Surface Pro 11 has an ARM processor on which Zwift is not designed to run. Is Zwift developing an ARM processor version of the program? I don’t think that I can return my Surface Pro because of Zwift’s limitation. Thanks for your reply.
As a followup, Apple hardware uses ARM processors, so there should be familiarity at Zwift with programming for them, even if working through Windows 11 is quite different than Mac OS.
You’re correct that Zwift isn’t supported on ARM-based Windows systems. There’s been no news on any change to that I’m afraid.
I experience the same problem. Unfortunately, Zwift could not give me a timeline when they anticipate to run smoothly on the Microsoft Surface Pro 11. Even more disappointing, they’re not giving any options on how to pause my annual subscription. I like the platform a lot before but now started using mywhoosh which is very convenient from the training programs and workouts and free to use!
Agree, when will zwift support surface pro 11 on ARM gpu? I find it works ok on some routes albeit with slightly darker look (watopia), but routinely crashes on richmond. Looking forward to news on this enhancement, rgds
It seems odd that I can run Zwift smoothly on a 6 year-old midrange laptop but not on my new Surface Pro with greater processing and video quality in every respect. Also, Zwift has supported Apple devices which are also built around ARM64 processors as I understand it. For now, I am satisfied using an old laptop, even though I keep poking the screen expecting it to be a touch screen…hahaha. Also, I really like Zwift but if other platform are supporting ARM64 processors and Zwift is not, and Zwift is the most expensive system, they stand to lose considerable customer base.
It’s not as simple as that. Zwift code isn’t dealing with raw ARM instructions, it’s working at a higher level than that. So I’m afraid that Zwift’s support for Apple Silicon at the native level doesn’t really help them to run the game on a Surface with an ARM processor. It would still involve them porting code across and then the associated testing and ongoing support.
I’m not saying they can’t do it, just that they need to decide if/when the effort is worthwhile for them. As the number of Windows ARM systems grow, it may become a more attractive option for Zwift.
Yes and i encounter problems. The system screen shows a kind of flashlights in the route i am riding and eventually it crashes.
Hi i am using a surface pro 11th ed with Snapdragon(R) X 12-core X1E80100 @ 3.40 GHz 3.42 GHz and 32,0 GB. Running on widows 11 pro with the latest updates.
I encounter numerous problems with the app. When its running, after already a couple of minutes: i get continuous a kind of flash lights in buildings and surroudings of the road i am cycling. Eventually the app stops working. I need to use the task manager to kill the app. really annoying. Not possible to ride like this…
What could be the problem?
For now you need to find something else to run the game on if you want to use Zwift (assuming your Surface has an ARM CPU)