Best MacBook / Laptops for Zwift

bobbydazzla
bobbydazzla Posts: 289
edited January 2017 in Indoor training and turbo forum
What laptops are people using to get smooth graphics in Zwift ?

I'm running Zwift on a 2010 13" MacBook Pro, it does the job but struggles to cope with the graphics when riding in groups, it's slow and jumpy.

I'd considered spending £350ish on a new family laptop that would also run Zwift more effectively, but after doing a bit of research I'm not sure how much improvement it would offer vs my MacBook. And to get a laptop that's specced for very high quality gaming graphics looks like it'd be £800+...

Comments

  • napoleond
    napoleond Posts: 5,992
    I bought a refurbed dell desktop from morgan computers for 100 and put a good 90 quid graphics card in. It's spot on!
    Insta: ATEnduranceCoaching
    ABCC Cycling Coach
  • napoleond
    napoleond Posts: 5,992
    This computer:

    http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/produc ... ows-7-Pro/

    And I got a gtx 750 ti graphics card.

    An alternative would be a refurbed laptop, e.g.

    This is the one I got and I'm pretty sure it will run Zwift really well!

    https://www.scan.co.uk/products/156-hp- ... bt-hdmi-sd
    Insta: ATEnduranceCoaching
    ABCC Cycling Coach
  • bobbydazzla
    bobbydazzla Posts: 289
    Cheers, couple of interesting options there.

    Difficulty is not knowing how much of an improvement a new PC / Mac will be till I've tried it. Zwift reckon that quad processor and GTX970 will give really good graphics, so am trying to find the best value deal for that combination.
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    I'm running on an i3 with GTX960 (which is a desktop) and get 100fps on Ultra settings. So a GTX970 certainly isn't required.

    You could also consider getting an iPad if that would also suit your families requirements.
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    I'm running on an i3 with GTX960 (which is a desktop) and get 100fps on Ultra settings. So a GTX970 certainly isn't required.

    You could also consider getting an iPad if that would also suit your families requirements.
  • bobinski
    bobinski Posts: 570
    I have an alienware Alpha, the original version with an i5 processor and a nvidea 940 and runa at 1080p on ultra settings. I think they are on special now. My boys love it because they get to play Steam games when i am not Zwifting or bkooling.
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    Budget Lenovo.. Zwift running as good as I want it.
  • bobbydazzla
    bobbydazzla Posts: 289
    edited November 2016
    So when people say it runs ok on a lower spec machines, what does "ok" actually mean ?

    On my MacBook the graphics are fine if I'm riding around doing my own thing. But in a group ride the graphics constantly stutter. And when riding through a sharp corner the other riders in the group look like they've been skittled all over the road in random directions. It doesn't stop me taking part in the group rides, but visually it's pretty poor and detracts from the experience.

    When I've watched Youtube videos of people doing group rides on Zwift they don't get any of these effects and visually it's very smooth.
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    If you go to http://zwiftalizer.com/ you can drop in your own log files (Documents/Zwift/Logs) and it'll tell you what FPS you're getting. You can also see a list of what others have added to get an idea of spec vs performance.
  • bobbydazzla
    bobbydazzla Posts: 289
    Cheers, I don't fully understand those Zwiftaliser results but I'll do some research and learn what it all means.

    Is there a way to search the results to look for specific combinations of components ?
  • bobbydazzla
    bobbydazzla Posts: 289
    I just borrowed an i3 desktop that doesn't even have a graphics card and it was great, significantly better than my MacBook Pro. Totally smooth when riding in a group and the background had much more depth.

    I'd be happy with that level of graphics capability.

    And I reckon it must be amazingly crisp and fast with an i7 and top end graphics card...
  • jgsi
    jgsi Posts: 5,062
    You do know its bike racing not Avatar?
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    bobbydazzla wrote:
    I just borrowed an i3 desktop that doesn't even have a graphics card and it was great, significantly better than my MacBook Pro. Totally smooth when riding in a group and the background had much more depth.

    I'd be happy with that level of graphics capability.

    And I reckon it must be amazingly crisp and fast with an i7 and top end graphics card...

    Whack it into www.zwiftalizer.com to see what your framerate was and what graphics level was chosen for you (the graphics detail level is chosen by the program so you can't change that)

    Also you certainly don't need an i7, my desktop has an i3, and my card is a GTX960, I guess that could be describe as mid-range? And I'm getting 80-100fps on ultra settings, so even if I was to upgrade to an i7 with a GTX1080 (or whatever the latest is) my Zwift experience wouldn't improve.
  • bobbydazzla
    bobbydazzla Posts: 289
    Average of 25 FPS on Basic for the desktop I used last night. So technically not that good, but it was a massive improvement versus my MacBook.

    So if I can get find a relatively cheap desktop that will get nearer to 80-100FPS then that'd be excellent.
  • markhewitt1978
    markhewitt1978 Posts: 7,614
    bobbydazzla wrote:
    Average of 25 FPS on Basic for the desktop I used last night. So technically not that good, but it was a massive improvement versus my MacBook. .

    So yeah, just about usable, if you were to get a decent machine you'd notice a massive difference just in the level of detail - Zwift graphics even on ultra settings aren't top notch by modern standards but I think they're quite good.
  • bobbydazzla
    bobbydazzla Posts: 289
    I can get a big discount on a desktop package with i3 and GTX950, plus 24” HD monitor.

    Same combination on Zwiftalizer gets FPS of 82 max / 51 avg on 1440 High, which seems pretty good ?
  • bobbydazzla
    bobbydazzla Posts: 289
    Picked up the new PC and had a go on Zwift, it's brilliant - runs really smoothly and level of detail in the graphics is amazing.

    Thanks for the advice.
  • reusetek
    reusetek Posts: 1
    I have purchased a HP used laptops 6 years old HP Pavilion DV6 with 3 GB RAM, i3 processor and 500GB HDD. Don't know is my laptop compatible for Zwift?
  • frisbee
    frisbee Posts: 691
    reusetek wrote:
    I have purchased a HP used laptops 6 years old HP Pavilion DV6 with 3 GB RAM, i3 processor and 500GB HDD. Don't know is my laptop compatible for Zwift?

    It'll probably run (assuming you have a 64bit operating system) but it'll be pretty terrible. Jerky, especially in groups.

    I run it on a HP DV5 laptop with a Core 2 processor, dedicated graphics and 4 GB RAM.

    My iphone runs it far smoother (but I haven't set it up to display on a bigger screen yet).
  • delv4
    delv4 Posts: 28
    2010 MacBook Pro with AMD Radeon HD 6750M GPU and it works flawlessly for me

    It also runs on my MacBook Air (2013 i think) but the fans really crank up on that so i use the MacBook Pro instead

Categories