I thought Shane Millar / GPLama was running alienware alpha’s for his setups (a little while ago). I’d buy a used alienware alpha for around $250-350 delivered from eBay if I wanted better Zwift than my appletv does or to have TR on a desktop rather than the phone.
I see that I’m out of date. This could be better, but twice the price
MSI Trident.
What resolution/framerate etc do you get on Zwift with the M1?
@IvyAudrain thanks. Question was about whether TR has been optimized for the new M1 chips from Apple.
Not optimized for M1. In another thread this past week it was stated that TR is compiled for Intel only.
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Roger, thanks.
I don’t think something like this will work well for zwift, but there are usually all kinds of off-lease small form factor business computers that will do well for TR + streaming. Something like the below for $230.
I bought something similar a couple of years ago and it has been great for TR + streaming with 2 monitors. It can run zwift, but I only did that a little and graphics were OK. I have no idea if the specific model below is in the ‘sweet spot’ of price/performance, but there are a variety of models from several manufacturers in this space. Adding a GPU may not be possible in many of these, so you may not be able to upgrade the graphics on them. I don’t think any of these types of machines will come with discreet graphics, but I have not looked at that.
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1440p Resolution - High Graphics profile (this is designated by Zwift… it’s not the Ultra profile but damn good). 60fps while running TR at the same time 
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Comprehensive comparison table
The blog seems to be inactive since Dec 2019.
I’ve just bought an ex-office pc with a gpx 1050 ti graphics card fitted for £195 on eBay and it’s letting me play zwift with maxed out settings 
Was toying with getting an Apple TV but graphics are better, I can connect more than two devices, ant+ and well as Bluetooth, I can use any input device I want and I can use it for TR.
You need to select i5 CPU, 8gb ram, 512gb SSD and 1050 Ti 4gb for the £195 price.
My CPU was a 6400 rather than a 6500 - thought about complaining but it’s still a good deal and accomplished what I wanted.
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I use an alienware alpha. Runs Zwift at 4k and TR simultaneously with no problem. I have had to replace the wifi chip and the HDD, but that could happen to any machine. With a SSD HDD, it boots up instantly almost.
GPU pricing is insane right now, so you’re definitely better off buying something pre built. Based on the following experiences, I’d say something with an Nvidia GTX 1650 or 1660 would be a minimum based on current offerings.
I run everything on an old custom built gaming PC, it’s got an Intel i7 3770K paired with an Nvidia GTX 970. This runs Zwift acceptably well for me at the 4k setting, maintaining close to 60fps but often dipping down to the mid 50s. It’ll run TR, Zwift, Zwift Companion App through BlueStacks and stream music or videos all at the same time without missing a beat.
For reference I’ve tried it on an Dell XPS 15 from 2017 with an Intel i7 7700HQ and Nvidia GTX 1050, it’s pretty choppy even at 1080p. This is probably just a limitation of the GTX 1050, so I’d avoid anything at that level.
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What about running an eGPU with my MacBook Pro? Probably not very cost effective.
IDK.
Does it really matters the video quality?
I watch a movie/show while on the trainer…
I am not paying attention to the graphs other than when I suddenly get hit by a ton of resistance and I notice I am a huge climb!
I wouldn’t worried too much about the graphs, an ipad from 2020 can run zwift pretty good… I am certain a more capable pc/mac will run it no problems.
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On all the recommendations for 4K for Zwift: @CaptainThunderpants what is the max resolution of your TV? If it’s only HD / 1080P, then the need to be able to run Zwift in 4K is zero at the moment, unless you are buying a new display as well.
I have the current Mac Mini M1, and it is waaaaay over kill for TR (even with TR running in emulation mode via Rosetta). I can run TR + Netflix/Amazon Prime Video/Disney+ in Firefox or TR + VLC for old race footage in 1080P with zero issues.
Edit: fix my poor typing
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Yes, isn’t 1080p plenty of resolution for Zwift?
Lets solve this.
Since you have monitors/TVs and you are also on the mac infrastructure.
get a mac mini
Now, I am not sure if you can use ANT on the M1 chip, but I would expect you could (if you want to zwift/TR at the same time).
You will be able to run all of your apps at the same time…
and under your 1000 budget!
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Varies from person to person. Personally I would spend money to get 4k at 60fps, but many might not be bothered by it.
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Better yet, get a used Intel Mini for $200 and run everything at 1080p. Save the money for a future M1 Mac when they are 5X better and the software has caught up.
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Glad you asked this question because I thought it was a 4K TV, but I just double checked and it’s just HD. So really wouldn’t be much use to go for a crazy GPU unless I’m planning on buy a 4K display soon.
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