*OFFICIAL* Alienware "Graphics Amplifier" Owner's Lounge and Benchmark Thread (All 13, 15 and 17)

yes am using the notebook`s display. My main intention is to use my HTC Vive

UPDATE: Rebooted and my core clock returned back to 1050 :S

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/12538295?

 

Why is my Titan X getting a better score than your 1080?? I know my CPU was better, but look at the graphics scores alone: LINK . Odd, looks like they need better drivers.

 

I don't think the core clock is actually running at 1050 MHz. It might be an reading error on the benchmark's part.

 

1.2.14 didn't work for me and my 1080

 

You would think so except his score is still lower then a titan x that is also running on an aga

 

Given he ran he benchmark on the laptop screen, if the overclocked GTX TITAN X benchmark was ran on an external screen, it isn't entirely out of the realm of possibilities (and given this comparison between a similarly clocked GTX 1080 and GTX 980 running above 1050 MHz, both scoring less than godwisper's score, it doesn't sound too far fetched).
That, and if you look at godwisper's previous benchmark where the clock speeds were shown correctly, it was about the same score.

 

Finally getting round to get a new graphics card. Does anyone have the R9 390x?
I've seen this one, with all the new graphic cards about. Is on offer. And for using the AW13 1080p screen, and the desire for high settings and high FPS, I'm hopeful this will do the trick?
Radeon R9 390X Gaming Edition 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card

 

Please fast forward to 25min, 50sec of this video & listen to what the Alienware community manager "head Man" has to say about how the 1080 & 1070 were compatible since day one. ROFL!!

 

Lol the 1070 still isn't compatible a week and a half after it's release this frustrates me so much.

 

the dvi port on the gtx 1080 is for any display?

 

Curse you for pointing this out lol.

 

my 1080 is working on hiccups with core clock flactuating

 

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/8865005

Firestrike result: 11426

with: Alienware 17 R3- AGA with GTX1080 8GB DDR5X MSI Founders Edition, i7 6700HQ, 32GB DDR4

 

So glad I have not yet bought the 1080. I'm still thinking i'm going to wait for a TI version or something.

Here is my 980ti Firestrike results on my internal screen on the laptop.

 

You might want to re-run the test since it's so low. Use the either 1.2.8 or 1.2.14 BIOS, uninstall your current Nvidia driver with DDU, and clean install the latest form Nvidia.

I'd like you to test something. When you run Fire Strike, run GPU-Z or HWMonitor in the background. Note the maximum clock speeds of the GTX 1080. Then close out of them and open them before a next re-run.

 

Definitely not the first and probably not the last but I can't get this amplifier to work with my new 15 r2 & evga gtx 970 sc - windows 10. I have tried new laptop bios and the one before along with new nvidia drivers and old listed on the site both laptop and desktop versions. Every time I think I'm in the clear the drivers seem to crash, the computer lags and then crashes, it keeps restarting, or I have these following errors (driver issue code 43, or when booting I get screen with "video_scheduler_internal_error" and it just keeps rebooting to the same thing or just boots to black screen. I have also tried with external and internal monitor. I have tested the card on a desktop and it works fine. Any help would be great. Thanks!

 

• Re-install Alienware Command Center and Graphics Amplifier Software
• Uninstall, using DDU, the Intel and Nvidia GPU drivers. Then clean install the latest from their respective websites. For Intel, look for drivers for the Intel HD 530.

 

Thanks, I'm assuming I should be only be using the 970m based drivers and don't touch the desktop counterpart?

 

Great advice-would just add re-set bios to factory settings before doing all of that.

When I switched the AGA from my 17R2 to my 17R3 the drivers crashed.. After bios re-set and new driver installs directly from Nvidia's website fixed it for me.

 

I used the desktop driver-worked for me.

 

Hi all,

I'm using AW 15 with I5-4210H + 965m onboard, I bought the amplifier and put GTX970 inside, everything works smooth and 3DMark results are as expected, no bottlenecks so far, however, what I noticed is since I have the following setup:

AW15 connected to amplifier, HDMI cable connected directly to GTX970 in amplifier and then connected to onkyo receiver. Receiver itself is connected to TV and I expect the image to be shown only on TV, however, even though it works as expected laptop display is not disabled, it's just blank but not off and I have to swtich to duplicate screen and then again to second screen only to make it work everytime I restart the system. Anybody else experiencing the issue? It used to work correctly when I didn't have the amplifier, I think it's a glitch. Can I disable laptop screen at all?

 

Never mind. Please delete.

 

Control Panel>Hardware and Sound>Power Options>System Settings>When I close the lid>Do nothing. Save changes. Close the lid when gaming, LCD shuts off, game on TV.

 

Yeah, this would work, but how do I turn the laptop on in this case? My lid used to be open and I hit the button on the laptop to turn it on and then it just disabled the laptop screen as soon as Win10 booted up. I also noticed that my amplifier's light is blue and when PC goes to sleep and I wake it up the amplifier light never turns on, I must confess I'm happy to leave it off as it doesn't distract me but can I control this behavior? I haven't found anything in alienware scheme setup.

 

I'm not really sure... My AW18 shows even the full BIOS on my TV where as the 17R2/R3 both only show the Windows loading screen but not the BIOS... What I do is I just open the lid to power the machine on, and close it immediately after that-when I plan to use my TV with external monitors via AGA. I have 3 gaming monitors & my TV connected all at once through the AGA's Titan X, gaming monitors VIA Display Ports, and the TV via HDMI. Only the main (center) monitor shows the windows loading screen, then the other 2+TV power on as soon as I enter my Windows Password. During this time the lid is closed. After I boot into windows and all 3 monitors+the TV are working, if I open the laptop's lid, it automatically turns the laptop's LCD on and I can see everything there. My monitors are set up as extended 90% of the time, not 'copy/mirror desktop'. If I close the lid again, just the laptop's LCD shuts off and the rest works perfectly.

BTW, I always use the Nvidia Control Panel to calibrate the external monitor's layout, not the Intel graphics properties. It just works for me.

 

Well I tried it twice once with the desktop and one with the mobile drivers. With the mobile drivers it stopped crashing but as soon as I tried loading any game it would crash before loading the game. I find this error in event viewer -

The description for Event ID 14 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

\Device\Video7
160ea(36ac) 810160e0 10088a44

 

I wish it worked the same for me. Honestly I think they should've added power on/off button to the amplifier so I could start the laptop without opening the lid.

 

Maybe some kinda wake on lan using android app maybe iphone has this too.

 

So are the new 1070/1080 GTX cards fully supported yet?
Or should I just get 980ti? If I do go this rout what is the best most powerful ti or 980 GTX card the GA can fit inside.
Thanks

 

Hi All,

here's my best result so far:

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/12585975

-Windows 8 64 bit - clean install with updated drivers
-1.2.14 bios and the newest desktop drivers 368.39 from Nvidia.
-AGA with Gigabyte GTX1080
-external display

 

Why does the card need to end with the "L shaped thing"? It looks like there is lot more space on top:

 

It Doesn't-you have an inch and a half almost two inches of clearance on top.

 

Curious, has anyone using an AGA regardless of what GPU is in it been able to beat my 3DMark 11 SCORE?


Link to score: P18838

If someone with an AGA beat it; please post a direct link so I can make some comparisons. Thanks.

 

@tris85, as long as nothing sticks above the power supply, it's fine. There's less than a centimeter clearance from the top of the power supply and the lid. I think with length, it's about 10.5"

 

I think somethings up. My Firestrike score is a little higher. It lands around the 89th percentile, and I'm using an i7 5th gen HQ and an R9 Nano. I'd publish results if my laptop wasn't being serviced.

 

Everyone's fire strike scores seem pretty low on the 1080. What kind of fps are people getting in games with it?

 

There's also that power connector... not a lot of cards have it at the back.

 

Here are normal / non-aga (select 1 GPU) 1x 1070 desktop GPU scores:

Nvidia 1070 desktop

 

The overall score will be lower because of the CPU differences. However, comparing two similarly-clocked GTX 1070s, the 5% loss from the bandwidth is noted in the graphics score.
Just goes to show much a CPU can impact a benchmark.

 

Yeah, that's not bad, comparing his graphics score against the highest 1x GPU graphics score is 5.5% less

http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/8878130/fs/8853070

 

i can report that my evga gtx1070 fe works like charm with newest nvidia desktop driver

 

So just to make sure a GTX 1070 is getting better performance results than a 980ti?
I'm getting a alienware alpha R2 soon and probably a GA and just looking for the best performance without going broke.
Going to have it setup as a living room PC on a 1080p HDTV so will I see any significant performance difference in games if I opt for a GTX 1080 using the GA?
Sorry if this has been already asked but I'm a noob when it comes to desktop gaming PCs since I've mostly used laptops in the past.
Thanks guys!

 

Which Alpha R2 are you getting? You have to get the one with the GTX 960 if you want to use the Graphics Amp.

 

That's the one with the i7, little on the expensive side but I got some coupons that will cut a nice chunk out of the final cost.

 

Here's mine....
alienware 15 R1
i7 4720HQ
EVGA GTX1080 FE (OC: coreclock - 2.088ghz / mem clock 5500mhz)

Firestrike result: 16207

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/8850835

 

I ordered an AGA and it should arrive here on Thursday. I also bought the FE GTX 1080 from BestBuy and can't wait to test it out. I'm on bios 1.2.2 but I've heard I should flash to the latest one for better AGA compatibility. Also can you use the AGA without a graphics card and just as a USB hub?

 

You can get an Alpha R2 with i5-6400T and GTX 960. You just need to configure it.

 

I have a MSI GTX 970 100me. When my AGA comes in I will take some pictures. I think whats going to happen is the back section of the fins will hit the top of the card. The other area of concern may be the power supply connector.

I think I am just going to run it as is until either bestbuy has a good deal on 980ti or the 1070 is easy enough to get. (I have 110 in gift cards for bestbuy)

 

I was just at bestbuy today and was torn between the 1070 or 1080, in the end i got the 1080 but the 1070 is going for $449 which isn't bad at all for performance to cost ratio.

 

For sure but I want the i7 ;
The amp guide says :

''Any new single graphics card that does not exceed a 375W power requirement, and does not exceed 10.5 inches in length, while occupying no more than two slots, will also be supported.''

So looking for a GTX 1070/1080 that fits these requirements, I've looked around and there are so many brands to pick from I'm just overwhelmed at which brand is best, when it comes to desktop GPU's I'm pretty clueless so any help would be greatly appreciated .
Leaning more towards a 1070 that runs pretty quiet.
Are all founders edition the same?
Thanks