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

Thanks for sharing this!

I noticed Nvidia released an official driver (372.54) yesterday. Has anyone had a chance to try this one? I'm going to install my AGA with the Titan X tomorrow, and figured I could save a little time if someone has already tried.

 

I'll try the new drivers in a few hours. I just saw they announced an ASUS laptop with 1080 SLI and a water cooling dock. Omg feeling a bit of buyers remorse. My total setup with the 15 R2, Titan X, AGA and 4K internal screen was $2800 (not including extra RAM or extra SSD). I may be a little upset for a day or 2 if this ASUS is cheaper than that.

 

1) as mentioned - 1.2.8 and 1.2.15 are totally fine...

2) The Gigabyte G1 GAMING 1080 (OC) fits perfectly and can be normally even further overclocked nicely (see my posts) as it has quiet silent fans also.

PS) with my Alienware 17 (Max. build) + AGA + 1080 OC - ALL games work with +60 FPS on 2560x1440p... (Witcher 3 / Rise of the Tomp Raider Fallout 4 / DA:Inquisiton etc) on internal display. ....
With external monitor most newer games even run on +60FPS in 4K resolution! Only a few ones with only +45FPS (but still playable and smooth without input lag).... With internal display in 4K you reach 15% less FPS...

 

I didn't try it but after rollback I saw, after entering the xbox app menu, that the recording option was marked as "ON" still. But switching it off didn't make any further performance difference...

 

VR doesn't support SLI. So, if you like to use it for VR it will be quite a noticeable difference than what you currently have. The mobile 1080s are not as strong as the desktop 1080s. If you don't care about VR, then it'll be interesting. Guess it would come down to how 1080m's in SLI will compare to the Titan in the AGA.

 

From what I've read, stating the Laptop 1080 is less powerful than the normal 1080 seems to be a bit of a misconception. The chip itself is identical. The difference is the power delivery system is different and the TDP is lower so as to produce less heat, but overclocking remains possible. The estimates are that the "mobile" 1080 will run to within 10% of the standard desktop 1080's potential. If this is the case a mild overclock could net you desktop level performance, albeit in a laptop that weighs 6 pounds. If Alienware drops a 1080 powered version of the 15 with a better CPU I would be super tempted to upgrade.

Edit: hit submit too soon.

 

Yeah the mobile 1080 has been benched to be within 1-20% of the desktop depending on the game. Apparently the price of the ASUS 1080 SLI laptop may be $5000+, that makes me feel better lol, plus it's an 18" which defeats the purpose of having a laptop in the first place.

 

laptop? You mean folding desktop?

 

Actually if you don't mind rocking a clevo origin has 17 inch laptops with gtx1080's already available on their website for around 3 grand. NOT THAT I ADVOCATE HERESY IN AN ALIENWARE THREAD!

 

As a frequent traveller (most continents) I have to say that the new GTX 1080 (mobile version) might solve the travel performance compromise... (I am project supervisor, who loves high quality / performance gaming / DSLM Photography / GOPRO Videomaking) - staying 50% of the year in hotels around the world)

1) as the 1080 inside the AGA (which I take with me with my plane luggage ([inside 6cm foamed material wrap + luggage belt]) in combination with internal screen is anyway a big loss of 15-20% performance... - Still at home as a kind of docking station with the external screen (4k) its genius (and a max. of 5% performance loss)!
The 1080 OC mobile - should be like a 1080 non-OC desktop version by performance which is a hugh performance jump to Maxwell "M" chips - and might make the AGA for travels (with the performance drop) useless....
And the 18" with SLI might be a AGA-Killer-Option for people who prefer the big display (like me) and don't care for the weight... if it can compete with the Titan X...
....hopefully Alienware will sell it in Austria - as I had one with 780m's before and loved it for travelling

2) WQHD (1440p) displays for 17" laptops should be coming up now also.... which makes the hard decision between internal UHD (Great resolution quality - bad performance atm) and FHD display (Low resolution quality - extreme performance) for me much softer... especially because many games can't reach the 60FPS on 4k internal screen anyway...

...Further - my thought - people with travel use who think now of buying a Alienware 17 max build with 4k IPS-screen and and a GTX 980M (even with AGA) - should better wait a short while for the 1080 mobile + WQHD 1440p display - as this two things make the better couple, (otherwise they will sometimes downscale to the not so sharp non-native 2560x1440p resolution for high performance gaming, as I have to...)

 

I travel a good bit for work as well (not quite as much as you), and I would jump all over the new 1080 laptops IF I didn't also use my rig for VR. I know the 1080 can run VR just fine, but I want it to be as crisp as possible. The Titan is a nice bump up from the 1080. Also, when I travel I plan on leaving the AGA behind. I'm in hotels maybe 20-30%, so I just suffer with reduced (but manageable) performance.

 

Heads up. For the Skylake laptops, a new GA Software Update has appeared.
For those with Haswell and Broadwell laptops, you could try and see if these install. I know the launch versions did.

 

EDIT: Double post. Site problems again.

 

Wish Alienware would be more transparent with details about the "fixes" that this update brings, either way I downloaded it and everything seems to be working fine.

 

anyone having trouble playing fullscreen videos with larger resolution when using internet browsers?

 

Hey guys, quick question for those with a GTX 1080...I'm looking at the Alpha R2 since it's size is extremely impressive and the AGA being so cheap compared to Razer's Core. For those of you that have gotten the GTX 1080 to work with the AGA, what are the benchmarks like? Is there a big difference compared to a desktop setup running one? I'm looking at either building a desktop using a i5-4570 (already have the CPU) and a GTX 1080 or possibly getting the i7-6700T version of the Alpha R2 and the AGA/1080.

 

The benchmarks are very comparable as long as you use an external monitor when using the amp at home. The performance hit if using the laptop's build in screen can cause a 5 to 10% hit. Most people report the in game hit using the laptop screen is unnoticeable unless running 4k resolution however.

 

This sums it up pretty much. I use an external 4k monitor to mitigate the 5 to 10% hit.

 

More like 15%-20% with my GTX 1080 and internal 4k display... With 980Ti it was less - maybe because its less data transfer

 

I'd be using the Alpha R2 so I would always be using external displays. Thanks, everyone.

 

Looking at the latest Nvidia and AMD driver .inf files, the GTX 1060 3 GB, GTX 950, Radeon Pro Duo, RX 470, and RX 460 are listed for Dell use (AMD drivers are unified if I recall correctly). So in theory, they should work with the GA without a problem, alongside the previously tested GPUs (I got the RX 480 to work with the GA, so the latest GA software and BIOS may have helped with that).

 

theres new GA software and BIOS ? i dont see it

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/new-dell-system-bios-15r2-17r3-1-3-6.795083/
New BIOS version. New GA software.

 

okay i gonna flash it now

 

Let us know how it goes. I'm still on bios 1.2.8

 

wheres the new GA software

 

In the quote in the same post. Look at my post again. (Or to make things easier: Link)
If you have feedback on the BIOS, it would be best to post it in the BIOS thread.

 

no issues so far with the bios

 

One thing I've noticed with the software or bios update is when i put the system to sleep the fan on the titan x keeps spinning and doesn't shut off?

If i put the system to sleep after gaming and the fans is loud and on a high speed the system goes to sleep but the fan will keep running at the high speed.

and when i put to sleep at low usage it will sleep but again the fan is still just spinning, would that be bios / aga software ?

anyone else had this issue?

 

as for performasnce drop over internal vs external screen

from my testing it seem the drop is worse at lower resolution

Firestrike Ultra (4K)

On my destop i was getting 7302 (5960x x99)

AGA / external monitor - 7218

AGA / internal monitor - 6893 = 4.5% Drop

Firestrike Extreme (1440p)

AGA / external monitor - 12082

AGA / internal monitor - 10892 = 10% Drop

Firestrike Standard (1080p)

AGA / external monitor - 17667

AGA / internal monitor - 13961 = 21% Drop

 

To Add a few more results its clear to see at 1080p its the CPU thats causing a bottle neck at 1080p and at 4K its less of an issue.

My desktop rig is using same Titan X pascal card and has a i7 5960x extreme edition x99 cpu @4.6ghz

my AW 17 is running stock 6820HK no overclock

Firestrike Ultra 4K

Desktop - 7302
Aw & AGA - 7218 - 1%

Firestrike Satndard 1080p

Desktop - 25226
Aw & AGA - 17667 - 30%

personally i use 3440 x 1440 and 4K so wont bother me but a huge hit compared to desktop at 1080p but this is against one of the best CPU's around and the difference wont be as much against destop skylakes and haswell's.

 

Are you overclocking your Titan X? I've gotten some crazy numbers out of mine, +217MHz on the core and +700MHZ on the memory. My highest Firestrike Ultra score was 7512 with the AGA and internal 4k screen. I have a higher score than a lot of review sites, but my in-game FPS is lower than review sites. I don't have an external 4k screen to test in-game diferences.

 

I know this question has been beat to death in the past, but does gsync/freesync work with an external monitor plugged into the AGA?

 

Yes!

I wanted to ask (I'm hoping to get a Titan X in sometime in the next month) what driver you're using (is the new 372-ish one working?), what bios you're running, and what AGA firmware you're running. I have updated all mine to the most recent, am just wondering if they will do the trick.

 

Yes its works fine connected to my Acer predator x34

 

yeah i put a basic OC on the TX 250 on the core 450 on the memory, these were just quick runs not really maxed out and with pretty normal fan profile as well, these more in the tank so to speak should be able to hit around 7900 mark i think.

Be carefull on the memory as although you can OC it quite far from what I've read past a certain point your scores will start going backwards as the memory has excellent error correction so rather than just crash the driver It will still pass the benchmarks but because it correcting itself on the memory you'll get lower scores.

probably why your having slower issues than reviews when gaming?

anything over 550 on the memory is said to be not worth it

I'll be watercooling my TX in the AGA ( i like to mod and it'll be a challenge ) should get better results then as the card wont throttle at all. plus i want a quiet AGA

 

Latest everything available (to include latest drivers from June for the Intel GPU just in case). Works flawlessly.

Spiralzz I gained over 100 points in Firestrike when I boosted the memory from where I had it at 550 initially up to 700. I'll use an in-game benchmark later today so see that difference.

 

Hi guys,
My GTX 970 4G 100me edition is running at pcie 1x 1.1 instead of pcie 4x 3.0 on 15R2. poor benchmark result about 1/4 the result from pass mark website. I have tried bios version 1.2.8,1.2.15,1.3.6. Also tried reseat the card , clean installation of window, reinstalling newest/older drivers(desktop/notebook). Any ideas what I had missed?

 

I'll look at that again then, i was just going by my results and what I'd read on the OCUK forums TX thread, Cheers

 

Thanks! Just one more question - is there anything going on with the power connectors? A lot of people using 1080's mention only using the 8-pin etc.

 

I've perused this thread a bit and didn't see the answer I was looking for.. but is it possible or at all likely Alienware will make a Thunderbolt 3 to GA adapter cable/dongle? Has there been any mention of this or is it even possible? Just thinking it would be nice to have the option of connecting other laptops to the GA in the future. thanks

 

I have realized the same after updating bios to 1.3.6. Seems like my eGPU fans are working on %50 speed even temperature is 34 degree.

So, sleep with AGA connected still not possible and i hope they will fix that with minor update cause everything else works great so far with the update.

 

Hallo again,

Since a while - I am starting to recognize that the fps drops in certain situations temporary - but only during simple things - not during actual gaming. So it has nothing to do with the hardware performance - which is great in-game (see my signature for details)

For example:

Watching desktop videos:

When watching a video with cyberlink - sometimes for a short time (like 5-10 seconds) the native framerate drops from 60 to 30 or from 30 to 15....

In game menus:

When I start a game for example Witcher 3 or Company of Heroes 2 or Enderal... suddenly inside the menus before even starting a game - the Framerate drops to 15 FPS... and stays there - until i start the actual gaming where everything is fine again... going ALT-TAB helps sometimes....

In game videos:

Same thing happens....

This sometimes makes intros even un-watchable - as the stutter and nothing can be understood...


Anybody has similar issues???? Or knows how to solve that (didn't find that kind of situation on google by now)

 

Woop woop... Titan X has just landed. xD The EKWB block should arrive later this week.. I can't wait to change the watercooled 980ti to the TX.

@Drizzt86: Take a look in the nVidia Preferences at the 3D Settings there should be an option for the preferred GPU. Ususally it is in "automoatic mode". Try setting it to the eGPU. Maybe it helps.

 

Hey everyone. Got distracted by other interests and didn't follow the thread for a while. Learning yesterday about N64 emulation and that folks have been updating the WWF No Mercy Rom, so you can play with newer wrestlers, belts, and such did NOT help yesterday, but WAS fun.

Gonna look at Drizz's suggested video card. Intotheblue mentioned not having the top of the line CPU might be a factor with the AGA, as some titles seem more CPU intensive rather than GPU. Any thoughts Drizz? Though I just saw your post about occasional slowdowns. Has a different driver or update got you sorted?

I'm still on an older BIOS and will need to upgrade once I get a new video card.

 

Hmm... so after a few hours of trying I have to admit that it was - at least for me - impossible to get the Titan X working. Windows recognized it, but refused to install the drivers. When I installed the drivers without the AGA connected, the external screen stayed black when I reconnected the AGA and windows reported a problem with the drivers when I tried to reinstall them (with AGA connected), although the Titan X was recognized. Strange.... :-/

Edit: When I reinstalled the watercooled 980ti everything worked flawlessly again.... bummer...

 

Hi guys. So I saw a video the other day that was talking about using a dedicated physx card... could we essentially set our onboard graphics as a physx card? I have an x51R3 and it recognizes both my 980ti and the 970. Any thoughts?

Also does anyone know where I could score an 8pin L adapter... or if one even exists? I am desperately trying to get my aga to close with my 980ti classified but think the reason its not is because of where the power inputs are on the gpu.

 

Try manually pointing Windows Device Manager to the extracted drivers instead of using the installer package.

 

is downgrading the aga firmware better?

 

I'll give it a try when the cooling block arrives. For now I reinstalled the 980ti... but I'm not sure if it makes any difference, as the Windows Device Manager tried to reinstall the Titan X drivers (automatic installation). Also when I had the AGA disconnected I could install the 372.70 (both desktop and mobile version (although I think that they are exactly the same nvidia says that only the desktop version supports the titan x)) without problems. But when I connected the AGA again the external screen stayed black and the Windows Device Manager reported problems with the graphics card. :-/