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

I unplugged my Alienware 13 after powering down while using the graphics amplifier. After I did that, when I turned the Alienware 13 back on it wouldn't recognize the 960M anymore. I tried reinstalling the video drivers from nvidia, but it didn't work. Any suggestions on how to fix this?

 

Have you gone inside device manager to see if there's a display adapter with a caution sign?

 

The GTX 960m shows up normally in Device Manager.

 

Have you tried uninstalling any drivers you currently have with DDU and reinstalling the latest Nvidia drivers?

 

No, I figured the Nvidia installer program would take care of that.

 

I'm trying an OP restore point from last week.

 

Whew, the Windows restore point worked. I knew it was ok when I right clicked and saw the nvidia control panel was available. When it wasn't working only the Intel graphics control panels were available.

 

Guys, did anyone try to OC the internal display while using G-Amp?

I mean it can go up to 100Hz in some cases with setting custom resolution in NVCP

 

Which internal display are you talking about?

 

Laptop's display, of course)

 

-_-
That's not what I meant. Which laptop? Which display model? Because different displays support different amount of functions/options.

 

Oops) You're correct, i didnt mention the model! I meant AW 17 R2, it has the same LG panel used in MSI GT72, Sager laptops and it handles overclock very nicely.

I really doubt any other AW screen can overclock at least to 70Hz. I might be wrong though...

 

I don't know how to overclock a panel, but the AW13's 1440p touchscreen seems to be very flexible. I'm sure at 1080p, it could do a higher refresh rate.
I'll look into which panels the first G-Sync laptops use in comparison to the AW15 since there aren't any 13 G-Sync panels.
And the LG panel. Is that the non-touchscreen one?
All this said, why would the GA be needed? The iGPU is still doing the display work on the laptop's panel, even with the GA connected.

 

You can overclock your panel using custom resolution option in NVCP, simply set anything higher than 60Hz and press apply to see if it works, 65Hz eg. If not, the display will go black, just wait 10 sec without touching anything and it'll revert back.

You can only set custom resolution for displays that doesn't run on iGPU - when only dGPU is used. So NO Optimus required.

 

That's weird. I can set a custom resolution on my AW13's 1440p display (tried 2560x1080 for kicks and giggles once, and it worked), and that was done through the iGPU without the GA.

 

)) i was talking about overclocking the panel in the first place (not bringing down the resolution) using custom resolution option in nvidia control panel. That's how you can apply higher refresh rate setting for your display!

You just can't do that using Intel's iGPU driver.

 

But the problem is that the Nvidia Control Panel settings are very limited when using Optimus. As in, no custom resolution option (well, when using the dGPU, that is).
As far as I'm aware, the only options that open up when using an Nvidia eGPU are the adjust video color and image settings. Nothing else.

 

One question, Is the new 980 gtx ti supported on GA?

Thank you

 

Yea it should work, mentioned this previously but the ga is in fact a hardware solution, any pcie card should work in it

 

Yes, I know it, but im not sure about drivers and required PSU. But, theoretically, if a TITAN X works in it, GTX 980 ti should work,

I'm receiving my AW 15 in a few weeks and i'm thinking to buy a 980 ti with the GA,

Thank you!

 

No worries I don't foresee any issues

 

What is with the drivers for GA? I have a EVGA 4GB GTX960 in the GA. I'm using drivers vers 350.12. The Nvidia web site shows drivers 352.86 and 353.06 for the GTX960, but only up to 350.12 for the GTX960M.

When I boot up with the GA attached, sometimes the Nvidia control panel is available, and sometimes it shows the intel graphics control as if I booted up the laptop alone. Then when I power down and boot up the laptop by itself, the drives give a 'drivers shut down and recovered' error pop up and claims I don't have a Nvidia card when I try to launch the Nvidia control panel.

Do I have to maintain drivers for the laptop that specifically address the use of the GA, or do the 350.12 drivers include everything I need?
I see on the Dell website, SW for the GA. Could this be the thing that is screwing up?

Between the 960M, the GA w/ 960, Geforce Exp, Gamestream and my Sheild tablet, Nvidia drivers are a complete MESS!
Updating them from one to the other seems to confuse the computer even more.
Nvidia SW team get you s**t together because you are driving me crazy!

(maybe I should write some of this in the Nvidia boards if they even read them.)

 

352.86 and 353.xx support the GTX 960m. The 960m's ID is in the .inf files, so you should only need one driver.
I'll repeat what I advised you earlier.
Have you tried uninstalling any drivers you currently have with DDU and reinstalling the latest Nvidia drivers? If not, do so.

 

Yes, I used that uninstaller program, reinstalled 350.12 and still saw the same anomalies.

What is this? http://www.dell.com/support/home/us...de=alienware-13&languageCode=EN&categoryId=AP

I found this thread from dell: http://en.community.dell.com/owners-club/alienware/f/3746/t/19614154

I also found this: http://na.alienwarearena.com/forums...e-software/alienware-graphics-amplifier-faq/6

I'll try (after work) to install the drivers with the GA not attached and again with the GA attached like the Dell guy said.

Are the threads I linked to old news, or does it still apply?
I hope I don't have to do a factory restore.

 

By latest, I mean 352.86 or 353.xx, not 350.12. Please report back on those drivers.
That said, I would recommend you get the latest Alienware Command Center and, as you linked, latest GA driver.
The threads you linked use old drivers and slightly older methods.

 

So my GTX 980 TI came today and there definitely seems to be some compatibility issues. I have the latest drivers for the 980M installed and we are not recognizing the GTX 980 TI. Only the intel onboard graphics.

I wiped the drivers with DDU and reinstalled to no avail. Any thoughts guys?

 

Try powering down and then back up with the graphics amplifier attached. When I did that the computer picked up the right driver and allowed the desktop graphics card to be recognized.

 

Do I need to install a driver that isn't the 980M drivers?

That did not work.

 

Attempting to install drivers again with the amp plugged in... will update with results.

 

That was all it was. We are up and running.

I am an idiot.

 

So running the witcher 3 through the amp on my laptop's screen has me at 1 - 3 FPS.

Any thoughts?

 

My thought is I am getting stuck on the intel gpu somehow. I tried disabling it which in turn disabled the GTX 980 TI as well.... Hmmm.

 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/9918417

 

Has anyone gotten the amp working nicely with a Titan or gtx 980 TI pushing the signal back to the panel on the laptop?
If so, would you mind posting a brief walkthrough on how you did it?

 

I read somewhere that the GA works the best (or only) if an external monitor is hooked up to the desktop graphics card.
I don't have the gtx 980 Ti, but I have a few suggestions.

First remove any old drivers with this:
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/display-driver-uninstaller-download.html

It suggests you run this program in safe mode.

Then download this driver from Nvidia that specifically addresses the gtx980Ti (ver 353.06):
http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/85817

run this. If you choose 'custom' set up, it will tell you exactly what it is installing.

Do the driver clean up and installation with the GA not connected, power down, connect the GA and an external monitor, power up, then rightclick on the background and see if the nvidia control panel is available without the intel control panel. If that is what shows up, then I think it will be using the 980Ti. In the nvidia control panel at the bottom, click system info and see if it shows the 980Ti.

hope this helps.

 

I did a fresh install of 353.06 and tried gamestream from the AW13 using the 960M to stream to a Shield tablet in console mode to a TV.
For controls, I used a Blutooth keyboard and a USB (otg) mouse.
Shadow of Mordor worked through the Steam control panel. It looked good (I didn't 'optimize'), but the lag on the keyboard and mouse made it unplayable.

So I wanted to try gamestream with the AW13 working through the GA using a gtx 960 desktop card.
The external monitor and the GA worked good, but when I ran geforce experience, the Shield Hub app on the tablet wouldn't show the computer as 'online'.

I tried logging in and out of GE on both devices, clearing the cache and data of the Hub tablet app, force closing it. Nothing worked.

I really wanted to gamestream from the GA. What use is gamestreaming from a laptop, when I could just plug it into the TV?

 

Clear off all traces of the old drivers using DDU, and if you are not getting good performance or instability, do it 2 or 3 more times for good measure. The first time I installed my Titan X in the GA after taking out my 780TI it would bring my windows install to a crawl and I could barely move the mouse or start any applications without them crashing. After clearing out the old drivers with DDU 3 or 4 times it worked perfectly.

 

This worked! 60 FPS in Witcher 3 with everything maxed out.... EVERYTHING. I will do some synthetic benchmarking in the coming days!

<3

 

When it works it makes all the noise about bga this and throttling that sound like background static

 

I finally got the GA using the GTX 960 to gamestream to a Shield Tablet connected to a TV through HDMI in console mode with a blutooth keyboard and USB (otg) mouse. It was running Shadow of Mordor in Ultra settings at about 45fps. The lag was hardly noticeable and was almost just like a computer plugged into the TV.

The key was wiping with DDU, installing Nvidia drivers ver 353.06 and installing Shield Hub app ver. 4.3.19649129 on the tablet.
At first the tablet wouldn't show the computer as 'online' even though I was logged into both systems.

I gave up that evening, but later that night, when I ran g-force exp. program on the AW13 w/ GA, it auto updated (even though I had auto updates turned off) to ver. 2.4.5.44, the tablet gave me a green light and showed the AW13 as 'online'.

I'm not sure if GFE ver. 2.4.5.44 is part of the suite of 353.06, but I think that patch did it, thanks Nvidia (finally).
Now to get it to work when I'm not home - the true power of game-streaming.

 

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5064328

 

Nice score) Are you using the laptops display or an external? You can try overclocking the card, it can get you 15-20% boost easily!

 

This score was achieved using an external 1080p monitor. I am still having trouble pushing the signal back to the laptop panel itself but with these results at this point I almost don't care.

I did have to install the drivers again the next day when I booted up. I feel the brand new card may not be fully supported from a software standpoint yet. It is a breeze getting it working now though and I'm blown away by how well the machine handles maxed out settings! Good stuff! Let's just get the software there now nvidia/amd!

 

Yeah, who needs a quad core CPU or 16GB of RAM? You just need a kickass video card. But unless you're doing >1080p or maybe 3 monitor surround, $600 for a video card is a bit much. I can do just fine with a $230 4GB gtx 960. If I were you, I'd go shopping for a 4K monitor, or 2-3 more 1080p monitors. Can I play at your house? :-D

 

Good score, I score 14.5k with my Titan X

 

Ok, so I have one more issue with the GA.

I have a Corsair K65 RGB keyboard connected to a GA's USB 3.0 port. When I power down the attached AW13, the GA powers down too, but the keyboard lights go into a default rainbow effect and stays lit after the GA is off! I have to unplug it.

What's up with that?

 

Technically, the GA doesn't power down. It's still connect to the wall, so some devices will still receive power.
My tactx keyboard does go off once the laptop sleeps or something, but my external HDD doesn't.

 

I thought USB ports only provide power like that when using 'powershare' technology and from a battery device like a laptop?
I'm an electronics professional, so I will be installing a power switch on the GA. You would think for $300 (I paid $200) it would have a power button. I still think someone at Dell didn't think it through to cut off the power to USB ports when powered down.

Also, I unplugged the front fan because the power supply has it's own fan and the EVGA gtx960 has two fans that are silent and don't even start spinning until the card reaches 65°C.

 

What does Nvidia have to do with the Graphics Amplifier? This is Alienware's dock, not Nvidia's. If a product doesn't know when the power is supposed to be off, then, welp, that's not good or bad depending on how you view things. That goes for both the GA and the USB device. The GA's PCI-E slot and fan know when to turn off, but the USB Hub is a different story.
The GA doesn't have powershare technology. It's just taking juice from the wall constantly. The only way to prevent that is unplugging it. However, this would be a good question to ask the reps if the GA does have powershare on a couple or all of its USB ports.

 

I meant Dell.., there, I edited it. A design Engineer or manager didn't think about this. It was probably the same bonehead that decided the lights for the power button and status on the AW13 shouldn't be able to be darkened separately from the keyboard lights. Do any of your USB devices have power when you turn off your desktop? No, because the power switch turns off the power supply. The GA should too, either with a switch or by the same method that turns off the PCI-E and fans.

I know it doesn't have 'powershare' because that would require a battery, which means this issue is a mistake or a bug, not a feature.