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

SLI is not possible / practical.


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No SLI for a few reasons:

1) Only one PCIe slot
2) SLI requires x8 on each GPU
3) Even if there were multiple slots, the PCIe lanes have to be plumbed correctly

And as mentioned, grossly impractical. Running one high end card over PCIe x4 is bad enough, running two is even worse. No where near enough CPU to make that intelligent and scale well. Modern games are not handled terribly well in SLI and nvidia has largely killed off support for all but their highest end cards at this point. It tends to introduce more challenges than good.

 

I understand for the AGA but for his setup he has so much room In the new casing. Just wondering if it’s possible.

 

He physically has room to put a second card but it would have to be connected to a different computer.

The same laptop could not drive both. Even if one could work out a way it would have worse performance. I cannot think of a single reason to even attempt this because it’s just not practical.


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The electrical details are much more important than some spare PCIe brackets in the back of the case

If I were building a normal desktop, yes, this case could comfortably handle SLI.

 

The closest one can get to running SLI/CrossFire/XDMA on the AGA is using those dual-GPU cards (like a TITAN Z or Radeon Pro Duo). It'll work, but you won't be able to use the internal screen and, as already said, there'll be a severe performance hit as each GPU is kind of like running on 2 lanes.

 

It would be interesting to see someone attempt this.

 

That for sure won’t work internal screen.

 

4X SLI motherboards did existbut as far as I know they need to have the SLI part integrated in the motherboards (probably some sort of certification).

But yeah you are right, cant run SLI. The AGA cable is just a 1 slot cable. That is pretty much all there is too the AGA. Its a PCI express slot that you connect with a pci express extension cable to a miniaturized PCI express slot. Cannot put 2 cards in 1 slot.

 

Deleted.

 

Will you record this? Really want to see this go down in utter disaster.


Better yet do a live broadcast.


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lol

 

Lol

 

Forum knows best

 

Holy cow!! A whole degree!!!!!





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Deleted

 

I will point out that you are going through this trouble and still using the minimum cost Dell PSU......

Something else to consider, there are thermal glues that are 2-part mixtures like an epoxy that should probably have better thermal conductance characteristics than regular super glue. May want to look into that for a V2. I know that Arctic Silver used to make one back in the day, don't know if they still do?

 

Oh man. Coming from the same guy that thought two GPUs could be run off the AGA cable.

You’ve developed an obsession with your AGA and there’s really no need for it. Intake and exhaust pressures need to be balanced. You haven’t taken any of that into consideration.

And now you managed to superglue your brand new 2080ti to your power supply ‍

You’ve got just enough skill to be dangerous but not enough to sit back and evaluate before taking action. But hey, your gear to play with.


Meanwhile, you could have just removed the damned lid and saved a lot of effort. D’oh!

Did @iunlock pee in your Cheerios? He’s definitely contributed a LOT to this community and helped many folks.




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I know lot of folks like to replace the PSU but I don't see the need for it - it's plenty powerful as is and mine is whisper quiet although I know others haven't had that same luck. The main reason to replace imho would be to upgrade to an 80plus platinum but I don't recall there being a direct fit model when I looked into it a while ago. Is there an 80plus gold that's a direct fit?

 

The CX550m is 80plus Bronze. That being said, the Dell one is probably less. My main concern with the Dell provided PSU (completely unsourced speculation on my part) is that the quality of the power it provides is "dirty" and can limit stability in under/overclocks as well as degrade the GPU lifespan. Also, it is best to run a GPU around 50% load, the stock one is going to be running well over that most of the time with a top shelf GPU. For me the biggest driver was simply that I wanted to be able to put in my own fan and that was most easily done with a PSU that could provide a 4-pin connector

 

The dirty power thing is not an issue unless, perhaps, you're running on a small generator in which case a higher end PSU won't change anything in that case. You'd need some expensive gear to sort that out.

You have a point about PSUs ideal load for efficiency to be around 50% however it's not going to burn out if it's a bit higher. I've been running my 1080 at 100% load for 3 years and not a hint of issues from my PSU and, for that matter, a maxed out 1080 is about 50% load for the stock PSU so again, not really a factor here.

Even a 2080ti under full load will still use around half the capacity of the stock PSU. The only reason to replace it is if a) you have a noisy unit or b) you're gong to replace it with 80plus gold or platinum.


When I'm not gaming I have my CPU and GPUs running shared grid compute tasks such as Seti@home and others so my system truly does run maxed out 24x7x365 and the stock PSU is happy as a clam.

 

Errrrm the psu itself gets hot....

 

You guys are right. I won’t post anything more. You guys know it all.

 

Errrrm. Not my PSU with all my fans so don’t assume. You are dead wrong

 

sorry but it was just an honest message from using the AGA for 2 years myself.

The PSU gets quite warm/hot under load, you already added the fans etc. Why would you go to those lenghts? Your temps are already extremely good.

There are things to consider such as electronic conduction as well within a chassis. You are connecting parts now with eachother that shouldnt be connected in such a way which can cause grounding issues.

I'm not trying to tick you off, annoy you or anything like that, just adding my 20+ years of experiences dealing with PC's and laptops (also for other users not to just blindly copy this and might screwing up their hardware).

The heatsource is the PSU itself, so it comes from the inside, you might cool the chassis with the fans but the heat is still coming from the PSU and why add to that (nto that using superglue is doing good for the heat conductivity. But its just not ment to be used as a heatsink, and again you can create electronic conduction issues with this setup.

 

Yes tinkering with this AGA and laptop is nothing compared to main hobby and passion of cars l, so this is far from anything complicated which you guys think too much into it. Installing a 2 stage methanol injection system with nitrous on a BMW is much more complicated than this. Since we are both in New York, Cruisin you should pass by sometime to see my work on my car and judge for yourself if my work is on the cusp of being dangerous!

 

I see your point. I also know adding conductonaut to laptop is also not very wise and a lot of things can go wrong, but as you can see It’s very popular. I know you disapprove of conductonaut! The backplate is quite insulated with thermal pads from factory to protect the board. Nvidia is actually using the backplate for passive cooling.

Reason being is

1. I like to tinker with stuff.
2. Having kids you tend to be bored at times so you find things to do to entertain yourself. Crusin most likely plays pocket pool for entertainment! ( joking )

3. I Paid $1250+ for the RTX 2080ti card and it’s quite expensive, so I looking to protect it for longevity. We all would agree temps is the number one killer.

4 I just like to modify things and see if it works and share it with average geek heads like myself who wouldn’t attempt it unless someone did it before and proved to work, but after this fiasco I won’t post another thing. I will just follow the herd as this is what the forum is all about


BTW Rinneh. I see you are always there to help others with questions. You are a good member and contributor to forum.

 

You are right, i'm not a fan of conductonaut, I know a lot have 0 issues iwth it but a lot of people do so yeah I dont recommend it to anyone, it takes a lot of work and even then it can fail and for a laptop that I use every day 16 hours for work & pleasure I would indeed never ever use it. Almost did but in the end came to my senses .

The 2080RTX is like a second hand small car that expensive so yeah I get why you want to protect it! But I dont think honestly that 60C would matter vs 70C. Your temps are temps that I havent seen in a long time on air cooled cards. So I wouldnt personally risk more than that.

Thank you for your kind words and dont let some headwind ruin your motivation. We are all here out of passion for laptops, some users including me a quite vocal about our opinions! I know it can rub someone the wrong way but I think 9 out of 10 times it is with the best intentions.

 

Happy thanksgiving for those who celebrate it.

 

@cn555ic i am using conductonaut in my laptoop since i bought it 3+ years and its still like new (in fact better), i also applied conductonaut on my gtx 1080ti that is inside of the AGA



its running at 2050mhz and 53°C at full load with fans at 60%

 

My 1080s temps were getting high as my German Shepherd slowly infiltrated the AGA and 1080.

After completely tearing down the AGA and my 1080 to clean everything out I repasted with Conductonaut and my temps were great.

But what really stands out is the ability to overclocked the 1080 now. Before I could barely boost it and now my Firestrike top score is 19,700 and I still haven’t topped out the card. I’ve been slowly bumping up the memory and Clock speed and then verifying it’s completely stable.




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you are right, now i am able to have 31.000+ gpu score on 3dmark firestrike

 

Holy cow. You’re getting that high on a 1080ti?!?


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https://www.3dmark.com/fs/16457282

 

Ahhhh gotcha. Graphics not total score. I just popped off a quick one and my Physics score is double what you're getting...I have the i9 so I reckon you're using an older i7.

https://www.3dmark.com/3dm/30517217?

 

Just scored what I have to believe is the best Black Friday deal I'll see, an EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti XC Gaming bundled with an EVGA SuperNova 1600 T2 1600W PSU for $1135 shipped (anyone need a new PSU =) ). It was on Newegg today for maybe a couple hours before it went OOS so I barely snuck in there and now my wallet hurts a LOT. Anyway it looks like an exact match of the Nvidia FE card so should fit fine with AGA closed.
Question, since I have drivers installed right now for the mobile 1080, confused as to at what point do I install the latest ones from Nvidia for the 2080? TIA.

 

It’s all the same unified driver. So it should work as soon as you hook it up, assuming you already have GeForce experience installed as that is now a requirement for eGPUs.

But if you’re not on the latest version you can do that now. Or later.


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Thanks, I've had the AGA for a year but am only now going to finally use it and the so-called manual from Dell's site is pretty bare. Presently I don't have GeForce Experience installed so I guess I'll install the latest drivers which are 416.94 and allow GFE. So even though Nvidia's site has different filenames for this driver depending on whether I select mobile 1080 or 2080 Ti, it's the same unified driver and will be ok? After that, once the card arrives and I get the AGA cabled up, after booting the AW17 should just detect the AGA, reboot and start using the eGPU (if all goes well)?

 

Does anyone know as if a Zotac rtx 2080 AMP will physically fit inside the AGA
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814500435
The size is 12.13" x 4.45" and occupy 2.5 slots

 

It wont. it is too thick

 

It’s hard to say for sure as it’s not easy to measure how much lateral room there is due to the AGAs design. The 2.5 wide ASUS cards definitely will not fit but this one....maybe. It’ll be mighty close, or just don’t close the lid all the way / remove the lid.

Or find a card that isn’t so wide - which the options are limited for the 2080/ti.


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Hello,

There is quite a bit of conflicting information when I am researching about AGA. Can someone show me if I'm correct or incorrect on the points I laid out, after scouring around in vain?

My current setup:

1. Alienware 15 R4.
2. A non-Gsync supported 120Hz TN panel display on the Alienware 15 R4.
3. GeForce GTX 1060m inside the Alienware 15 R4. (It just says 1060; Can't tell if it's a mobile chipset, or a full-fledged desktop discrete chipset.)
4. No AGA (but planned to have one).
5. External 60Hz IPS panel display, currently in use as second display.
6. Asus GeForce RTX 2070 Turbo desktop graphics card, laying on the couch, unused.
7. No desktops whatsoever.

And these are the information:

• ASUS Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Turbo cards, are the only non-2080 series RTX cards that is also the smallest I can find available in my country. The cards are too long, but they are just thick enough to be placed in the AGA slot. All I need to do is open the AGA's lid, and let it run with the lid opened.
• Alienware 15 R4 has an AGA port in the back, but it does not have any AGA drivers for Alienware 15 R4. (Confirmed on Dell.com US site)
• G-Sync monitors are incompatible with AGAs. (So, non-Gsync laptop internal monitors work, albeit with performance hits?)
• Alienware 15 R4 does not support GeForce RTX cards when plugged into AGA.
• AGA support is built into the latest Nvidia GeForce Experience version. (True???, and not Nvidia drivers themselves?) And thus, latest AGA drivers for Alienware 15 R4 cannot be found on Dell OEM drivers download site.

I would loved to be roasted (corrected).

 

You are way over complicating this. Just curious - why all the extra unrelated info? That just clogs up the post and makes it hard to figure out what your actual question is. Obviously the AGA port is in the back. Who cares if you don't have any desktops? I don't care if the 2070 is sitting on your couch.

The setup is simple. And I don't know where you see "quite a bit of conflicting information" as everyone on here is consistently saying the same thing over and over.

Install Geforce Experience. Shut down computer. Put GPU in AGA. Connect AGA to laptop. Turn on laptop. Play game. *May need to modify display settings as appropriate for your setup.

G-sync monitors are absolutely compatible if it's connected to the AGA and not your laptops display. The AGA doesn't care what monitor you attach to it, the only issue is if your laptop has a g-sync display and you are trying to use the AGA to drive your laptops display. And yes, what you've likely read many times is correct - there's a performance hit for using the AGA with the laptops display. *le sigh* Why are you questioning information that's already been reaffirmed many times.

The AGA is just an external PCI-E slot; it doesn't care what generation GPU is put in it. There is no issue of RTX cards *not* working.

I'm slightly sorry for coming across harsh but bloody hell! You've obviously read through a lot of posts outlining everything so why question what we've already said? If you don't believe us just wait till you get the AGA and see for yourself. If it doesn't work, check display settings and go from there. The vast majority of AGA owners got it up and running without the aid of forums or reading instructions online. It's about as complicated as connecting an external hard drive.

You seem to like bullet points. I'll translate into your language

​

1. Buy AGA.
2. Receive and unpack AGA
3. Properly install GPU into AGA and connect PCI-E power connector(s)
   
4. Shut down laptop
5. In no particular order connect both ends of video cable to your monitor, PCI-E cable, and power cable to AGA
6. Power on laptop
7. If you haven't already installed GeForce Experience and update drivers to latest version you'll need to do that now as the display connected to AGA most likely will not be working. Reboot if needed
8. If screen attached to AGA is still not working, check display settings to verify "Extend these displays" is selected under Multiple Displays
9. Enjoy

​

​

Unfortunately a lot of the RTX cards are quite large and the AGA design could have been better thought out as it's always had a limited supply of card models that will work without making modifications. This is even further complicated now that a number of RTX cards are 2.5 wide.

 

I'm actually happy for once, because I'm already bogged down by the financial stress I caused to myself. This is a good roast post.

Your post has made a lot of things clear to me. I've been asking around and around for information, and the information I got were all over the place. But I'm guessing it's because I was reading from where I left off in this thread, around page 270.

 

I forgot to mention there is a UEFI BIOS update to improve RTX functionality/ compatibility. You may/may not want to do that up front but if you run into issues definitely update to latest version if you haven’t already. Don’t stress, the only issue you might run into is the card being too large in which case many owners have modified the AGA to allow for larger cards.

You opened the door on roasting and I was happy to kick it open the rest of the way.


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Thanks for the heads up.

Now, if only there is a picture floating somewhere in this thread showing what an RTX card look like after it is slotted into an AGA.

 

I pulled the trigger and get the Zotac AMP RTX2080 with knowing that it won't fit. But I don't care, I will cut the hell out of the outer shell to make it fits. Even it won't, I will just have to threw away the top shell. as long as it works, I will be happy

waiting for my RTX 2080, will post pics later.
p/s: Got the Zotac rtx 2080 one for $699, is that a good update for my good-old-1070? I really want the 2080ti but the crazy price tag turns me off.

 

I think it should be good.

I have a $599 Asus RTX 2070 Turbo, haggled down from $649. So I am hoping this card can fit in the AGA as much as possible, knowing all RTX cards can't fit. It's the smallest 20x0 series card I can find on the market. And in this market, they do not sell Nvidia non-OEM cards.

 

The Founders card fits nicely into AGA with room to spare. FE cards are one of the slimmest cards available and cover closes with no issues.

 

Yes, but some of us don't have the slimmest RTX cards available in our respective markets (and I hated how in my market, they explicitly say Nvidia and AMD disallowed the resellers to sell their non-OEM cards).