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

Darn... well maybe down the road there will be another revision to this thing or I might have a different GPU to throw in there... lame

 

You could always remove the lid or modify the case if you want this specific card - or buy a TB3 eGPU but that would be silly.

If they do revise the case design I certainly hope they enlarge it but for now I don’t see them doing that.

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I was thinking out getting an amp with a 2080 .. is there a huge performance loss if I want to use the laptop display ..( I have a none gsync system )

 

Not huge but there is a performance loss.


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Any clue on %

 

10-20%


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That’s not to bad I wonder if it worth it over a 1080

 

It's worth getting a RTX 2060 instead.

$350 MSRP.

 

You will have that loss with any GPU in the aga if you are using it to drive the laptops display.

Getting a lower card is just going to give you worse graphics


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Is this because of the NVidia Optimus, or just because of the shared bandwidth on the cable?

I know this seems like an obvious answer with the bandwidth, but I'm curious because I remember when eGPU's first became a thing with Thunderbolt 3, they didn't see much of a difference between a 2 lane VS 4 lane port as long as it was running an external monitor. The 2 lane became a huge bottleneck when trying to feed back to the laptop monitor, whereas the 4 lane did but I seem to remember it being only about 5% or so. I'll see if I can find the video and post about it (it was one of the bigger PC v-bloggers).

 

When the AGA is used for the laptop screen all the data has to be sent back to the laptop which adds overhead.


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Yes, and with VR this is even worse since VR headsets require monitor rendering as part of its process. I have already been through all this and I think that you are wasting your time and money on an AGA if you are not prepared to use and only project to an external gaming monitor. For me, the diff with VR was more like ~25-30% performance losses using my 17r4 laptop monitor.

 

Fair enough. I only planned to use mine at home on my external monitor but I might run a few tests for ****s and giggles since I get bored with all of the vacation days around the holidays.

 

Tested my 2080 on my 4K LG OLED. Great picture for racing games and the like, but too much latency for a quick moving FPS.

Ran it for an hour on Witcher 3 on 4K and Ultra Settings to see how it would do. Low FPS was 52fps (big open area, middle of day), high was 79fps (inside of a house), and average was 61fps. Respectable in my opinion.

 

-AGA needs to be used with external display

-AGA has terrible air flow and the design and engineering didn’t account for larger cards.

 

Not when you convert it to watercooling!
Hybrid cards work well and a tiny custom loop works even better!

 

The AGA works fine with blower style cards. The problem is that very few actually are these days

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When Alienware first introduced the AGA they accounted for blower type GPU cards which are more effective with the design but with fans which are on majority of the new cards, the air flow is total crap. I had to modify my case with added fans and vent holes and added a passive heatsink to backplate of card to get it to temps of 55-57c aircooled. I understand to solve the issue, one can just take the lid off and the problem is solved with air flow and larger cards,, but many like form and functionality. Alienware needs to come out with a newer and better design to incorporate larger cards and better air flow.

 

Never going to happen unless a ton of people give Dell a financial incentive to redesign AGA.

I've been using my RTX 2070 card on the AGA. After using the AGA + 2070 card, I can say I'm completely satisfied with what I have, and would probably keep using the same system configurations for quite some time. Should last me at least 5 to 8 years, if the SSD doesn't give out or anything.

Then again, since I don't play action games and is more into simulation games, the graphics doesn't really matter much to me.

 

Alienware has already stated that the current AGA is "PCIe 4.0 Ready" which means they will not bother redesigning it any time soon.

 

Dell did about 6 months ago a questionary/poll of what we would like to see in the AGA v2 so i wouldnt rule it out at all.

 

Good to know, I was not aware of that. Hopefully they a) got good advice from users and b) will actually implement it in the near future.

 

I wished they show us what were the most popular options/feedback. I didn't see the polls anyway, so...

 

It was pushed through reddit.

 

Huh... I will try finding it then.

 

Height and width need to be increased by 2 inches and the side vent on the GPU side needs to be larger and longer. There also needs to be a top vent that runs along the top of the GPU

 

That would get pretty huge, wouldn't it? Instead of making it longer, I am hoping it gets taller. GPUs can then be slotted in vertically, lengthwise.

 

For me a form facto rismilar to the Racer core would be perfect. SFX PSU, bit higher, but less wide and long.

That would mean I oculd bring it in a cabin suitcase also

 

I didn’t say length longer, only width and height. What needs to be longer and wider is the side vents. My Nvidia card dual fans the top and bottom is covered up by the panel. I had to drill holes in order to let the fans get the most air flow from outside the casing. I also drilled holes on top of the casing to allow heat to disperse from the GPU radiator heatsink. The hot air was venting to the top of the cover and not able to disperse the heat. My AGA is a Frankenstein! Between added fans and vent holes!

 

Can yall correct me if I'm wrong? For non-reference cards, they can be no larger than dual slot, max 10.5" long and 5" high? I see a lot of RTX 2070's, especially EVGA's as being 10.6" or 10.55". Also found a MSI, but it's 5.04" high. Assuming those wont fit without modding?

 

Don’t worry about the length - it’ll fit.

Height is the issue. If it extends much over the top of the PCI mounting bracket you won’t be able to close the lid without modifications. If it looks like it’s more than an inch taller it’s not going to fit. Generally it’s pretty easy to tell just by looking at the card if it will fit or not


Wider than dual width will require removing lid for it to fit.


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Ah, perfect. I've read 5" is the max height, and the EVGA's all are around 4.6" so should be good. They were just a bit wider than what Dell said, 10.5". Appreciate the help!

 

If you have a specific card in mind I can give you a go / no go.

Unfortunately it’s slim pickings for RTX cards that will fit without modifications


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Probably this one: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814487416

10.60" x 4.50", dual slot.

 

Absolutely safe to get that one. It’s just barely taller than the mounting bracket so there’s room to spare


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Appreciate your help!

 

That one should work. I have the 2080 XC Ultra version, but it's 2.75 slots. Height and length are fine, but the width on mine required removing the lid and notching the base.

 

Questions to AGA owners. When you Are gaming does your laptop internal fans for the CPU and GPU periodically spin during gaming sessions on demanding CPU intensive games like Assassin Creed Origins? I could have sworn I have never seen them spin on the laptop since I bought the AGA months ago. I just updated BIOS and windows 1809 last week.

 

Do they spin? Yes of course, they spin constantly


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If you mean do they spin FASTER under load...yes definitely they should act as they did prior to the AGA, at least for the CPU as I don't think the GPU is really doing anything.

 

Okay. I am recently playing assassins creed origins and that game constantly pegs the CPU usuage to or close to I 100%. I guess I am just noticing the laptop fans spinning. I guess they work together when they turn on but at various speeds. I read Ubisoft games have some type of pirate software working which utilizes the CPU to it max.

 

in non-gsync laptops with the AGA, the internal GPU gets disabled like it is not even there. As such, the entire heat sync and both fans are dedicated to the CPU load and cooling needs

 

Mine don't hit max speeds with the AGA like they do with the dGPU. Looking at my HWInfo, my fans hit a max of 3200RPM while gaming this last session and that is with the lid closed. CPU barely cracked 60C.

 

Crazy how much BS there is with the new windows 1809. I found there is a service that causes so much CPU usage from Windows Push Notification User Service_8a623. This needs to be disabled every time I play Assassin Creed Origins or else the game will freeze and stutter due to CPU usage overload. I see it utilizes about 16.8%. You cant permanently disable this service and I must stop it each time from the task manager. If I don’t stop it then ACO freezes and stutters. Is there a way to use a power shell command to do it automatically to stop the service instead of me doing it manually each time ?



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Yeah thats a cpu bottleneck at play.. And ubisoft games indeed double dip when it comes to drm both denuvo and another crypto based drm are active. Even a ryzen 8 core cant keep 60fps in the most recent AC.

 

Can you setup a task in task scheduler to disable it every time you login?

 

Mr Fox showed me to use the registry to stop the service. Check out my thread on it. Hopefully if remains off tomorrow. If this works everyone should look into this service and decide whether you should turn it off or not, but IMO it needs to be off because there should be NO service that should utilize 16.8% of your CPU.

 

As I tried to tell you what you are seeing is not normal. You need to see what is causing that to have high utilization. You didn’t uncover some widespread issue with Alienware.


But nah, don’t listen to the Windows Engineer. What do I know right?


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Not normal?? I have asked 3 people who have seen the same exact behavior of that specific service while playing a Ubisoft game. I checked my son Alienware R6 and it also shows the same behavior during gaming. With that said I guess all those computers also have issue too and are not normal. We all have the same virus on the computers! What a coincidence! Wow

 

Well you should investigate and see what’s causing it if you have two different computers both doing it.

That points to a common software used in both since the hardware is completely different. Could be user installed or Dellienware software.


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