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

A lot of talk about upgrading the PSU in the AGA lately. Like many others, I realized mine is super loud all the time, regardless of load. Is there a nice compatibility list or tutorial anywhere? I'd like to minimize cutting in to the case and such.

 

Corsair CX450m (or the larger options) should be a drop in replacement. You will have excess cables you will need to zip tie off but the holes should align with the OEM PSU.

 

Didn't realize nVidia did an education discount on the RTX Titan.

Anyone here use it with the AMP? LOL

 

Hi,

I am considering the graphics amplifier for VR demos.

For that I need access to both the laptop screen and the VR display connected to the amplifier.

Has anyone done that? Will both laptop monitor and external display connected to amplifier run at the same time?

I consider getting this for m51 9900K and 2070 because the 2080 I had before broke and isssues seem to be with the 2080 mode

 

This should work fine. I just tested it with my 17r4 and AGA w/gtx1080ti and Oculus Rift VR headset. I normally only project to my gaming monitor so I just went to windows display settings and asked it to duplicate it to both my external and primary.

I did some performance tests with one of my high resources demand flight simulators (X-plane 11) in VR with my Oculus Rift;
- projecting only to my external monitor = 45 FPS (frames per second)
- projecting to both screens = 45 FPS (so no performance losses)
- projecting only my laptop screen = 38 FPS (~15% loss in performance)

The interesting thing was that when I switched the last test back to duplicate the performance did not improve. I needed to go back to projection only to my external monitor to get back to where I started (45 FPS). Then I could duplicate both again and it remained at 45 FPS. So I guess you just need to keep in mind that in practise you probably want to start off with the external monitor, then duplicate it to your laptop screen.

Aside, I'm also considering the same as you btw (m51 w/2070, then using my AGA w/gtx1080ti). I just need to save up a few more $'s first, lol!

 

Thank you for the reply!

However my question is different.

I need to make sure I can show up at a client only with laptop and amplifier and VR headset.

Can I use the main display on laptop (not using any kind of external display) to setup the VR and run the VR through amplifier? I don't mind shutting down the laptop display after setting up.

But I need to know if I can setup the VR connected to amplifier from my laptop display.

 

Yes you can do everything VR with just your laptop and AGA. I initially did this before buying my external monitor.

However you will lose 10-15% VR performance. Depending on the application that may not matter to you. If you then plugin an external monitor you can display both as I already described previously.

I should mention that it’s best that your external monitor connects to one of your AGA GPU DisplayPorts.

What GPU are you intending to use in your AGA?

Edit; also pick the non gsync laptop display options because the AGA does not play well with it.

Edit 2; you actually may want to just try VR without an AGA first. The 2070 should provide enough grunt for most VR apps. You can still project to an external monitor via either your hdmi or Mini DisplayPort (depends on which one your VR headset needs).

 

Thanks!

Is there a list of compatible 2080ti cards?

I'll be buying a 9700k, 2060 rtx with the amplifier (will be swapping to 9900k later on).

I'll be running this for specific tasks: rendering 6K frames using full vram of the GPU, and a VR project tailored for the 1080ti.

Can't use anything less for it

 

I think this is the latest AGA supported GPU card list;

https://www.dell.com/support/articl...mplifier-supported-graphics-card-list?lang=en

Might be a good idea to check with Dell prior to buying. The main issue seems to be height of the card. Anything over ~4.5 inches and you cannot close the AGA cover. Usually the best bet is a foundation edition or blower style. Probably something like the Zotac rtx2080ti Blower would fit /work fine;

https://www.zotac.com/au/product/graphics_card/zotac-gaming-geforce-rtx-2080-ti-blower

Anyway, I don't think I can be of much more help. Good luck and please let us know how you make out.

Edit; in Australia we don't seem to get an option for a 9700k with 2060/2070 options. Just the i7 8700k for those.

 

Does your laptop have Optimus? I have heard that G-SYNC models cannot display internal and external at the same time.

A solution to this on the Area-51m would be to run the thunderbolt 3 to mDP adapter so the iGPU drives the external display and then use the AMP to drive the VR headset.

 

Yes, that’s why I already advised him to avoid g-sync screen options. That’s the easiest and best solution imho.

 

Im thinking on getting m15 with rtx 2080max q model, also getting AGA, how much performance lost will i get with a 2080ti or 2080 while using external monitor ?
I had an alienware 51m that got burned with the 2080 inside after 3 days of use, so i lost faith in that model and now thinking going mobile, but still wanting performance while stationed at home.
All depends on how much % loss i will have..

 

To be honest I wish I had just got a desktop to begin with, or at least a laptop with a gtx1080. The AGA is great for extending the life out of an older AW laptop but I would not recommend using it as a means of improving current models.

As I already mentioned, I lose ~15% performance by only projecting to my laptop screen.

 

I know what u mean, but the idea of taking something mobile with u elsewhere is more tempting for me than a desktop at home.
If i could get rtx 2080 desktop performance on my laptop, that would be very satisfying, having each of both worlds

 

do you have links? im curious because ill get aga, 9900k and 2060

 

Ya, good luck with that. tobyg mentioned this +2 months ago and we have never heard back. Plus he does not seem to use it for VR.

The Area 51m thread seems to grow by 5-10 pages every day and it's very hard to find anything useful in it. Mainly persons complaining about something and/or how crappy Dell support is, lol!

My VERY last bit of advice to you is to forget about buying an expensive laptop plus AGA, plus rtx2080ti, for mainly VR use. I very much doubt that you will get any improvement in VR performance compared to the Area 51m w/internal rtx2080. Maybe in the future Dell will offer an Area 51m with an internal rtx2080ti or xxx3080ti, who knows, lol!

Personally, I am going to scrap my idea of getting an Area 51m w/2060/2070 and using it with my AGA w/gtx1080ti. For better VR I think I'll just wait for generation 2.0 VR headsets to come out (2021-2022?) and then match PC specs with them then. Probably with a proper desktop PC.

In any case, good luck whichever way you go.

 

The reason for the 2080 ti is to access more vram for GPU still frame rendering at 40% higher resolution I create 6K video using the GPU besides using it for VR. So I'll need a 2080 ti regardless of which laptop I buy

 

Well maybe you should just wait until laptops are available with rtx2080ti's. Honestly, by the time you pack around an AGA plus big area 51m laptop, plus it's 2x power supplies, plus maybe an external monitor, you might as well pack around a small footprint desktop PC imho, lol!

Also, there is no proof out there yet that an AGA w/2080ti is going to be significantly better for your purposes (esp.VR) than it's internal 2080. Maybe I get a bit of benefit with my AGA w/1080ti but it's only ~20-25% better than my internal 1060 6gb with VR, even using an external monitor. Quite a bit less improvement than one would expect from going to a 1080ti from a 1060. Benchmarks would estimate this improvement should be ~115%. You do the maths, lol!

 

Ouch!

Ya my other idea is raider ge75 new 8 core and just accept nothing can be swapped on cpu or gpu. And just save some 500 bucks doing that towards a separate mini 2080 time tower that can live on it's own in the studio rendering. That way I don't loose laptop time either while rendering (sometime run for days or a full week)

 

So you are going to save a whole $500 going to a crappy msi laptop that cannot be upgraded later. Brilliant, lol!

 

Haha

Well

I'm also looking at the older one s8, 6 core 2080. It can be bought for 2400. So 1500 cheaper. If sold after use for 1000 that's more than half a new one in two years.

 

Ok, get out there and save yourself rich, lol! Please let us know which way you actually go and how you make out, thanks.

Edit; so you went out and got an msi, seeming after a 51m w/problems? Hope that works out for you ok.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/thr...cussions-lounge.825828/page-143#post-10913318

 

guys, I am receiving my area 51m in a few days and I can't find a clear answer if I can use both GPUs internal and external (through the amplifier) for Cuda tasks. Do you see both GPUs in the task manager or the internal GPU turns off when you plug the amplifier? As I have seen they use 8x lanes so theoretically they should work together as x16 is the max supported by the cpu.

 

To be honest its everywhere on the internet

and no you cannot. The internal GPU cannot be use when the AGA is connected. and they wont work together.

 

Guys,

I have just bought a cheap Nvidia 980Ti for my Graphics Amp.
I currently have a Alienware 17 r3, and was just wondering if there are any tips or insider info on getting it set up with the least amount of hassle. Driver install/version, settings to change in bios or within windows?

Is it worth replacing the stock power supply to get the setup a little less noisy? If so, what is the best one to get in regards to an easy replacement. I have already replaced the front fan just to improve on noise levels a little bit.

Any little tip or advice would be great before I go ahead with the card install.

 

What front fan did you swap to?

I upgraded my psu to a quieter one pretty easily. It is a corsair one (I can check if you want). Its quieter and less hot although there are tons of connectors now inside the body of the amplifier. I probably should have gone with a modular psu, but didn't want to spend the money. Seeing as everything fits, I guess I did ok.

I ran mine stock with a 980ti and it was fine, so you don't have to change it if you don't want to. Its now housing a 1080ti.

 

I looked on YouTube in the end. There is a guy on here that did a really good vid on his and I pretty much copied it.

 

I suggest you just get it going stock to begin with. I'm still using my 17r4 and stock AGA w/gtx1080ti and external gaming monitor and all continues to work fine. Big tip is to use a gaming monitor (does not need to be an expensive one) connected to your AGA GPU for best performance.

 

Well, typical PC issue here. To be honest, everything was going good, installed fine etc.
The issue I am having is noise from the power supply. It is fine when idle, but when under load, or in the other bizzare scenario shown in the video, it seems to interfere with it and make a noise. Not the typical one as you will hear

I have tried the stock PSU back in and it does the same thing. I also returned the 550 Corsair and tried a 650 thinking is might be that, but no. I have also tried it with a different video card and it makes the same noise.

Any ideas?

You need to turn the volume up a bit.

 

Have you tried taking the fan out of the PSU to make sure nothing is hitting it from underneath? I haven't had an issue with my Corsair PSU I am using, but the included PSU with the AGA kept making a noise (sounded mechanical, not so much coil whine) so I opened it up and found the protective film around the large capacitor was actually catching the fan under load. My best guess is that possibly the heat generated under load was causing something to expand/move and would rub the bottom of the fan.

https://i.imgur.com/RoAeZHk.jpg

 

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I have tried the original power supply and a expensive 1200W and it makes the same noise. I also tried a 1080 GTX card in it and it is the same.
I just don't understand why it is even making a noise for a split second when changing the image in the Geforce Experience drive page, where the card isn't even under load.

All I can think of doing is a reset software wise of Windows to see if it is a program issue. After that the only thing it can be is a fault amplifier/cable which is odd as the machine benchmarks ok.

 

Fwiw, this is not true. My primary use for the AGA on the 51m is actually as a compute solution for GPGPU. Internal stays enabled handling display outputs.

 

Might be changed for the A51 but in all others you could only use 1 of the GPU's at a time.

 

It could be a case where the laptop screen is directly routed to the dGPU (like a G-Sync panel or, in the A51m's case, literally routed to the dGPU), so in this case, yes, both the dGPU and eGPU are active. Otherwise, you would be correct.

 

yeah but in that case you couldnt use them at the same time also for non gaming stuff.

 

Hi so my friend gave me one of these. I do not have an alienware laptop, but was wondering without reading the 400+ pages if there is a way to make this work with any computer via splicing the cable or a converter? Perhaps just reusing the case and power supply with a pcie express connector.

Thanks

 

Nope, it is a PCI express slot connector pretty much just with a custom form factor and some in laptop ALienware proprietary switching.

 

In case anyone has seen something like this or just an FYI otherwise, I tried to run an Asus RTX 2070 (ROG-STRIX-RTX2070-A8G-GAMING) in my AGA and had zero success. The 3 fans spin up at very low RPM but the RGB's never come on and of course the card isn't working. This is particularly strange as I was running an EVGA 2080 Ti in there prior with zero issues and on top of that the Asus card works fine in my tower PC (which now has the Ti). So I can only speculate at this point that the wacko GIGANTOID cooling solution on this needlessly massive Asus card is perhaps too much for the puny OEM Dell PSU to jump start (my tower by contrast uses a Corsair TX750M). My life doesn't hinge on getting it to work but I was hoping to hand down my AW 17 R4 with a functioning AGA & 2070 to my son for some PC gaming.

 

If I were you I would just hand down your 17r4 to your son without the AGA. It should handle any gaming for some time to come and is a lot more portable. Probably just sell the rtx 2070
(and maybe also the AGA) and maybe use those $'s to buy him a nice 24-27 inch 120-144hz 1080 gaming monitor (preferably with both hdmi and displayport inputs).

 

Indeed, indeed, not gonna break my back over it but last thing I'm gonna try is a bigger, quality PSU because now I'm just curious, will report results afterward.

 

I doubt that a bigger PSU is going to make any diff with a rtx2070. The stock 450w PSU runs my gtx 1080ti fine. Just for fun I bypassed the stock PSU and used a Corsair 750w Gold PSU and it make zero difference.

Just going to be a waste of more time and $'s imho. But heh, it's your time and money, not mine, lol!

 

No worries, running a desktop system it's always smart to have a spare PSU on hand and I found a great deal on another TX750M on ebay but anyway the real issue is why the card boots right up in my tower but won't run in the AGA, despite the same AGA running my 2080 Ti which technically uses more power. Curious about any theories, I mean apart from my AGA mainboard somehow having gone belly up, what else could be suspect beyond the PSU?

 

Could be the csble, the cable is a bit fragile.

 

Ah good suggestion and fortunately there was an easy way to test that! If you have no GPU installed in the AGA you can still connect it to the laptop and use it as a (huge) USB hub so I did that and all the USB ports work fine so I'm confident the AGA cable is good. My gut is telling me there's just something 'funny' about this Asus card in particular given it's just so massive compared to an FE 2080 Ti and uses such an overblown 3-fan cooler.

 

The power draw from the fans is negligible. Does it work with the top open? Size could be an issue if the card is not seated well when all closed up.

 

No difference with the top open but it can't close any way, card is FAR too large as you suspected but I've reseated it many times to be sure.

 

According to Dell support some cards simply aren't supported by the AGA. They blame VBIOS modifications:

"Certain video manufacturers may modify their video card VBIOS causing incompatibility with the graphics amplifier (Superclock, Overclock, Dual and Triple Fans)."

https://www.dell.com/support/articl...mplifier-supported-graphics-card-list?lang=en

 

Oh man, I bet you've nailed it and I suspected all along it was something Asus did with this card, I'm sure that's the issue here. I'll know for certain when I try it with a spare PSU next week but I expect nothing will change. All these little quirks make the PC hobby interesting but also pretty darn frustrating as now instead of a decently-powered AGA for my son to game with I'll likely end up selling an effectively brand new card on ebay, what a shame.

 

Hi all,
I have an alienware 17r3 (i7 6820HK and 980m) and after 3 years+ of using it i decided to get an alienware amplifier since they were on sale. Incidentally Nvida released their rtx super cards so I got the 2070 super FE as well. After installing the amplifier and reinstalling the Nvidia driver (only the latest one supports the card), everything was recognised and I noticed the card was running very quiet. I ran a few benchmarks and as the load increased the card remained quiet up until around 70C where the fans started spinning at full speed. They would be stuck at full speed from that point on even at idle so I tried restarting, reconnecting the amplifier, reseating the card, unplugging the psu and reconnecting. The fans would go back at low rpm seemingly at random at some point. When they were stuck I would restart, put some load into the card to hopefully get the rpm back to low at idle.

MSI afterburner fan control did not work when the fans were at full speed. When they dropped at low rpm, I was able to set the default fan curve for the card and now the fans respond according to temperature. So after all this I'm not sure if the card is faulty, if it is a driver problem, if it is related to the alienware amplifier or the fact I use it with the laptop screen and I don't have a monitor connected. Has anyone seen this behaviour before? Should I stick with the card now with the custom fan curve or return it?

I have modified the curve a bit to not allow the card to reach 70C otherwise the fans would go at full speed again.
I have the latest available Bios in the 17r3 and latest command center/amplifier drivers.

 

Hello,

I also just bought an AGA and a RTX 2070 Super from Nvidia's Store.
My PC is an Alienware 17 R2 and for some weird reason, I cannot see the Graphics card on device manager nor I am able of unplugging the amplifiervia "FN+F1". I am starting to get out of ideas of why it's not working. I've tried the desktop drivers and even the notebook's RTX 2070 to no avail.
How did you installed yours for it to be seen on your system?

Thanks in advance!
K