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

Dang, one of Dells official reps replied on the AGA mess.


GPU AMD RX 6000 series compatible with AGA

 

Darn, that is succinct! Is it me or does it feels like Chris was just trying to brush us off?

 

6000 series AMD card is still not out. Hence much easier answer on this than for the Nvidia 3000 cards launched a month ago He is very selective on what he want to reply on.

Edit.
None from the tech department want to reply on the undervolt mess questions flooded the web the last 10 months...

 

While it's not unusual for the occasional "new card" to take a while to get certified, the length of time this is taking is not speaking very highly of Dell or Nvidia. The solution is very popular and the 3xxx series equally so. I could see the 3090 being out of range but if the 3080 is working in other egpu solutions it's making those solutions look better than AW's engineers. Papusan is probably smiling with a "told you so" but in some places Dell managed to keep the "it just works" methods going for years and the Amp "was" one of those. /sigh
Guess we wait and see.

 

Yeah, its not hard at all for them to just be like "we are working on a solution and will make it work". Instead of "If you read the supported list and saw it, then it works". Like that is trash support

 

Will be fun see if they will put enhancements for AGA support in a new Plundervolt infected bios update or not. What you think bro @Mr. Fox ? Will they get both? Or is the AGA now come at Dead End Street?


https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/...x?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

 

I have to ask myself why anything needs to be "certified" for it to work. That's pure bull feces. I don't need anything to be certified for a desktop GPU to work on my desktop, so there is no reason for this to be needed for an eGPU. Seems like their control-freak nonsense even applies to their eGPU. I guess we should not have a surprised look on our faces because Alienware desktops are also gimped like there is no tomorrow and even they don't qualify as an enthusiast product.

 

Something is very wrong with their design choices if you need to find your measure tools and run and borrow your grandma's valuable magnifying glass to see if you can upgrade your desktop or not.... Measured my Aurora R8 for RTX 3080

And ram upgradability is an equal awful experience as with the their high end gamingbooks... Aurora R6, memory upgrade, #2 At least they don't solder on the ram sticks in their desktops. Better than nothing, Huuu? Yeah, probably so.

Yeah, never blame your prefered brand. Because it will only screw up your sweet dreams.

 

I'm def reaching here, but it seems like the ungodly mess at the company has now reached a new level. Looks like they are dumbing down products to prevent lower margin product lines from cannibalising higher margin ones. They castrated the well priced Alienware m15/m17 R1 potentially because they were Precision killers, now they are probably worried the AGA is eating into the really grossly overpriced Aurora sales.

Of course, it's not a very strong pattern so it could just be total chaos, heavy cost cutiing or wrong people at the helm in general.

 

I guess that explains why these things sell for such low prices, especially when used/refurbished on their own website. So basically, their desktop motherboard are 'incompatible' with the 3080?

 

Isn't this false Upgrade Promises?

Which GPUs are qualified and which graphics cards are compatible?
We provide deeper backwards compatibility for available GPUs compared to TBT3 options and offer support for a single full-length, dual-wide, PCI-Express x16 graphics card. This system can support graphic cards of up to 375W and NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2080 Ti as well as AMD Radeon RX series and newer.

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/alienware-graphics-amplifier/apd/452-bcfe/gaming#techspecs_section

Not sure what's up. But Dell try design the chassis around own custom cards (shorter and smaller in design) and with less possibility to put in 3r party AIB graphics cards. + they love the Micro-ATX motherboard form factor.

I wonder how many cards will burn up due the love for small fancy designed chassis and shrinked down Ampere cards May I smell Area-51m fire storm up again but for their desktops?

RTX3090 Fried. Just received my r11 yesterday and the gpu was done today. The game freeze and crash with snowflakes and sometimes give no video. This is crazy! What am I supposed to do?

 

Ohhh I see what you mean now, I thought you meant they somehow blocked cards on the software side, which tbh at this point it wouldn't be surprising. It seems like you are more on top of Alienware than Dell is on top of Alienware... and you don't even like Alienware. I mean it totally would change my opinion of them if they didn't add support for newer GPU regardless, but them literally saying "newer GPU will be supported" (still on their AGA description) and if they do in fact not support it, that is so misleading.

 

I don't like proprietary design. Firmware policy. And neither that they try force on you their own overpriced customized cards. Bigger is normally better. Always. And will run cooler. They could offer AGA support from day one if they wanted. Why shouldn't they be able to do that when they have had own custom cards on their block the last months?

Btw. Did you know they max out the PCIe lanes at x8 for their desktop machines


From the review....
"Our biggest concern is one of cooling. There are some clever cutouts in the side to get fresh air in, but Alienware needs to redesign the Aurora from the ground up to allow for better airflow and reduce fan noise" Yeah, I expect some burned up machines.

Regarding misleading... Yeah, at best.

Re: 3070 RTX on Alienware Graphics Amplifier Issue！

Same thing happened to me. Exactly what you explained to the dot. "I just bought a new AGA, 3070, external monitor and hdmi cable for nothing..." I hope they update this or i’ll just have to sell and return everything.

It's bad pratice put in misleading info. But this isn't something new from that front.

 

Yeah I do remember reading a bunch of bs due to their Area 51m's, but brushed it off since I would never buy something so big and expensive as is when the performance-to-cost wasn't reasonable. You could literally just buy a notebook and then a desktop too and have the best of both. But yeah Dell seems really shady nowadays. They are acting like Samsung and Apple, thinking they can screw people however they want and they can't do anything or notice.

 

Sigh... Let's hope that Dell will release a firmware update for the AGA for the series 300 and RX 6000.

Until then, back to my 2080 Ti...

 

https://www.reddit.com/r/Alienware/...e_new_rtx_3000_series_work_with_the/?sort=new

This guy (sckairuz) says something promising about it working >>>>

I was able to get my hands on an RTX 3070 and it's working with my Alienware Graphics Amplifier and Alienware M15 R3 laptop.

My specific card is the "PNY GeForce RTX 3070 8GB XLR8 Gaming Revel Epic-X RGB Triple Fan Graphics Card"

I'm not super technical, and have never used AGA before, but a few observations:

FIT: The card fits effortlessly in the slot. But, at least this particular variant of 3070 is too wide preventing the AGA case from closing fully. Probably by 1/8 of an inch or so. Height and length seem to be OK. I'll see how I can hack the enclosure to get it to close, but it will involve cutting and tweaking the right wall

RECOGNIZING THE CARD: It works well. Except that sometimes I have to reboot a couple times to have it recognize the card. And if it goes to sleep, I have to reboot. It's a bit annoying.

PERFORMANCE: My laptop has a native 2080 Super Max-Q. I only play FS2020 and I'm not super technical, but I'm observing that the 3070 brings a 5 to 10 FPS improvement in Ultra mode (and this is on an ultra wide screen 3440x1440). At best the FPS tops at 38-40 FPS. So not really the huge improvement I was hoping for. But I've also not fiddled with the settings deeply (beyond overclocking, etc. on Command Center) because I don't know how to do it yet.

If anyone has tips to squeeze better performance or improve reliability let me know!

 

The 3070 only comes with 8GB RAM? Ugh. Anyway, he didn't mention an external monitor - without it AGA will choke.

 

He sure did mention an external monitor....and yes the performance doesn't sound quite right.

Be interesting to see if others have this combo (AGA + RTX3070) working.

 

This guy has about the same combo (AGA + RTX3070) and can't get it working like everybody else so not sure if the reddit guy is talking porkies or perhaps the BIOS on his particular RTX3070 makes the combo work.

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware/17-R3-RTX-3070-AGA-issue/td-p/7728260

 

Where dude? This is his original post:

I was able to get my hands on an RTX 3070 and it's working with my Alienware Graphics Amplifier and Alienware M15 R3 laptop.

My specific card is the "PNY GeForce RTX 3070 8GB XLR8 Gaming Revel Epic-X RGB Triple Fan Graphics Card"

I'm not super technical, and have never used AGA before, but a few observations:

FIT: The card fits effortlessly in the slot. But, at least this particular variant of 3070 is too wide preventing the AGA case from closing fully. Probably by 1/8 of an inch or so. Height and length seem to be OK. I'll see how I can hack the enclosure to get it to close, but it will involve cutting and tweaking the right wall

RECOGNIZING THE CARD: It works well. Except that sometimes I have to reboot a couple times to have it recognize the card. And if it goes to sleep, I have to reboot. It's a bit annoying.

PERFORMANCE: My laptop has a native 2080 Super Max-Q. I only play FS2020 and I'm not super technical, but I'm observing that the 3070 brings a 5 to 10 FPS improvement in Ultra mode (and this is on an ultra wide screen 3440x1440). At best the FPS tops at 38-40 FPS. So not really the huge improvement I was hoping for. But I've also not fiddled with the settings deeply (beyond overclocking, etc. on Command Center) because I don't know how to do it yet.

If anyone has tips to squeeze better performance or improve reliability let me know!

 

Read the PERFORMANCE section again. Pretty sure no M15 r3 rocks an ultra wide res of 3440 x 1440.

 

Ah yes, "screen" not monitor lol

 

Dell's tech team on the ball. But nothing have really changed. At least you have now got the answers regarding AGA's support for newest AMD and Nvidia's graphic cards.

AGA, RTX 3000, news about compatibility?
by TaranM on ‎11-10-2020 12:36 PM Latest post on ‎11-14-2020 03:56 PM by DELL-Chris M

 

I responded to it, but idk how long before they delete it

 

Sorry posted in wrong thread!

 

I loved the response:

"My intent was not to be lazy and uninformative. My intent was to train Forum users in the " usage" of our available sticky FAQs. But OK, does this meet your approval?"

Good news is that those guys will be replaced by helpful, well mannered and professional AI support bots within a couple of years. Those shouldn't suffer from attitude issues, at least not initially

 

Yeah my comment wasn't too nice, but at the same time why should it be? I've been seeing for months how they just lock/delete/redirect people to the FAQ instead of giving a very simple answer. It is so lazy and unprofessional. Funny thing is, I barely used the forums cuz 2 of 3 times I did, I just got no response at all. Like imagine asking them for help and instead of getting like a "Idk we will look into it" or even "We have no idea" but just no response at all. Even FB chat is better support than their forum

 

Why not add in the link to the Area-51-class-action-investigation when you also mentioned that the Area 51M was supposed to "support upgrades". Maybe you could got proper answer on that to +reps

 

I feel like they'd delete my post for going completely off-topic at that point, since they apparently like to delete stuff. Not that it matters, Dell forums are pretty much irrelevant for any kind of support, I would have more hope on reddit before I had hope on Dell forum. But I can always add it in if they deny it or deflect.

 

Not so sure I would call it Off topic. The Area mess is blasted/beloved with the class action investigation due Dell run away from the claimed/promoted upgradability. And the AGA will get exactly same love if none push they on this questions. Of course, it is in his and the customers interest that this being included in the post A big win for him knowing whats up in the public fora. It will be prett embarrassing both for him and Dell if he will try delete such posts.

And from what I have seen from reddit/social media... They don't want touch this or similar topic.

 

Check out the newly updated AGA compatibility addition -
"* The soon to be EOL (end of life) AGA is not going to be validated by Dell with the RTX 3xxx video cards"

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware/AGA-Alienware-Graphic-Amplifier-FAQ/td-p/7243433

 

Yeah, I smelled this long way. Disgusting? Yeah... More disgusting... They never answered their loyal customers.

 

Anyone think that with TB coming direct off the CPU in TL, they might be making a shift to a TB dock and thus the clean cutoff of all things prior to the 3xxx series?

Could also just be that the power consumption of the 3080 FE at max is just over the stock limits. https://www.techpowerup.com/review/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-founders-edition/31.html

Since TB comes in AW models - perhaps the 51m3 (RL) and m15/17 r4 (TL) will be just fine using a TB dock. And one or two folks have gotten those to work with 3xxx cards just with extreme pains.

 

TB comes in most laptops. "The soon to be EOL AGA" was one of the few remaining unique selling points of Alienware. All they needed to do is enlarge the enclosure, update the design, and supply a stronger PSU. Instead it sounds like they are going to kill it. No comms, no community engagement, nothing. Just a grumpy caretaker "Dell-mod" barking around at people. Looks like the race to the bottom at AW is gathering pace, unfortunately.

 

They didn't have to change the AGA size. Dell's own custom 3000 series cards fits as hand in glove in the box. And 3090 TGP is within the PSU's max wattage (375w).

 

The AGA only fits 2-slot graphics card. Anything wider, and you'll have to leave the enclosure open. There really is not a lot of space between the graphics card and the right side of the enclosure.
That's one of the drawbacks of the AGA when trying to pair it with the RTX 3080, RTX 3090, RX 6800XT, and RX 6900XT. I don't even think Dell's own RTX 3080 and 3090 would fit.

 

Yeah instead of them saying like "The 3000 series uses a lot of power and we put in a hot, crappy quality PSU so we don't recommend using the stock AGA PSU with the 3000 series. But if you want to risk it, go for it". Instead they are like "yeah sht just doesn't work bro idk".

But if we wanted to do that, the opportunity and choice should be ours. Not Dell's. Like, its still a 200$ external GPU enclosure that performs extremely well. It was never about 'looks', many people bought it because it was priced efficiently. Had I known this, I would have just bought a more expensive dock from the start. I wasted my time painting mine almost a year ago, thinking it would be used for at Least 2-3 more years provided 3000 series was supported. Haaaa

 

Side note: It's strange that the AGA FAQ on Dell's forums don't list any Navi or RTX SUPER GPUs, but there are clearly 3DMark benchmarks of them ( 1, 2, 3, 4), so they must be supported.

I wouldn't be surprised if the RX 6000 series don't work, but hey, it won't be bad if they do work.

 

This system can support graphic cards of up to 375W and NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX 2080 Ti as well as AMD Radeon RX series and newer.
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/alienware-graphics-amplifier/apd/452-bcfe/gaming

Btw. The AGA is also listed as an feature/upgrade options for all of current Alienware notebook models on their sales site. Isn't this false Upgrade promises?

https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/gam...op/spd/alienware-area51m-r2-laptop/wn51mr2mxs

I wonder how many will be lured into click on the purchase button before they remove the false and misleading advertisement.

 

I smell another lawsuit incoming.

Dell really needs to recognize these lawsuits aren't being made towards them because people are entitled brats, but because Dell LIED about upgrades.

Instead, they use these lawsuits as a justification for taking upgrade paths away. They say they don't want to take risks and get burned by us consumers, when they're ones bringing the pain on themselves. If they'd actually make good products like they did with their pre-BGA era trashbooks/craptops from before 2014, they'd have nothing to worry about.

Also for those who say the Area 51M is technically upgradeable, that's only partially true because upgrading to another card in the same gen is a sidegrade, not an upgrade. Most people upgrade to a different, newer generation of GPUs when performing an upgrade. That's the definition of an upgrade.

 

I have the Dell 3080 and will confirm it fits 90% ok into the AGA. Can’t close it without some likely minor modification though. It fits, it closes, but there’s some minor foam piece that rubs.

All irrelevant if the computer won’t work properly with it though. My M15 R2 picks it up, will show in device manager, but as others have stated won’t work.

 

Unbelievable. What a mess.And really, what would kind of effort would it take for them to make it work with 3080?

 

Might be time for me to get one if the price of the enclosure plummets, not that I need one.

 

Well, I for one am not disappointed nor surprised at a new AGA being required for a 3000-series card up. The old one doesn't fit into the design aesthetic that is current, and it was good for supporting about 3 generations of video cards. They are trivially cheap at ~$200 USD as well. Power requirements are another issue with the old one as well depending on the card.

A 2080 Ti or Titan in one is still a hell of a boost vs. the discrete cards in most laptops even still. I have the AGA with a EVGA 1080 Ti, vs. the 2070 mobile in my AW 51M r1 that's still a whopping +50% in performance with just that old card in the AGA....

 

Hmm maybe a 1070 DT would be ok for me, but who knows, I dont think I would buy an AGA outside of 50 bucks considering its a dead product at this point.

That and I already have the P750ZM which is better than the 13 R3 + AGA anyways. So I personally wouldnt able to justify it, more of a curiosity item for me at present.

 

Wow. That is a brutal and rude way of saying the AGA is dead.

And I was foolish enough to fall for it since I bought the AGA just 3 months ago! lol

But for my excuse, my old laptop was dying on me, so I was in a panic to replace it. So I went for the M17 2020 and thought I could go crazy and add the AGA. Man, pie to my face...

 

Well things are in a state of limbo, and Dells choice of language isnt reassuring either. Can you still get some use out of it? Yeah I suppose so, would help with preventing the GPU dying since any AGA compatible machine is also BGA across the board. So there is that.

Also I imagine there may be some attempts from the modding community to get things working as well, and there is also always TB3 enclosures which dont require Dells blessings to begin with.

Im still curious about it personally but I can hardly justify it, and considering Dell accomplished one thing that should never be taken to task to begin with, its less appealing overall.

Generally speaking, if it fits, it should work. Its been that way in desktops for quite a while now, til the AGA

 

wanna buy mine for 50 bucks lol
Saw this coming and jump off the bandwagon 2 months ago

 

color me interested

 

At the very least, it can serve as an over-glorified USB 3.0 hub. 4 USB ports can be real handy at times.