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

I would say that the recent nvidia drivers work decently now. This is my experience with the AW15, win 8.1, and 970m. When you switch nvidia gpus, after restarting into windows, it will basically initialize the drivers for the new gpu automatically. The screen will flicker a few times over ~20-30 seconds. You do not need to do a second restart, it will work after the driver initialized for the new gpu.

Sometimes when you switch between nvidia gpus, it does not work after restart because a pci-express port device failed to initialize. You can quickly fix this by going to device manager, uninstall that device, rescan for hardware changes. It will then proceed to automatically initialize the driver for the new gpu.

People say it works better with AMD egpu, but I've had my issues with AMD. I am using their dedicated AMD graphics amp drier. I had a 290 that crashed alot, but it could be the 290 card that is faulty. The 270 card I've used worked fine.

I also encountered an issue where if I installed an AMD gpu and its driver and swapped back to the nvidia dgpu, the system would unexpectedly reboot after a 15 min period of idling with no bsod. The memory dumps suggest it was an acpi issue. If I uninstalled the nvidia driver, it would stop rebooting. I was unable to resolve this by uninstalling/reinstalling all the multitudes of gpu drivers, even with DDU. After spending alot of time investigating, I determined it was caused after installing AMD graphics amp driver and swapping back to the nvidia dgpu. The only fix was to go back to a restore point prior to installing any AMD driver.

 

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/4336471

My best result so far. R9 290x @1154/1450. With the AMD Graphics amp driver it was basically plug and play.

 

Nice, how was your CPU load during the test?

 

I have no idea. Wasn't watching it while bench-marking. Though if temps tell that story, the cpu barely hit 70c on all 4 cores. At 3.5ghz on all 4 the I7-4710hq seems to have enough power to sustain powerful desktop GPU.

New best.

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm/6301349?

 

Some people have been having success with the new 347.88 driver working with the GA. Can a few people here chime in agreement or disagreement?

 

It's still working for me after several dozen disconnects and reconnects.

 

Works perfect

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

347.88 works great for me with gtx 980 / 970m. Everytime I switch and restart, the drivers will initialize for the new active gpu at windows startup. It will flicker a bit for about 30-40 seconds. This is only needed when you switch gpus, not if you have been using one consecutively.

I haven't had the pci express root port issue with 347.88. But even when I got that on earlier drivers, its really easy to fix and doesnt require a restart. You just need to uninstall that device and scan for hardware changes in device manager.

 

Has anyone tried using linux with this?

 

It would be nice if Alienware expanded on the Graphics Amplifier and actually made it worth the $299 price tag. Throw in another SATA port or two, some more I/O ports, etc. There's a lot of empty space in that box.

 

That'll be a most likely no. Well, maybe. Someone at AWA asked that a month after the 13/GA launched.
On the driver note, it seems Nvidia finally released a functional driver* for the GA. However, I am waiting to see if this will work on the AW13 with Broadwell + GTX 860m.
*Still in doubt.

 

Found this if anyone wants the GA: http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Computer-Alienware-Amplifier-9R7XN/dp/B00PCJXN0I/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1427498576&sr=8-8&keywords=alienware 13

$180 through resellers on Amazon. Just watch for reviews.

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/B00PCJXN0I

$192 through amazon w/ prime shipping

Probably a safer bet haha and you still save $100

 

You could also buy this through Dell at this price through there Price-Match guarantee if you didn't have prime.

 

Well prime just means free two-day shipping. Anyone can buy it, just you'll get free ground shipping through Amazon haha since it's over $35

But yes that is certainly another option.

 

True, probably safer. But you avoid taxes through third party sellers. That's what I miss about Amazon...tax free products. The gov. was like, "Amazon big, me want money."

 

Anyone having probs with the graphics amp? Just plugged it in to run games and the games run really slow on it. Off it games run just fine. Any advice?

 

It would be good to know what GPUs you have.
Make sure everything is set to run off of the desktop GPU. It might be that the iGPU is doing the work.

 

Alienware Adrenaline shows Integrated GP (iGPU) On Internal GPU (dGPU) Off and External GPU (xGPU) On with the GA connected. Is that right and if not how do I change it?

 

No that's correct, there's no way to completely disable the iGPU.

Open nvidia control panel, 3d settings and make sure the game is set to use the nvidia GPU and not "auto" or "integrated"

 

Cool another problem down. Got the drivers updated and ran GeForce reads the card as the 980 but says it cannot optomize games which Im not worried about anyways. Going to load some games and see if the slowdown went away. Thanks for the help appreciate it.

 

It seems for the week, if you buy a 13/15/17 R2, you get $125 off the Graphics Amplifier (if you select it at time of laptop purchase, that is).
Just don't buy the desktop GPU at time of purchase unless its the GTX 960 or 970 (the others are overpriced).

 

Just ordered the Titan X from nvidia directly. I know it isn't currently working but just going to hold onto it until an updated driver comes out I guess.

 

http://na.alienwarearena.com/forums...-new-driver-cannot-find-the-internal-860m-gpu
The 347.90 driver holds the TITAN X hardware ID, so give it a go when you get the chance.

 

thank you, just installed the driver

 

hi guys

when i go to bios with the GA attached and select eh GA options it shows everything disabled,
now when i enable the options and f10 it, all the info in the GA option is bios has gone back to disable.

so it seems i cannot do anything in the bios for GA options.

ideas plz ?


p.s i should really update my sig, i have the 17r2 2015 with 980 gtx GA

 

It will be interesting to compare to your scores my own titan x results

 

Is it worth to buy AW13 + GA or I should go with MSI GS30?
How the pci-e 2.0 x4 on AW13 + GA perform against the pci-e 3.0 x16 on MSI GS30?

 

Anyone running into problems with heat in the GA? Never had the loud fan problem but today noticed playing FA4 the unit got hotter than normal and started affecting graphics. I have the GA with a 980 card.

 

The GA actually used pcie 3.0x4. There was a benchmark comparing the different bandwidths and the fps difference between x4 and x16 was about 2 to 3 fps in most games

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

 

Is there any bottleneck in the GA when using TITAN X?

 

I saw some post that says AW13 come with pcie 2.0 x4 and AW15/17 come with pcie 3.0 x4.
I'm not sure whether it's correct or not. so that I'm aware of the bottleneck of pcie.

 

It is, and that's because of the amount of lanes the PCI cable gives, 4. The only thing different is the version, and ULV CPUs, like in the AW13, only give a max of PCIe 2.0, but full volt mobile CPUs give a max of PCI 3.0.
Hopefully this changes with Skylake CPUs so all three laptops have PCIe 3.0

 

physics score is definitely on the low end, but I can do with much more tweaking in XTU

 

I am having problems with the 347.88. The external display is not showing up although the fans in the GA are working. It worked perfectly with the previous driver but after the update GeForce experience is saying it could not find a driver for this Pc and asking me to download. I have the gtx 980 in the ga. Does anyone know how to fix this?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

Use the newest driver from NVIDIA (350.12 i think)

 

So guys with the 350.12 driver how is the GA going? I still haven't taken the plunge yet as I am cautious of the issue that some have had. I want it to just work and properly.

 

http://na.alienwarearena.com/forums...graphics-amplifier-nvidia-titan-x-beta-driver
TITAN X driver, which is just the 347.90 driver Microsoft had awhile back.

 

Just in case anyone is looking to get an Amp, they are currently going for $179 after applying this code. $DQ7G9R$NNVC4L

 

Really? Ugh... I wished I had bought the GA later rather than sooner...
Oh well.

 

Just wanted to post my experience with the Amp.

Purchased my Alienware 15 and Graphics Amp (174.99 with student discount ) earlier this month and just recently put in an Evga ssc 970 scx2.0+ in there and have had absolutely no issues. The first time I plugged it in it noticed the 970 immediately. When I unplug the Amp (laptop off obviously) it starts back up to the 970m without me having to change any settings. If I want to keep the Amp plugged in it just needs one reboot to switch to the Amp gpu and any startups after that need no reboot. I honestly love this Amp. I keep my mouse, keyboard, speakers, and printer hooked up to it so when I want my Alienware 15 to go into 'desktop mode' I just plug in the Amp cable and go about my business.

I didn't need to update anything or install any additional drivers so whatever issues they used to have seem to have been worked out.

The only thing I have an issue is... is the front fan. It is on all the time and is loud. Checking temps it also seems to be overkill with the 970. I might unplug it and monitor temps to see if it is really needed. I could see it being useful if I went with maybe a AMD 290x but my 970 runs cool. Has anyone done anything about this? I didn't read all 20 pages of this thread so please direct me if its already been covered.

Thanks,

 

I simply unplugged the fan due to noise.

There is a post on alienware arena where someone replaced the fan, however it required soldering / etc. I have a reference 970 in mine and the temps are no different without the fan.

Wish I had waited on the amp as well since I paid $249, oh well.

 

I would unplug the fan if the titan x didn't get to 80 already with it on, don't want it to throttle unnecessarily

 

Ok thanks guys. I went ahead and unplugged mine. Loving this silence.

Could unplugging the front fan cause any issues with the power supply? Heating up and what not. I see the exhaust is pointing right at the card.

 

Would definitely love for there to be some fan mods

 

So over the last few days I kept track of the gpu temps with HWMonitor. The Low/High was the temp while gaming for a few hours.

Case Closed Fan Off
Low 65*
High 74*
Idle 55*

Case Closed Fan On
Low 61*
High 72*
Idle 55*

Case Open
Low 59*
High 70*
Idle 53*

Conclusion
If you want to unplug that loud fan I doubt it would hurt the gpu at all.

This was with an EVGA SSC 970 2.0+

 

Is it possible to overclock the deskop gfx card in the GA using desktop software like nvidia inspector?

 

Can the GA be used without a graphics card like as a docking station?.. I have the aw15 with the 980m.. I'd have the GA sitting next to my Tv so when I want to game on the tv I can just connect the laptop to it.. it would have the bluetooth mouse/keyboard .. xbox controller.. hdmi out connected , I know I could just get a usb hub or another docking type station but in a year or so I may want to get a grafx card for it but for the meantime the 980m will suffice just fine.

 

Hola!

In one of the promo videos the alienware rep mentioned the CPU will overclock with an i7 and amp setup. However, every time I check cpu-z when a game is running, it seems to be stuck @ 2.5ghz.

What settings do I need to make sure CPU is overclocked when the Alienware 15 is attached to the graphics amplifier. I checked the bios for the graphics amp setting, but couldn't tell exactly what I needed to modify.

Current Setup:

Alienware 15 2015 i7-4710

EVGA GTX 970 inside the alieneware graphics amp

8gb stock ddr.

 

You know that is a great question. When I get home tonight I will try this out. I too have everything hooked up to the Amp (keyboard, mouse, speakers, monitor, webcam, external hard drive) with only the Amp cable inserted in the laptop.