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

I did some 3DMark's API Overhead Tests using my R9 285, both from the GPU and from the laptop (using laptop's panel / connecting monitor from laptop).
http://www.3dmark.com/aot/42320 (from Laptop)
http://www.3dmark.com/aot/42321 (from GPU)
I don't know why Mantle didn't work when connected from the laptop, but I want someone who has Win10 to do the same testing I did, but instead of Mantle, try DX12. It should work on both from GPU and from Laptop.

 

File not found.

Post numbers .

 

Didn't think hiding it would make them so that I'm the only one who can view them.

 

Lost my Graphics Amp Cable. is there any chance that i could buy it separately?

 

I would contact (call) Dell's Spare Parts and Accessories department. They may have one, but it may be costly.

 

970 @ 1504 core clock 8005 memory
4710 HQ @ 3.757ghz


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Thank u for your kind reply. LMK asap thank you

 

Had the opportunity to test an evga 980 ti SC+ with my alienware 15 w/ 4710HQ & 4k screen. The cpu is overclocked to 3.5ghz on four cores, and 3.7ghz on one core, when the GA is attached. This evga card has a boost clock of 1190mhz, but my gpu meter was saying it was 1230mhz. Here are some benchmarks just to give you an idea of how the performance is running on the internal lcd, external lcd, and at different resolutions. As Game7a1 has mentioned, it appears the performance loss is significantly reduced at resolutions higher than 1080p. There is a bit more performance loss using the internal lcd. That is due to the bandwidth consumption sending the display signal back across the GA connection, and the inefficiencies of optimus. But that performance loss is reduced as well at higher resolutions and depends on the application. For me, that performance loss is negligible compared to the convenience of using the internal lcd.

Firestrike standard 1080p
internal lcd- standard:12140, gpu:15778
external lcd- standard:13500, gpu:18175
(for comparison) stock 980 ti review (tweaktown)- standard:14729, gpu:16551

Firestrike extreme 1440p
internal lcd- standard:7376, gpu:8005
external lcd- standard:7602, gpu:8288
(for comparison) stock 980 ti review (tweaktown)- standard:7459, gpu:7758

Firestrike ultra 4k
internal lcd- standard:4005, gpu:3981
external lcd- standard:4220, gpu:4242
(for comparison) stock 980 ti review (tweaktown)- standard:3966, gpu:3861

unigine heaven extreme preset 1080p
internal lcd- score:2198, avg fps:87.3
external lcd- score:2244, avg fps:89.1
(for comparison) evga 980 ti SC+ review (bjorn3d)- avg fps: 88.1

unigine heaven extreme preset 1440p
internal lcd- score:1361, avg fps:54
external lcd- score:1381, avg fps:54.8
(for comparison) evga 980 ti SC+ review (bjorn3d)- avg fps: 55.1

unigine heaven extreme preset 4k
internal lcd- score:593, avg fps:23.5
external lcd- score:600, avg fps:23.8

gtaV very high no AA benchmark 1080p
internal lcd:
Frames Per Second (Higher is better) Min, Max, Avg
Pass 0, 13.062969, 91.780815, 77.471375
Pass 1, 27.667458, 109.687256, 88.188591
Pass 2, 51.935741, 137.658279, 90.827003
Pass 3, 39.709549, 123.895241, 95.559357
Pass 4, 7.946747, 150.061066, 87.157463

external lcd:
Frames Per Second (Higher is better) Min, Max, Avg
Pass 0, 18.053827, 102.348694, 86.312057
Pass 1, 32.292980, 121.404762, 97.630402
Pass 2, 61.625320, 143.444626, 98.850891
Pass 3, 41.294220, 138.785797, 106.680756
Pass 4, 8.407130, 190.922775, 92.774597

(for comparison) evga 980 ti SC+ review (techpowerup)- avg fps: 89.7

gtaV very high no AA benchmark 4k
internal lcd:
Frames Per Second (Higher is better) Min, Max, Avg
Pass 0, 9.223322, 81.862480, 52.965233
Pass 1, 22.790680, 76.524788, 48.075439
Pass 2, 27.901260, 79.533005, 50.313683
Pass 3, 27.051821, 96.771362, 55.888512
Pass 4, 5.986435, 118.942825, 50.993855

(for comparison) evga 980 ti SC+ review (hardwarecanucks)- avg fps: 52.4

 

@kakashisensei The difference between your numbers from the internal LCD and external LCD are pretty similar to the difference I see when I use the GTX 960.
Hmm... I wonder why. The bandwidth on the 13 is almost half compared to the 15 and 17 R2. I'm guessing the bandwidth consumption for using the internal LCD is either the same or proportional on all three laptops.

 

Been reading a little backwards, and I can see some still struggle with the amp.
Is there a issue, or have Dell/AW fixed most of it?
I'm thinking of buying the 15" Core i7 and a 970m, with a external display ACER pred isp G sync + 980ti,

How is the noise from the cpu with the amp? And how noisy is the amp itself? Like the fan and the psu?

 

The PSU isn't loud, but the fan in the GA is. I recommend unplugging it.
The GTX 980 ti is not a supported GPU for the GA yet. It should be in the coming months.
Most of the problems with the GA have been fixed.

 

So I got my 980ti running in my graphics amp. Getting a firestrike combined score of 11,480 and like 17000 graphics. Witcher 3 maxed out runs at a 47-51 fps {1080p) which seems very very low for such a card. I know my cpu is bottlenecking but this seems a bit disappointing. How do I oc the CPU a bit? never used XTU

 

How can I tell if the BIOS setting for the CPU overclock when using the GA is working?
Does this BIOS setting actually do anything?

 

Are you using an external monitor or the laptop's panel? Are you also using Hairworks and such?

With the AW13, it works if you have the i5-4210u. It doesn't work for the Broadwell CPUs.

 

Im using external via Dual Dvi @144hz. hair works is enabled as well as everything else except vsync, in dense forest it drops to like 42.
Crysis 3 all maxed goes to abouit 54 with enemies and action on screen, inside it gets 73-77. All in all seems like something is a bit off. Noi thermal throttle as I made some agressive fan profiles and hwinfo says it didnt go over 75degrees

 

http://www.techspot.com/review/1011-nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-ti/
http://www.techspot.com/review/1011-nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-ti/page6.html
According to this review, your Crysis 3 and Witcher 3 performance seems about right. Well, I say seems since the Crysis 3 used there had MSAA on, so maybe if you turned it on, you would achieve a similar result.

 

Hello.

Today I got my Asus Titan X and try it already, but something seems wrong.

I have only 60% GPU usage by GPU-Z and my CPU not OC and seems not push to standard limits. FPS ingame lower then on 980m I also have 4980HQ. Maybe some advice?

 

I love my MSI AMD Radeon R9 390X!!!

,

 

Thos

Those are 1600p and 4k resolution. Im getting these frames on 1080p

 

Shoot, I thought I read 1080p. Sorry.

 

What I really love about my 390x is that I get no lags or throttling no matter what setting I use!!!

 

How do you know this? Why doesn't Nvidia make this clear? Or am I just too cloudy?

 

Because a couple people over at AWA confirmed that their i5-4210u hit 2.6 GHz on both cores.
This isn't Nvidia's fault. Not sure how you came to that conclusion. It's either Alienware's or Intel's. This is the CPU we're talking about, not the GPU.

 

Sorry, I meant Dell. It would be nice to here some facts from Dell's engineering (not marketing) department instead of user experiments. I don't suppose it matters much unless I'm concerned with CPU throttling on a $600 or more GPU, which I'm not. (I have a GTX 960 4GB in the GA) I just wanted clarification about a hardware (and company) specific BIOS setting. I guess I'll just turn the 'feature' off and forget about it.

 

It might be a CPU limitation (so something on Intel's end). I haven't seen any benchmarks with overclocked mobile Broadwell CPUs, and I'm pretty sure there could have been one by now.

 

Can anyone confirm that GA CPU overclocking does not work with bios A01 and after on AW15/17? I had it working on bios A02. The cpu meters were showing 3.4-3.5ghz on four cores, 3.7ghz on one core. But on A00, it does not work, regardless of the bios settings. I cannot even get XTU to overclock on bios A00. I am using A00 because of the better temps and fan profile.

 

I use XTU for OC - however, I have my performance set to level 1 (If I recall correctly) under the bios OC under graphics amplifier attached options. This is on Bios A00 and it loads everytime I have the GA plugged in without issue.

 

Working on my overclock with the 970 in the AGA still. Latest heaven bench running on 1080p ultra / extreme 4xAA. Currently hitting around 1600mhz on core and 8100hmz or memory with it running stable. This heaven bench has been running for 2 hours at these settings. I'll run through my data log file later and see if there were any hiccups.


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Tried again and I can get XTU to work with A00 bios. I had to turn off options, save settings, turn on options again. But I can't get GA OC to work without XTU.

How do you have XTU apply OC profiles at startup. I noticed whenever I switch between GA and dedicated gpu, it reverts back to default in XTU.

 

XTU changes every time you unplug the graphics amplifier because it reboots for the sake of drivers I'm assuming. When it does this XTU acts as if this was a crash. I have to reset XTU between boot ups if I unplug the graphics amplifier. Which is good anyway because my overclock on the AGA is a lot higher than the overclock I get from not being on the amplifier. To get it to automatically overclock when I plug in the AGA you can use the AGA overclock options under bios as said above. Enable Overclocking. Then enter setup. Enable performance level 1 and you can change your multipliers as well as your base clock (don't though the base clock changes will crash the load). You can also set Max TDP wattage if I recall correctly. I can screen shot it this evening if you'd like.


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For some reason it just cannot get the AGA overclock to work without XTU. I have the GA connected. It was working before on A02 bios.

 

Are you saying the bios overclock does not work? It should load regardless of XTU. Though loading XTU may default your overclock back to stock once loaded. Use CPU-z to check your CPU settings saved in bios after a fresh restart with the overclock enabled.


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I have a messed up problem and it looks like i'm not the only one. Using the 980ti/amplifier with the 353.62 driver doesn't work. The problem is windows 10 requires you to use that driver so if I want to use windows 10 i'm forced to not use my 980ti w/ amplifier, that's not gonna happen. I know it's the driver because if i use windows 8.1 with the 353.30 driver it's fine, but once i install the 353.62 driver in windows 8.1 i get the same exact results where the 980ti wont work.

From the way it looks online the 980ti will work with that driver fine outside of the amplifier, it's only in the amplifier that it wont work with that driver. This really sucks cause i'm forced to use windows 8.1 still. I've tried every way i could think of in order to try and get card working, nothing worked.

 

Do your sources online say that the 980ti specifically doesn't work with 353.62 on Win10? Or any nVidia card in the AGA?
I have a GTX 970 in my AGA and am holding off updating to Win10 until there's proven support for the AGA on Win10.

 

So far i've heard no issues with any other card. The only issue is with the 980 ti that i've read. The problem is it's so early that i've only heard back from one other forum user that is having the exact same issue that i'm having. I haven't heard from anyone who's running the 980ti w/ amplifier successfully using 353.62. If you're runing a 970 or 980 you should be good.

 

Have the same issue. Graphics Amp and 980ti is not working. Driver reads as corrupt. After 2 hours on the ohone with alienware they are eacalating the issue to NVIDIA. Will keep you updated. It is definitely the drivers, i used my 980ti + amp with win 8.1 with no issues. Now with win 10 and the new driver its not working.

 

Yup and it's not actually windows 10 since installing the 353.62 driver on windows 8.1 will cause the same exact corrupt issue. Windows 10 just sucks because it forces you to use the new driver. At least with 8.1 i can use the 353.30 driver.

 

I figured out a solution for the 980ti w/ amplifier and windows 10. I got it to work by disabling the auto updates that windows 10 does and then manually installing the 353.30 windows 10 driver. After that everything is working.

 

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5545592
10942 Firestrike score for the 4710 and 970 in the AGA

 

http://www.3dmark.com/3dm11/10132396
and Today's 3DMark11 score 13770

 

@ Brother Reptileexperts.

I am really getting some intrest to get a AW17 R2 with AGA at gtx 970 or R9 390. Just want to know For gaming Benchmarks Does A Gtx 970 with Aga Perform the same as in when its in a desktop Machine ?

If you have some Latest Game Benchmarks or Videos in Youtube it woud be really appreciated

 

Depending on how you game / what you game / where you game / how often will be your cost vs benefit reasoning. If this is going to stay at home anyway, build a custom PC with SLI 970's for around the same price as just the 17 R2, but with a 4790k processor and water cooling. If home use is only part of the time, and you want to utilize it as a docking station, make sure to save some money on your laptop and go with the 970M then add the AGA with a 970 inside.

I can upload some stuff from shadowplay later with benchmarks for GTA V, and some game play if needed. It handles nearly everything I throw at it maxed out at 1080p Ultra Wide Screen (2560 x 1080) and typically holds 60 fps. You lose about 5-10% performance in the AGA versus the desktop. My particular 970 is the Nvidia branded with Titan cooler (best buy / Nvidia exclusive). It has a custom Vbios I spent a good deal of time working with to put a power cap of 148%, and a core clock at 1305 mhz Core memory at 3750 - and it will overclock to 1562 core, and 4050 Memory before any issues occur.

What game is your primary interest?

 

Thank you for your reply. Currently I am a graduate student and doing my masters. So every semester I have to move around due to exchange programs.

Currently I have a m18x r2 with gtx 780m used to be gtx 780m sli. But one card has problems. So only stuck with single gtx 780m for now.

I am currently looking at a lot of options and considerations. Really wanted to build a very slim portable tiny quad core pc with single gtx 970 or r9 390 (with no monitor), as I will connect it to my M18x via the Hdmi In port and use the m18x screen as a monitor.

Also recently with searches finding out that gtx 780m sli is better or almost euqal to gtx 970 anyway. Dont know about Game Performance though. If I add another gtx 780m it will cost me around 300 to 350 Euro.

I have Z77 mini itx mobo laying around. I can get some used 3770k+gtx 970 and other pc parts (total will cost me around 700 Euro)

I am not a Hardcore Gamer but whenever I play games I play it maxed out at 1080p with 40 to 60 fps and no lag. I play games like GTA V, Arkham Knight, Hitman, Tomb Raider, Watch Dogs etc. Mainly Third Person games. Occasionally play good Fps like Crysis, Far Cry series when they are really good.

Recently the dilemma hitting me is maybe gtx 780m Sli @ 1000 on the core will beat a Gtx 970 oced even in games. But adding a second gtx 780m again, I need to mod, tweak, buy and maintain a lot of things on my m18x r2 and also my m18x r2 is over 3 years old now. I like browsing webs, movies, youtubing on it a lot on this big 18.4 inch screen. Heck I still want to run it for day to day tasks even for 2 more years till June 2017. But I really dont know whether it will last that long or not and I dont want to invest on it too much unless its up gradable to gtx 1080m next year.

Also sometimes when I travel around I really find it very heavy and difficult carrying my m18x in my back as the laptop itself is 5.5 kg and power brick is 1.5 kg.

So third option I came across is Alienware 17 R2 with Aga. As its around 3.8 kg and I dunno how much does the power brick weigh in. What I was thinking is when I travel. I will just use gtx 970m and will not carry the AGA. AGA I will just leave it with my friends and relatives and get it back from them when I return to my place and game with AGA during my semester time which is majority of the time. So it will be really portable and helpful for me to carry around.

But does gtx 970 beat gtx 780m sli in games?? Also I am saving up and waiting for some cash to come in. For the time being it seems If I just buy another gtx 780m and a new power brick and game with gtx 780m sli it will beat gtx 970 anyway or so i think??

Till next Gtx 1070 or whatever when it comes i think that gpu at USD 300~350 Price will be the best Gpu for Aga right?? Then should I start saving now and maybe during new year next year I just wait for AW 17 R3 with Skylake Quad Cpu and Gtx 1070m cpu and buy it with AGA with desktop Gtx 1070. Hopefully Aw 17 R3 will be lighter too may 3 to 3.2 kg.

So I am really thinking and going through these dilemmas now. By the Some questions I have:

1. Can Aw 17 R2 do hybrid sli? With desktop gtx 970 and gtx 970m? Then it is a clear winner over gtx 780m sli

2. Can you do some games benchmark with Gtx 970 of Aga with 1080p maxed out of some games like Crysis 3, Far Cry 4, Tomb Raider, Hitman Absolution, Witcher 3, Shadow of Mordor, Arkham Knight, Metro Last Light, GTA V etc. if you can. I really want to see it how it compares with a Desktop with a Gtx 970 and Gtx 780m Sli Oced if I find some benches.


3. What is the wattage of the power brick? Can a 240 W brick be used? And How much does it weigh?

4. You lose about 5-10% performance in the AGA versus the desktop. as you mentioned. Why is that happening actually?

5. How Much Maxed Oced Can you do do for Cpu on all four cores and also on the gtx 970 (AGA) while you game?

 

I own a AW17 R2 and recently purchased a new AGA from Dell for $99.

I also ordered a EVGA 980Ti to live inside the enclosure.

I am running Windows 10 (64-bit) with a 980M. No issues.

I have an external LCD I can use for gaming 1920x1440 and, of course, the internal 1080 LCD.

It's going to bridge my laptop/desktop gaming needs.

What graphics adapter package do I install for them both to work? I will be using the system 50/50 attached to the AGA. Do I have to switch between desktop/mobile drivers for every switch?

Any issues with the EVGA 980Ti in Windows 10?

Thanks all.

BTW - the external monitor is a Apple iMac (27") with DisplayPort.

 

How did you get for 99 usd bro?

 

Currently on sale at Dell for $199 and I had a $100 store credit from my AW17 exchange debacle.

 

I got the AGA for free with Dell rewards by opening a dell credit account to buy the AW13.
It almost made the price for everything worth it.

 

dell alienware amplifier cost around 700 usd
so only titan x or some limited edition 980 ti (eg galax hof ln)make the purchase worth
at least thats my country offer

 

Haven't seen it mentioned on this thread, but there is an update to the AGA software from Dell for Windows 10. It's up to 1.0.27 (from 1.0.24).

 

Hi, I have been doing some research on this Graphics Amp and your score seems great. Have you done OC on your CPU or GPU? Also I have been looking into this thread and I couldn't find exact info on performance loss for laptops equipped with 4710hq/4720hq, could you share your info on this please? According to firestrike results Oculus Rift recommended specs (gtx970/i5 4590) gets 9.2k points and you almost got 11k. That seems great.