Installing Alienware Amplifier w/ GTX 1080 on X51 R3

Hello,

My understanding of the AGA is that you will install the 1080 into the AGA and then boot up with it connected and install the drivers from Dell that support the AGA.  The key word there is the drivers designed for the AGA, don't go to NVIDIA's website as their drivers do not support the AGA (supposedly). But you should not need to uninstall the GTX 970's drivers.  If you wanted though, I suppose you could take the 970 out of the X51 and sell it on eBay or to a friend for $200+.  eBay can help you price it better, but its not chump change.  Your not going to use it so you might as well sell it (plus its just wasting electricity and making heat so I would recommend taking it out anyways).

Let me know how it goes.

So in theory this should auto detect when you plug it in and it should prompt you to install the AGA drivers? Or?

Do you even need to download the nVidia drivers at all?

Can anyone weigh-in with their steps that has this setup?

I did actually find this if you want to look at it.

NVIDIA users should be using the 344.60 version of the mobile driver (or newer). There are two scenarios to consider: 

1. User has never installed an NVIDIA desktop driver:

        A. Just update the NVIDIA mobile driver when prompted to the newest version of the NVIDIA mobile driver.

2. User has installed an NVIDIA desktop driver:

        A. Shutdown the Alienware notebook and disconnect the Alienware Graphics Amplifier.
        
        B. Boot the Alienware notebook without the Alienware Graphics Amplifier attached and uninstall all NVIDIA      drivers.
        
        C. Download and install the latest NVIDIA retail notebook driver. The NVIDIA retail notebook driver contains all     desktop cards GTX660 and newer that can be supported in the Alienware Graphics Amplifier. 

At this time, you can plug in and use the Alienware Graphics Amplifier without reinstalling any desktop driver and have full functionality of your NVIDIA desktop card. The discrete NVIDIA video cards installed in the amplifier must be using the SAME mobile driver that is installed in the Alienware notebook. That driver should be sufficient to use both NVIDIA GPUs without any problems.

If you have questions regarding the above let me know.

I came across this post. So I am on the X51 which isn't a notebook. What drivers should I install? Also once it's installed can I install the up to date 1080 drivers from nVidia?

Not understanding why there aren't any clear cut instructions on how to do this properly from Dell or Alienware.

It's not a special driver.  Just the latest direct from NVIDIA will work.

Perfect thanks Chris. These were the similar steps I went through. I wanted to add the following:

1) When installing the 1080 in the Amplifier I noticed there is only enough pins to use either the brown or yellow connectors—went with the yellow connectors.

2) Upon booting it up with the Amplifier plugged in I got a black screen, I then disconnected my HDMI from the Amplifier and reconnected my HDMI connection to the 970 card in the X51 and saw a prompt to reboot to use the Amplifier.

3) After rebooting, I noticed I was getting a black screen, rechecked my connections with the card and amp and went with the brown connectors and rebooted. (unsure if there is any correlation to which ones to use)

4) Once the video signal returned I installed the latest 1080 drivers from nVidia for my OS version.

5) Gold!

It takes me a couple of boots to get my A15 R1 to switch between internal GPU and AGA.  The connectors don't matter, both provide power.  Some cards actually use more than the 8 pin, but the 1080 only uses one 8 pin.