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1706
April 12th, 2016 21:00
Upgrading Alienware Aurora R4 Video cards question
Hi there!
I purchased the following Aurora R4 2 years ago:
I am wanting to purchase an upgrade for my video cards, as they have become extremely sluggish and one constantly crashes when multitasking a game and using a second monitor.
Is my system able to support upgrading to a GTX980ti? How am I able to determine what video cards I am able to install to upgrade my system. Would I need a new PSU? Or is my current one satisfactory?
Also, a noob question about my bios. I currently run the Alienware A11 firmware. Is this the latest? I have an annoying issue whenever I try to restart my PC, it hangs on the bios launch. I have to shutdown completely and turn my PC off in order for my PC to load. I have tried a full reformat, however this issue remains.
Thanks for any additional help!
AAA737flyer
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757 Posts
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April 13th, 2016 12:00
Just to confirm Tesla's answers, I have been running an EVGA 980ti on an Aurora R1 (2009) with an i7 990x chip.
You have plenty of ram, chip, and power. You did not list your monitor type and if you don't have a 2K or 4K monitor, 27 inch or so, you may be getting more video card than you need. A GTX 780 sli is pretty much the same performance as a 980ti.
Not sure what lag you are experiencing with your cards or the cause of the crashes, but I suspect it is something other than the cards. If you have disabled the page filing because you are using a SSD you may want to re-enable page filing and see if that helps. Hopefully your cards have been kept somewhat clean of dust, etc... as that can affect their performance.
I had two 6950 in xf when I bought the 980ti. I like the single card setup much better. The 980 single card will also reduce the watts needed and will run quieter and cooler than a SLi. The 980ti (non-reference cards) fans remain at idle until things heat up. Makes for a quiet system but I would suggest modifying the fan curve to run tha fans at lower temps.
If you can wait a few more months you might see some price changes and enhancements to the 980ti as VR starts to take hold.
Forgot to add these two links:
http://www.hwcompare.com/18812/geforce-gtx-980-ti-vs-geforce-gtx-780/
Tesla1856
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April 13th, 2016 11:00
1. Yes, but just a single one.
2. No
3. Yes, it is (since it is the 875watt version)
JDIGS
4 Posts
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November 28th, 2016 02:00
Thanks for the above replies, even if they were from earlier in the year.
I still havent upgraded my graphics cards and I am still after some advice.
Most games that I play do not support SLi games. Therefore making the duel 780 setup redundant.
With the release of the 1080's, what would be the most up to date card that anyone would recommend purchasing based upon my above setup.
Also, are there any other aspects to my system that I should now consider looking at replacing? The processor seems to still be fairly in touch with todays technology, however the SSD and perhaps the RAM could be upgraded.
I also never did disable page filing for my current SSD. It was set to whatever came pre-installed.
My 780's sit at around the 80oC temperate when gaming, sometimes they move to 82-83. I had contemplated overclocking them to see what extra performance I could get, however I think it is well and truly now time to simply upgrade the cards. Especially when, in its majority, I am only ever using the one card.
Thanks for any answers in advance.