6 Posts
0
6093
17 R4, AGA?
I'm having some overheating/throttling problems with my GTX 1080 in flight sim (DCS to be exact). The temps got from 47C (Idling) to as high as 88C in the sim, when stuttering/Framerate pauses start occuring. I've cleaned fans/screen, propped it up for better airflow, no effect. As I will likely build a dedicated gaming PC in the next year or so I started shopping for an AGA (Alienware Graphics Amplifier) at Dell (Spain) thinking I can move the new graphics card to a new full size box later on.. The issue is on the Dell site it says: "This product is compatible with the following systems: Alienware 13 and Alienware 17 R2 (Ok, this solved by the FAQ, sorry for missing that). It's Dell (Spain) Part number is 452-BBQP. To add to the confusion I went to Dell (US) and it shows a Dell part number of 452-BCFE. The question is actually two parts. First, is the 452-BBQP good for my R4 (which is actually a US machine) and second, will a full length RTX 2080 fit in it? Thank you!
GPatricks
6 Posts
1
August 3rd, 2019 14:00
The AGA arrived early this week and I bought a new Gigabyte RTX 2080 to use in it, arrived Thursday. First thing I saw was that the side of the AGA is not wide enough to close properly with the 2080 installed, it flares out about 1/4" with contact to the top of the video card, they clearly did not make the enclosure wide enough (or they could have positioned the board/PSU over about 5mm to solve this. The top will close fully, just not properly, and it does not impact the function of either card or AGA. Second issue is the Gigabyte card requires a full size DP cable, and I had a mini-DP-full DP for the Alienware 17 R4, so off to the store I went and got one. I installed the AGA drivers (why doesn't the AGA Install sheet mention them?), shut down, and plugged everything in. I was running the latest (430.61?) drivers with the GTX 1080 and downloaded the latest RTX 2080 (notebook) drivers to have for installation. On reboot the system reverted to the Intel video on the laptop screen (vs. my extended monitor), but it showed the RTX 2080 in device manager, so I tried to install the drivers.. They bounced with an error about not being compatible. Tried updating the drivers through Device Manager and it said a reboot was needed, so reboot it is. Upon rebooting all went great, it reverted to my LG G-Sync monitor and off I went. Only weird thing is GForce Experience show the drivers being 430.86 from 5/27/19 and the latest available, seems like there should be newer drivers but works fine sooo. Ran 3DMark and it went from 6,175 to 9,350 and Timespy went from 6,785 to 10,643.. Temps have dropped by about 20% for the GPU and 10% for the CPU, if nothing else should help longevity until I build..
TomC69
33 Posts
0
August 1st, 2019 00:00
After +1.5 years of using my 17r4 (i7 7700hq, gtx1060 6gb, 32gb ram) with an AGA w/gtx1080ti I would strongly recommend that you skip an intermediate AGA option, especially since you already have an internal gtx1080. Just adjust your simulator graphics setting and/or apply some additional cooling (thermal paste and/or a base cooler) in order to get your temps down a bit. I don't think that anything up to 80-84 deg C should be a problem.
One thing you should be aware of is that you will need to use an external gaming monitor (preferably with DisplayPort) and only display to it in order to get the best out of an AGA.
In fact, you may actually get ~10% better performance using an external gaming monitor (mine is an old Asus vg248 qe 144hz) connected to your mini DP since this will allow you to bypass your internal integrated intel igpu by using your win10 display settings and only projecting to your external monitor.
One problem I found with the AGA is that while it took the load off my internal gpu, it reduced the internal fans and I think it may have resulted in higher cpu temps. Over the past 1.5 years Dell has replaced 3x motherboards. The last one (~1.5 months ago) also included replacing cpu and gpu fans. Dell support has been great and has repaired these at no cost to me, even though my last repair was out of warranty.
I have now bit the bullet and bought a custom made gaming desktop pc with an i9 9900k (water cooled) and moved my AGA's gtx1080ti over to this. I will probably replace this with a better gpu in the future, but for now this works much better (at least 30% better with X Plane 11 VR w/Oculus Rift) than previously.
I have kept my 17r4 as a backup but I will never use it with an AGA ever again. It actually worked pretty well with its internal gtx1060 6gb gpu with most VR apps. Even X Plane 11 and Assetto Corsa VR sims worked ok, albeit at lower graphics settings.
So, if I were you I would just work with what you have, buy a good external gaming monitor, and save up for a good desktop gaming PC. Your $'s so your choice.
GPatricks
6 Posts
0
August 1st, 2019 03:00
TomC69
33 Posts
0
August 1st, 2019 14:00
Good luck with all that and please let us know how you make out. Cheers.
OldTimerGrumpy
4 Posts
0
October 13th, 2023 00:43
Some few years later and I still found this discussion very helpful. I have an R4 17 I purchased just a year ago to enjoy a laptop without a chiclet We have an AGA about the house that was used with an R2 (I think) probably when my son was gaming. I never understood the purpose of the AGA and had hoped perhaps it could serve as a dock providing extra USB's as well as graphics connection. Ultimately settled on a simple USB-C hub ... wordprocessing doesn't need the enhanced graphics even if I type as fast as I can ;) but I appreciated learning about the AGA in a performance context.