Alienware Graphics Amplifier or Thunderbolt 3? eGPU Comparison
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- Опубликовано: 4 окт 2024
- Alienware Graphics Amplifier (AGA) or a generic Thunderbolt 3 enclosure? Which external graphics solution should you pick to improve your gaming laptop? In this video I’ll cover the differences between the two and also provide benchmarks of different games at different setting levels with different resolutions so that you can see the performance differences between Alienware’s graphics amplifier and a Thunderbolt 3 eGPU.
US Pricing at Amazon:
Alienware Graphics Amplifier: amzn.to/2Danuw9
Mantiz Venus Thunderbolt 3 eGPU enclosure: amzn.to/2G6CjDT
Aorus RTX 2080 Ti: amzn.to/2D4YVR6
Alienware M15: amzn.to/2SZhZXH
UK Pricing at Amazon:
Alienware Graphics Amplifier: amzn.to/2Egwdi7
Aorus RTX 2080 Ti: amzn.to/2DT21bn
Alienware M15: amzn.to/2TUNpPu
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Nice, wanted to see a comparison like this for a while
It's finally here!
You don't need to explain your graphs to anyone. They are simply the best graphs of any of the TechTuber's! Hell, a lot of them manage to make confusing graphs with 2 colours!
Great work as always Jarrod.
@Macho Ricky I guess you haven't seen Linus' abominations then have you?
Just trying to help out the people who cry about them 😛
@@JarrodsTech I appreciate you explaining the graph, as watching it on a phone and glancing at your video quickly while I multi task makes it difficult to take it all in one first glance.
When you explain it I can look quickly see what you mean and take all the information in on all future graphs.
Do not assume everyone is giving their full attention to watching your video. Some of us play content in the background while we work and do not have a bunch of time to stare at the video for the full duration.
Sorry not sorry if you think that's crying and to the Original Poster I'm not sure where you get off thinking he can or can not do anything he wants on his own channel?
If people are "crying" for explanations for his graphs he is doing the right thing by providing them with it.
💯
I love listening your voice, comparing to Linus.. he talk for 20mins and in the end he said nothing.. but you zip it in a 5min video and give all informations that I need. thanks!
Haha cheers
I had been trying to figure out his accent for a few videos I've seen now, figured it out today. He sounds like Boris the animal in MiB lmao. Not trying to be offensive, sorry if it seems so.
i was literally looking for a video like this this morning
Perfect timing!
This is great info. I wish more RUclipsrs would cover the pros and cons of Gaming Laptops vs Gaming Desktops vs eGPUs as a whole. I feel like a gaming laptop is best for me, but I can't find any info on say a 2080 Super in a gaming laptop vs a desktop vs using it as an eGPU. It'd be great to see how they stack up and what you're missing out on for portability.
Another big factor you want to look into is the frametime comparison. I noticed more frequent stuttering when using TB3 enclosure where AGA giving very smooth framerate.
Yeah I guess I was hoping that would be somewhat viewable by 1% low, maybe I should have included 0.1% too but thought that was overkill.
So happy to have discovered your channel. You answered all my questions! I think I will go with the Dell xps17 and just run an external GPU. Battery life is important to me but I don't plan on hardcore gaming. Just some old racing games (trackmania, Grid 2, and maybe some F1). I will definitely be using Lightroom and some zoom conference calling. Some of us want a gaming laptop setup without the gaming laptop look/cosmetics. This really makes it perfect. Keep up the great work champ!
i have never seen a this thype of video in anywhere. When i see the video title i said ‘it’s defenetely jarrod’s tech’ :) great job again bro :)
Thanks!
If I were to go that route: I would go Thunderbolt3 over graphics amp.
Reasons:
- I can use the internal screen with TB3 gpu
- With a compact egpu enclosure (Gigabyte Aurous Gaming Box comes to mind), you have a good portable gaming system. I have limited space/travel so this makes more sense to me.
That being said, going EGPU seems worthless as the 1070 is fast enough for a laptop (and faster then some desktops).
Honestly though I don't see a need for either with a powerful system like the m15. Now if there was an m15 with iGPU or a
LordHigh Binary I want to see an m13 as an alternative to the Razer Blade Stealth. 13 inches with an MX150 seems like the sweet spot to have a very light and portable laptop with enough graphical power to at least play some low tier game without an eGPU. Once you go 14 inches and above, you could get 1060 equipped laptops which are way heavier and really doesn’t make sense to spend $500 more in an eGPU when your laptop comes with a 1060.
Yeah it seems more beneficial if your laptop has lower end graphics, though the problem with that is usually the CPUs are lower end too which can be an issue as we saw when I tested the TB3 enclosure with the Razer Blade Stealth.
@Ale Zuvic, what the problem is (for me) I would like a 6-8 core (high powered) laptop, with decent battery/batterylife, tb3 and < 1050 gtx graphics. The problem is these things do not seem to exist (yet).
You can use the internal screen with the alienware amp.
@popeldragon, Did not know that. All reviewers don'tseem to mention that or imply it's possible. That being said, it's still a bit bulky if you wanted a system on the go though :(.
Built my own egpu using the express port of my Alienware computer. 4x off the pcie, don’t have thunderbolt or the external port for a gpu. Works great with a Titan X
Glad to see such a detailed review. This is long overdue from tech youtubers, following this videos popularity more are gonna flock and make the same video😴
Cheers! Haha we'll see 😛
2:20 You CAN definitely use the AW Amplifier with the laptop's own screen as I have been doing this for 10 months now using the Amplifier+1080ti with my AW 13 R3 own OLED screen and it works perfectly, I have also read but didn't test the fact that the performance is about the same with the AW amplifier if you use it with external monitor or internal AW laptop screen.
Indeed, like I said though "as far as I'm aware", at the time I found no evidence of being able to do this, however others have since informed me that you can do this.
@@JarrodsTech Your video was very informative and the only one I found for 2019 as I was quickly searching if there have been any updates or improvements with the thunderbolt eGPU compared to the AW amplifier and it appears nothing has changed performance-wise the amplifier still performs better
This is SOOOOOOOOOO good. Thank you for doing this!
Great, been waiting for something like this in ages!
👌
I dont understand why some of the cpu intensive games are better in TB3 when theyre both running everything the same apart from the graphics if the amp is better on more graphically demanding games? Does the AW TB3 have 4x pcie? Im assuming it does. Whats the AW connections bandwith? TB3 is 40gb/s but apparently uses quite a bit less for egpu as some of it is reserved for encoding/display/data (according to a couple of sources).
Yes, their website says 40gbps and 4 lane.
This videos is so helpful! I just learned about the amplifier port today and was wondering about the performance of it vs thunderbolt if I want to use an egpu to lengthen the viability of the laptop if I buy a new Alienware...
Alas, this would still not be something my bank account or credit score is looking forward to.
Good to hear! Yeah it costs a bit, but at least it's an option for later 😃
If only laptop manufacturers put a mini pcie slot in the rear of the lappy. Then you could use the cheap GDC Beast and get the full X16 pcie experience.
Yeah would be nice if it was a standard of some sort rather than alienware only
Nice and efficient. Thank you for taking the time and for not wasting MY time. Subscribed 🙋🏾♂️
Thanks! Welcome to the channel!
Awesome work man (y) Glad to see some actual proper testing and info! Not going to lie low key miss the FFXV benchmarks :P
Thanks! I've never tested that game 😛
Well this solidified my decision in purchasing the graphics amplifier. I have a 17R5 Alienware laptop with a 4k screen. This will boost its power to take full advantage of said screen. Thank you.
Sounds good!
Thank you for this. I just got an Alienware Area-51M and I was concerned about the heating issue with the GPU and all. As it's a RTX 2080 (OC Ready, not MAX-Q). The amplifier would be my fallback solution to preserve the longevity of my laptop's thermal pads. I did intend to build a simple and cheap-ish desktop using a GTX 980 Ti card, but I suppose I can use the amplifier and shove the card in there instead for not so graphics intensive games from time to time, that way I can keep my Alienware's thermal pads from severe heat beatings unless I travel with the system. :)
Hmm I wonder if you'd actually see better performance with a 2080 Ti in the eGPU 🤔 maybe a little as it's better than Thunderbolt, but yeah big diminishing returns there.
@@JarrodsTech I'm curious too, it might even be close, seeing as there would still be some sort of bottleneck for speed over the amplifier compared to desktop systems. I'm all about longevity. I haven't bought a laptop in 10 years (until now), my first laptop is still hanging around from 2010, I upgraded every part possible inside that thing and recently got a SSD for it, which really gave it life, but the GPU on that thing can't play any games in our time. Hahah. Love your review videos, keep up the good work!
Thanks for doing an updated comparison. I’m surprised by the results that TB3 can get a lot closer to AGA now, and you raised the issue I have of owning an AGA and getting stuck as I want to change to Razer after seeing how cheap the m15 feels in person despite being similarly priced to Razer Blade in Australia.
No problem! Yeah the AGA also seems a fair bit cheaper than most TB3 options too 🤔 I wish there was some sort of standard for external PCIe so we don't have to use TB3.
Great video! As much as I don't like that the Core V2's TB3 underperforms against Alienware's proprietary solution, there doesn't exist an Alienware laptop as conveniently light and portable as the stealth blade that I'm rocking. Hard core graphics are for my desk, and fixing friend's PCs and Jackbox party nights are for outside the house. It's also of note that Alienware officially discontinued adding the amplifier port to future machines back in June 2020, so I'll just ride the wave of TB3 and TB4.
We need more content like this. There is so much misinformation out there comparing egpu's to the graphics amp. Sure Dell's solution is proprietary, but it's straight up better and cheaper. Plus unlike most egpu units you can swap/upgrade the psu and fan.
For me if I had a thin and light Alienware laptop the Graphics Amp is an easy sell. For anything else I would build a cheap gaming pc and get a cheap laptop for on the go.
Yeah makes sense I think if you already have an Alienware laptop and want more power.
The problem with the Amplifier is that it’s Alienware exclusive, and an eGPU is a big investment to lock yourself out of other brands for future laptop upgrades. And sadly Alienware doesn’t sell a really ultralight laptop. I’d love to see a Razer Blade Stealth alternative by Alienware.
Maybe they will release an m13 one day. But seeing the temps of the m15 I'm not holding my breath.
@@AlejandroLZuvic since when is 180usd a big investment compared to buying a new gaming laptop, get your head out of your ass
Running an Alienware eGPU hooked up to an Alpha R2. Was best option for me for an upgrade as I couldn't afford to build a new rig at the time. Haven't had any complaints/issues to think of.
Good to hear!
we can use Alienware graphics amplifier with the laptop screen as the display
Cool
wait... wait... so, say I want to use the display of my m17 to connect my ps4 to it, would it display the video coming from the ps4?
Subscribed. Thanks for covering a niche product. In the market of looking for an egpu right now
No problem, welcome to the channel!
NOICE!
I just scored a refurb 13r3 OLED with a little measly 1050 gtx
I just wanted it for basic web browsing and as my main hub PC for banking , work emails etc.
It's nice to know I have options for serious gaming with an external GPU.
Sweet, hope it goes well!
The problem I see with these is that due to the lower performance of H series chips laptops are much more prone to being CPU bound than desktops and games are increasing pretty rapidly in their CPU requirements, therefore while you might get another generation or two out of your laptop with one of these its still not going to last super long
Perhaps, depends on the game. Also if you use 1440p/4K the CPU will be less relevant, if you can make it more GPU bound you can keep getting more use out of the eGPU.
Great video man! :) I am curious as my current laptop is still well with a 1060 but in thr future this might be handy
Thanks!
Hey Jarrod, very good videos from your channel! I only wish you can add in GTAV to the comparisons, since I really like to play on it and I find it could be a great game at 4K resolutions, this which also helps with benchmarking. Thank you, keep up!
Thanks. I stopped testing GTA V quite a while ago as it doesn't have built in setting presets, so it would be up to me to pick through two pages of settings then show all of those every time I talk about it and hope that they best represent what others use. It's also more of a CPU demanding game, so not sure how much benefit we'd see with it here.
I have an AW17 R3 and I've been thinking about getting the AW graphics amp but now I'm thinking the Mantiz is more cost effective seeing how it is far more versatile with the several features you mentioned in the vid. Good vid btw (thumbs up).
Thanks!
heey I got the same laptop what you mean by Mantiz?
Hello from the future. I picked up an AGA for a good discount and they discontinued it before it actually got here. I still can't get a GPU for it, not just because it's simply impossible to buy a GPU right now, but most GPUs are too big to fit in the AGA, and it doesn't support 30x0 GPUs (though some people said they've got it to work, it's not officially supported and most people haven't got it to work) so I'm pretty frustrated. Hearing that the Thunderbolt 3 options (at least, the one in your video) is generally slower is really disappointing. My m17 R3 from late 2020 has a 2080 Super so it does an alright job, still though I'd like to upgrade with an eGPU if I/when can.
Can you still close the cover of the Alienware Graphics Amplifier with a 2080Ti in it?
Not with my card in it, because it's larger than two slots, others should be ok.
The earlier Graphics amp compatible laptops could loop-back the eGPU output to the internal display. These newer laptops seem to have more PCIe lanes at their disposal so they don't disable the embedded GPU when the Graphics Amp is connected. On my older Alienware 13 (the first Graphics amp compatible laptop) my 1080Ti could loop back its output to the 13" display without an external display connected. However, my M15 R2 (newer gen than you're testing here) seems to not use the eGPU when there's no external monitor connected. I'm sure there's some settings in the BIOS that might make the eGPU work the way it does on my Alienware 13. I just haven't messed with them.
That Mantiz eGPU enclosure seems REALLY cool compared to the AGA, but that performance hit on TB3.
Hmm interesting, I was just thinking (based on other comments) that I just wasn't able to get the laptop display working properly in my testing.
Do you need to buy a graphics card then get the Mantiz thing?
Yes, you need both a graphics card and a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure.
I have an Alienware 17 r4 4K UHD screen GTX 1070 would I be able to Run an Alienware Graphics Amp with an RTX 2080 on my own screen with no issues or lag?
8 times over 10 i search for tech reviews on youtube i end up on one of your videos XD !
Wow that's cool great work I appreciate It.
Can you do benchmark of Forza horizon 4 in any laptop with gtx 1050ti?
Cheers!
I am playing forza horizon 4 in a 1050 ti laptop and i get around 60-55 fps at medium settings at 1080p so you can play 60fps at 1080p
@@kaaneryasa thanks you
@@mubarakhsquare9130 no problem
@@kaaneryasa Yeah no problem yet Bro
another great video. i love these more in depth looks at products because not a lot of people do them and they are super helpful.
Cheers!
I would go with Thunderbolt 3. With the Right Laptop you have enough PCIe lanes and you can use USB Hard Drives etc. just using one cable. I like, how it works tho.
TCliner10 Hd not really. Four lanes are kind off enough to drive a GPU but once you add hard drives and network interfaces to the chain the latency suffers a lot. With a hard drive in the chain you’d probably get similar average frame rates but the 1% would destroy the frame pacing.
I think you'd only see issues of the drive and other things are actually actively in use while using the GPU. I guess would be interesting to test some time.
Do I need an external monitor for the Alienware Amplifier or can I use the Laptop monitor ? I have an Alienware m17 Notebook with a GeForce RTX 2070.
Apparently you can use the laptop, however I couldn't get it working so used an external monitor, but I'd expect worse performance with the laptop monitor as it uses more bandwidth sending the signal back.
Thats interesting - I can't figure out how the thunderbolt enclosure gives better performance in certain circumstances. The theory all along is that the AGA is directly connected to the PICe bus, whereas for thunderbolt you've got overhead from other chipsets. Like you said, it generally looked this way in games that were saturating the CPU too, so I wonder if the AGA causes extra CPU load somehow, and that's why performance suffers a little? Then for situations where things are GPU limited, maybe then the CPU overhead doesn't factor in, and you are seeing the benefits of a direct PCIe connection? Dunno, interesting to see though.
Then in other matters, it's interesting about the potential quality of life benefits of thunderbolt. I understand with the AGA, you have to connect and disconnect it with the laptop powered off, but thunderbolt is hot-swappable? You've also got the size of the AGA to take into account too - it isn't particularly tall so some cards just won't fit.
I've been considering something for my Alienware M15 and I thought the AGA was a no brainer. It does look like in general the performance is better, but you've got me wondering now!
Yeah could be, sounds plausible, I'm honestly not exactly certain why. Yeah Thunderbolt is more flexible in terms of unplugging and plugging back in. My 2080 Ti didn't fit in the AGA which is why I never had it closed while using it in the video, think I forgot to mention that!
I feel like the amp would be a more interesting product if alienware made an ultrabook with the port and either no dgpu or an mx150. I feel like external graphic enclosures for gaming laptop are kind of pointless.
Yeah I agree, that would be more interesting.
Hell yeah. Plug in to make it a gaming station. Plug out and it's an ultra book with good battery life. Win win
I think that every kind of laptop, even tablets should have some futureproof features available.
Totally agree, and that is why I am also happy that the m15 also ships with a 1050Ti.
I was thinking exactly the same thing. It’d be awesome to have an m13 weighting around 1.4 kilos with an i7-8565 and an MX150 or even maybe a 1050 Max-Q. The frame rates would be more stable than say a Razer Blade Stealth + eGPU and probably cheaper, seeing how Razer made the Stealth a really expensive option, and the Alienware Graphics Amplifier is also cheaper than Thunderbolt similar options.
Great video as always! Question. The testing was done outputting to the laptops internal display or an external display? If to the laptops internal display, I'd be curious in understanding the difference with an external display
External display, think I mentioned that in the video. I wasn't able to get the AGA working with the laptop's display, so didn't test that. I also feel like if you have a graphics unit sitting on your desk, you're probably going to be using an external monitor anyway for best performance - I've covered the difference in other videos on eGPUs.
can i use AGA with custom card from another brand? thank you
Yes.
If I understood correctly this correctly .... Average laptop (ThinkPad e14) +EGPU can do everything that an Alienware or legion can do?
I wonder how this topic looks now? Is it possible to use latest GPU's on the Alenware laptops?
Hi Jarrod. Does an eGpu help to reduce the thermal temperature of a laptop since the graphics work is done by the external GPU unit?
Yes it should, I'll do temperature testing in a future big eGPU video though.
Thank you very much for this review. I just bought Alienware 17 three days ago and i was thinking shall i buy the Amplifier or the TB3 extension. After this i think i will go with the Amplifier. Not only because the quality but also the compatibility and reliability.
Cool, hope it works well for you if you go that path.
@@JarrodsTech thank you
Exactly what I was after. Best tech channel on RUclips
Thanks!
Would the AGA be able to accommodate an RTX 2080? I have an Alienware 15 R2, i7 6700HQ, GTX 965M. I want to be able to utilize the RTX raytracing abilities on my laptop rather than buying a whole new PC. How much performance would the graphics card lose by using it in this setup?
awesome video. I information. I have a question... I'm currently using a deck link card, housed in a Mercury Helios 3S breakout box, feeding my external monitor. This is coming out of one of my thunderbolt ports. I have 2 on my laptop. I'm not gaming at all, I just use my computer for video editing in Davinci Resolve. I am thinking about adding an eGPU... Do you know of any boxes that would hold both a graphics card and my deck link? Or do you think I would be better off getting a second box, and using it on my second Thunderbolt port? So I would have 2 boxes connected to my laptop. I'm thinking that would be better than daisy-chaining, yes?
@jarrodstech you can use the alienware graphics amp with the laptop screen. You just have to enable the preferred gpu in the nvidia driver menu and voila. You can play using your laptop screen :)
Oh cool, thanks.
@@JarrodsTech although the bottleneck going through the screen...you feel it. Farcry5 max settings in 4k on 2080ti strix oc and you get between 47 and 37 fps. Apparently this is caused by having to pass through to get to the laptop screen. So external display is definitely better.
Wow that thunderbolt is very versatile
Hi, can I connect eGPU on my Dell Precision 5520 laptop (workstation) to help rendering 8K 360 video,which I can do but it is extremly slow,so I hope eGpu can help? And which one you would recommend? Thank you.
Depends if it has Thunderbolt 3, if so then yes.
I think i would go with the thunderbolt 3 eGPUs just because its compatible with all laptops (with thunderbolt 3) and could give more options.
Fair enough!
so is it worth it? did you have to install a graphics card yourself?
Did this card fit perfectly into the alienware graphics amplifier?
I couldn't close the door I think my larger card was too wide
I'm shocked the AGA got worse performance in anything. It's probably too late, but I'd be interested to know what the PCIe topology is. Maybe the AGA is routed to the "chipset" PCIe lanes, and the TB3 port is direct to the CPU? Unless there's a problem with one of the PCIe bridge chips in the AGA enclosure, there should be no scenario where TB3 outperforms it, so there must be something else going on. I'm curious if using the AGA and TB3 together is possible. One advantage of having both ports on the m15 is you can use an eGPU but also a Thunderbolt 3 dock with high-speed peripherals like 10Gb Ethernet or an NVMe SSD.
Justin Emerson agreed. But you could also connect high bandwidth peripherals on laptops with two TB3 ports or even one TB3 and one USB-C, since even 10GbE is on par with USB 3.1 Gen2 bandwidth limits (not sure about latency compared to TB3 though).
Honestly not sure on the internal configuration with either solution so I can't really comment.
@@AlejandroLZuvic The problem is that there are only two laptops with more than one TB3 controller, and they're both Macs. So you could plug two TB3 peripherals in, if your laptop even has two, but then they'd be sharing bandwidth anyway since the controllers themselves are limited to 4 (or sometimes 2) PCIe lanes. This includes USB3.1 ports running off that same controller, so if it's a USB 3.1 Gen 2 port (10Gbps) then it'll still be sharing that PCIe bandwidth with TB3 most likely, since the majority of Type-C ports on laptops with TB3 are run off the TB3 controller's USB hub anyway. So it's a bit of a no-win situation.
@@JarrodsTech For future testing, it's good to examine the PCIe topology using HWiNFO64 so you can see how many lanes the controller has, where those lanes come from, and if anything else is on the chain.
@@ermacstudios The top end Clevo desktop-hardware bricks (P750, P775, P870) have two TB3.0 and two mDP. I'm pretty sure in standard Clevo style they're all wired similarly, but I do know in my P870DM3, the TB controller handles everything but display data (MUXed to GPU) through the thunderbolt controller connected to the PCH.
No contest, the AMP has a direct connection to the PCIe lanes on the CPU. The TB3 has to go through the chipset which adds additional overhead.
Yeah, I wish there was some sort of external PCIe open standard so that other laptops could have something similar rather than just the proprietary Alienware solution.
Strange, you should be able to use the internal monitor with the AGA. I used one for 2 years and I could do both. I also plugged in all the periphals in the AGA. It has a separate lane for USB hardware so it doesnt affect performance.
Hmm interesting, I wasn't able to get that working, but didn't spend too much time trying and saw posts online of others saying it didn't work.
@@JarrodsTech From what I know it doesnt work on the Gsync models, but the m15 doesnt have gsync right?
The M15 does not have G-Sync, no.
I am thinking of having the same set up except mine is 32gb RAM, everything else is virtually the same with your M15. But before I buy the amplifier and the Aorus RTX 2080 Ti, I want to know if is there any bottlenecking? Can the i7 8750h can handle the Aorus RTX 2080 Ti?
You realise the AGA has 4 USB 3.0 ports on it right? Meaning kb mouse and gigabit Ethernet adapter can be plugged in. Also the AGA does work on the laptop display.
Yes, my point was the TB3 ones can have more options, eg the mounted 2.5" disk.
I have an Alienware 17r3 with a GTX 970m gpu. Would a Desktop 970 OC improve graphics performance with the amplifier over the 970m? More importantly, would using the amplifier extend the life of my laptop? I'd maybe consider getting one and use the 970 desktop gpu with it for the latter reason alone.
Did you monitor the temps of the cards while doing these tests? The amp should always get more fps because of the bandwidth not being shared unlike the tb3. The fan in the amp is mediocre at best and the airflow in the case isnt great either. i used to own a similar setup to this (alienware 13 and amp with a 1070ti) and swapped out the fan pretty quick. You probably werent getting the same boost clocks on the cards which would more explain the fps differences. in future videos, i would recommend running afterburner with osd enabled to monitor these.
No I didn't bother, however I couldn't close the amplifier as my graphics card was too wide for it. To compensate I also left the side of the TB3 enclosure off, both were used as filmed in the video. I doubt there were any thermal constraints due to this, they both had full access to room air.
IMPORTANT: For anyone watching this, a major bit of misinformation straight off - Jarrod states that the Alienware Graphics Amplifier only connects to an external monitor: this is just flat out wrong. One could argue that the main purpose of the Graphics Amp is to increase performance ON your laptop, but it ALSO connects to external monitors. Those with Alienware laptops with 4K or OLED displays can increase performance and push more FPS back to their internal displays. Or go external if they want. And the examples in which the Thunderbolt solution came out ahead, those games were pretty much maxed and and the differences were irrelevant. In games that matter, i.e. Tomb Raider, GTAV, etc. the Amp will come out ahead every time. The shared lanes of Thunderbolt cannot beat the dedicated lanes of the Graphics Amp. As always, having the latest drivers matters and will usually fix any unexpected results or strange behavior. Peace out. ✌
Can I use both screens with the Alienware amplifier ? Internal GPU is feeding the laptop screen and the amplifier the external one ?
Bro just now I purchased Alienware M15 R2...but after the launch of RTX 3000 series I gonna buy this amplifier ....so kindly tell me whether RTX 3090 can be used in Alienware amplifier
Great analysis as always and something I had considered and came to same conclusion as yourslef. I make a lot of videos and have been carting a miniITX slimline PC with 7700k and a separate monitor to trade shows to edit on the go. Recently, I've been asked to edit in more remote locations and power access is limited or solar generated. You've seen a lot of laptops. Is there a laptop that strikes a good balance between edit grunt and battery life or at least enough to give me 2 - 3 hours of editing without running dry?
Morgisbord Media
This is RUclips, we all use Final Cut Pro, way better then any laptop on ITX PC can do.
What you run now. Sony Vegas? Try to find more battery packs.
Thunderbolt monitor? Why ask that here???
@@lucasrem excellent guess, kreskin. Wrong but excellent.
@@morgisbordmedia5379 Guess?? Most here are using Final Cut Pro, no guess!!!!
Wrong topic you meant.....No need for thunderbolt 3?
@@lucasrem OK, I'll bite. I was thinking of working on proxies (in premiere because its suits my needs better than FCPX) on a laptop due to being in transit and on location most of the time. I could then plug in an eGPU to the laptop to complete render. My hope is that I can save some battery while editing away from a mains power source. I know apple and FCPX can do a fair bit of work on battery alone but as I said I'm sticking with Windows and Premiere for now and, having used apple since 2001, I've made the switch and don't regret it. I respected the comment Jarred made regarding Dave 2D saying aero X9 thermals were good when there is a lot of throttling, so I was putting it out to him and his audience to help me find a windows laptop that has decent premiere grunt and can work for 2-3 hrs on battery alone. I hope that clarifies my request.
Just take some UPS's with you, charge them on your Tesla wall, or say you do.....
Can you plugboth in?
I honestly did not try.
@@JarrodsTech can you try please thanks
Would the fps be any different if the amplifier/gpu enclosure is connected to an external monitor and the m15 screen is off?
Kind of, I closed the lid of the laptop while doing the test, otherwise it was strange and still used resources outputting on both - so basically that's how I tested them.
@@JarrodsTech you needed to click on the bottom right action center and click on project. Then choose secondary display only. That way you utilize its full potential. Coming from a previous graphics amp owner.
The Alienware Graphics Amplifier can be used with the Laptop display. This is in my opinion the biggest plus compared to the TB3. Also cable length doesn't matter. I can sit with a 2 meter cable on my couch my laptop on top of my lap (go figure) and the Graphics Amplifier neatly stuffed behind the couch and game hardcore. With thunderbolt Type 3 this comes with some losses.
btw. I think this is also the intended use. If I have a workstation, why would I play on a laptop in the first place?
Yeah agreed.
Would the graphic amplifier or thunderbolt eGPU be relevant in the future too? I am planning to buy an m15 R2 with RTX 2060 as opposed to the 2070 version for £100 less.
Yeah assuming Alienware keep using the port, Thunderbolt might go to version 4 in future not sure if that would be backwards compatible with 3 enclosure, would have to wait and see.
Your test options were honestly a bit of an unmixed bag, so it’s only natural the results would be skewed. Try some Witcher 3, Crysis 3, Red Dead 2, Sekiro, and Hitman 2 for a real indication of a delta between the 2 enclosures. You chose 2 incredibly CPU bound games in choosing Far Cry and CSGO, and 2 games that run excessively well on toasters in choosing PUBG and Fork-knife. The only real valid result from this entire benchmark was the SOTR, because it is truly a graphically intensive game to the point that it would stress a mediocre x4 connection like TB3’s to its limits. No Metro? You tried to have both enclosures facilitate the race the CPU was clearly running...not sure if that was deliberate or what
The results were time constrained, I was up til 5am the day before I had to go into work because Alienware needed the enclosure back ASAP and I did not have time to test the 15 or so games I would usually look at.
I have an alienware 17 r3, I think I'll go for the Thunderbolt connector as it's more likely future compatible! If I got the amplifier, I'd need to buy an expensive Alienware which I may not want to do..
Yeah fair enough
Do you only put a graphics card in the amplifier and you use your own core and ram from your laptop
what would happen if you swap a battery from another laptop and put in into the laptop you own
It would depend on whether or not they have the same connector and physically able to fit within the machine, in any case the answer is "I don't know".
Hello everyone, I'm having a bit of an issue. My Alienware 17 R1 is needing a graphics card upgrade. It is an early 2014 model (March) and according to Dell support, I can't use the AGA (Alienware Graphics Amplifier), since my laptop does not have the required port. I was also told that apparently the components are soldered in, so, replacing the card is also not an option. With this in mind my question is: what can be done? Is there a third-party solution to external graphics cards I can use? I'm also open to some hardware tampering, since the warranty is over, plus without an upgrade, this machine will soon be used by my wife to do our taxes or as a LED-filled doorstop. So.... if it is a matter of removing the DVD drive or even the WiFi card to connect something else (not using this for portable computing anymore), I'm game, as long as it works. Any ideas, suggestions or tips that might help? Thanks!
If it has Thunderbolt 3 you could try an eGPU enclosure, but the cost is up there, so also worth considering upgrading the laptop too depending on price difference.
So did you have to mod your case at all to properly install that video card in the AGA? I've been hearing that triple fan cards tend to be too wide and obstruct the top of the AGA enclosure from closing all the way. Yet, this Aorus variant has triple fans and seems to fit perfectly.
I just didn't close the case for the video, it was the only GPU I had to do the testing with 😅
Jarrod'sTech seems I have a return to make lol. Thanks for the reply!
Will you do a video on Alienware 's Concept Polaris eGPU (once released obviously) 👽. I have a 2020 Area 51 w/ RTX2060. I wish to do video editing , I assume that a 4090 in an eGPU will substantially increase render times. Those are my hopes, at least ?
I have a Razer Blade 15 with a RTX 2060. To boost performance I got a Razer Core X with a RTX 2080 Super. Why am I getting worse performance with the Razer Core than with my internal RTX 2060?
Because eGPU generally results in two tiers lower performance with the external graphics, for instance I tested a GTX 1080 in eGPU and it was about 1060 Max-Q performance. This is due to Thunderbolt overheads and limitations. If you're using the laptop screen expect worse performance, using an external screen on the eGPU will give a good performance boost. Higher resolutions generally also go ok if you have a good GPU, again you're offloading more to the GPU to better utilize it.
is it possible to use VSR to get a 1440p result for the 1070 Max-Q? that was would be nice to be able to see the efficiency of actually using eGPUs. :) Also maybe some productivity applications, because i mean working ppl will most likely afford this more haha.
VSR?
Can i use graphics amplifier for performing deep learning (artificial intelligence) task?
Will an rtx3080 work with the AGA.
Thank you for this video. Is there only 1 version of alienware amplifier? Or do they each have different PCI-e speeds within?
I'm looking to buy it second hand, that's why. Also, with Alienware amplifier, I have a thunderbolt port free to be used for a 144hz monitor.
I've only seen one version but don't actually know for sure.
@@JarrodsTech Alright np, thank you for such a speedy reply! Appreciate it
Curious, how does these eGpu compare to destop versions? Like how much of a difference is it?
As we all know now that using a eGpu for a laptop prolongs the laptops life, but how much did we sacrifice for a desktop performance to be used on a laptop?
What I'm trying to say it, are we even getting 90% of what the desktop variant gpu is capable of? and what about OC
I've never had a laptop with the same CPU as a desktop I have to test, so not sure, without the same CPU in both the laptop and desktop there are other differences that can't be accounted for.
check other jarrod video for epu and also the video gtx1080 vs rtx 2080 and the other 2 clevo laptop review he had done(p775tm,p751tm).. comparing benchmarks for different gaming :
RTX2080Ti eGPU TB3 =~GTX1080 notebook
RTX2080ti eGPU AGA =~RTX2080 notebook
and for less powerful gpu,you go one level lower mobile gpu too.
@Jarrod'sTech I have a alienware m17 r5 laptop rtx 3070ti which has thunderbolt 3, I'm trying to figure what max desktop graphic card can I use?
did u can close your aga with your gpu rtx 2080 ti ?
whats the name of this propieratary port? new alienware doesn't have it, right?
YES THANK YOU.
If OEMs were just as good to listen to customers as Jarrod is good to guess what people who follow him care about...
Also, is the Zotac Amp Extreme better in this case, or since it' s egpu it would make no difference?
Do you mean the 2080 Ti Amp Extreme? If so I'd expect almost no differences in performance, it would be very minimal as they'd have different clock speeds but overall still a 2080 Ti and shouldn't differ all that much, maybe a few FPS here and there.
So do you need an external moniter? If that's the case then I might as well go for a cheaper graphics card with a keyboard..
I'm not actually sure, some people said you don't, but if you're spending all the money on an enclosure and graphics card you might as well, because the performance loss running through the laptop screen makes it less worthwhile.
Hey Jarrod, I've got an Alienware egpu and thinking of waiting for the next gen 3xxx Nvidia cards to pair this with my Area 51M. Would this be an improvement over a 2080?
Probably not much compared to the amount of money you'd have to spend, either way impossible to really say as we have no idea how the new stuff will perform.
Thank you for your wonderful working, it is very helpful
No problem!
Hey J, I recently watched Hardware's umboxed 2060 rog video. You think replacing my 1080 FE for that is worth it in the long run? It seems like a good option since it's way cooler and it has some Ray Tracing(not planning to utilize this). I think in the long run high temps do affect cards.
Thanks man, and interesting video. Think you could recommend ultralight for egpu + ultralight for gaming?
I don't think I'd bother going from a 1080 to 2060 myself, not really enough gain to make it worth it, especially if you're not interested in RTX. I find it pretty hard to recommend ultralight + eGPU due to cost, like the Razer Blade Stealth + eGPU I covered earlier it cost about the same as the laptop to get the enclosure and graphics, then there was performance loss due to the CPU.
@@JarrodsTech hmm so for my brother, who's getting more into PC gaming, would you recommend getting a gaming laptop and maybe the egpu whenever that gpu is weaker? The thing is, right now he has a 1050ti and he's been liking triple A titles more which are hard to get in 60 fps
Is the 1050 Ti already in a PC? If so probably cheapest to just upgrade the GPU, if it's a laptop then yeah would either need a new laptop or PC. I think it depends more on whether or not portability is needed, if not then a PC would be cheaper.
@@JarrodsTech it's an Acer Nitro V with i5 8300H and 1050ti.
Please test 4k because i want to buy an 4k tv with my 17 R5 and i like to know if its vfm
Thanks very much!!!
I can't, sorry. Both the M15 and amplifier were sent back a few hours after I finished my testing, I didn't have time to test 4k which is why it wasn't in the video. Alienware needed them back ASAP for something so my time was cut short, I already stated up to 5am the day I had to send these back to get the data I do have 😓
Why didnt you test this with a normal gtx 1070 vs the 1070 max Q to see whats better??? That would show what external is better and is a amplifier outperforms the laptops gpu
I didn't own a 1070 at the time, but also because there's not much point to that. The thunderbolt overhead would make the 1070 perform around a 1060 if not worse.
Would the thunderbolt 3 be compatible with the Aero x19??
You mean the Aero 15 x9? Yes it has a Thunderbolt 3 port so I'd expect eGPU to work.
How could you not recommend the alienware amp over thunderbolt 3? $150 could go to a higher level gpu. That's what I will do with my alienware 13 r3.
Depends on what you're using it for. If it's only for gaming, sure get the amplifier it makes more sense and is cheaper compared to most TB3 enclosures.
Hi Jarrod! I'm planning to buy a Thunderbolt 3 GPU for my Dell G7, which only has a 1050 Ti graphics card. Is it going to have a better gaming performance when I buy 1080 GPU and use the laptop's monitor?
Yeah, but that said last time I tested a 1080 in eGPU it performed close to the 1060 Max-Q in my G5 I was testing it with, you really need to go hard on the external graphics card to account for the thunderbolt overheads to get a worthy boost.
Hey, do you know if you can use the Thunderbolt enclosure for something like a pcie capture card ?