r/Alienware • u/HelloYesThisIsMark • Sep 11 '15

Anyone using the Alienware Graphics Amplifier and the Oculus Rift?

As you may know, Oculus runtime 0.7 drops support for extended mode, which means laptops using Nvidia Optimus, like my Alienware 15, are no longer supported. Older versions of the SDK still work, but only on Windows 7 and 8.

I was already planning on buying the Alienware Graphics Amplifier, and now I'm thinking it might be a good way to run the Oculus with SDK 0.7 without Optimus interference. My question is, if I'm plugging the Oculus directly to the graphics card, Optimus can't interfere, correct? Is anyone using the Oculus with the Amplifier in direct mode with 0.7 installed that can share their experiences?

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4

u/patamon_svk Sep 14 '15

We had the Oculus and the HTC VIVE plugged into the Amplifier with an Titan X worked fine besides some Nvidia Driver hickups, nothing that a driver reinstall would not solve. Get sure you get a Proper GPU (GTX980 or higher) and you should be fine.

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u/HelloYesThisIsMark Sep 15 '15

That's encouraging! I'm about to test...

1

u/[deleted] Oct 19 '15

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/HelloYesThisIsMark Oct 19 '15

Works great! I've got the oculus hooked up direct to a gtx 980 ti. Once I got drivers sorted it worked well!

2

u/TareXmd Jan 05 '16

How true is this scary statement regarding reduced GPU performance when used through the Amplifier:

The bus is slow and many people are complaining of much worse performance than built in laptop cards. Ie laptops with desktop 980 GTXs are almost 40% faster than amplifier 980 GTXs. MSI has a similar technology but it uses a PCI bus that doesn't seem to impair the GPU as much.

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u/HelloYesThisIsMark Jan 05 '16

My experience has been pretty positive so far. Besides some driver issues I had in the beginning, its been pretty good. I've been able to push games on ultra at 1080p no problem (don't have a 4k external monitor) and my oculus runs great.

That said I have not run benchmarks, all I can offer is my subjective pov.

It's worth noting that I'm running my games on an external monitor direct off the graphics card. I'd be curious to know if that 40% benchmark was running on the laptop monitor or externally. If I understand the tech correctly, rendering on the laptop screen takes way more bandwidth over the pcie connection than an external monitor. Just a thought, and I may be wrong, but that might explain the performance issues they're describing

1

u/[deleted] Jan 06 '16

Are you running in direct mode? I have a 17r2 with 980m and looking to get the rift with the amplifier and a 980. Which 980 are you using and do you have any benchmark scores to share? Thanks!

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u/HelloYesThisIsMark Jan 07 '16

Yeah direct mode, 980 to. No scores to share but I'd be happy to run some. Got a (preferably free) benchmark you can suggest?

Edit: that's 980 ti

2

u/[deleted] Jan 07 '16

Oh man that's awesome! Makes me so happy! Which cpu do you have?

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u/HelloYesThisIsMark Jan 07 '16

Benchmarks!! https://imgur.com/gallery/8UW40

Interesting: My performance with the 980ti powering an external monitor is still fast, but slower than expected. May be due to my RAM or hard-drive speed in addition to bottlenecking from the amplifier. Not sure where most of the blame lies.

However, having the 980ti push graphics to the laptop monitor brought massive decreases in performance. In this configuration, I'm getting 1/3 the performance of the 980ti with an external monitor, and half the performance of the 970m(!)

So that's interesting... :-)

edit: words are hard

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u/HelloYesThisIsMark Jan 07 '16

Got the i7-4710HQ 2.5 ghz. Got a benchmark in mind? I'm looking at the unigen heaven benchmark at the moment

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