Aurora R4, GPU upgrade RTX 3080?

It would work. Many users have reported benchmark of running 3080 in Aurora R4.

stock psu is 875W.

PS “the graphics card is practically sold out everywhere across the world”.

Also have an R4 (year 2012) with an upgraded CPU 4930K and a EVGA GTX 1080 ti.

I know to upgrade the GPU to a 1080 ti I had to have the latest BIOS for the R4 which was A11.

A 3060 or 3070 might be a better option for the R4 otherwise there could be CPU bottleneck - unless you run a 4K monitor and in that case a 3080 would be a good match with the R4!

Personally I think it would be a waste of money to put at RTX3080 in that configuration. The CPU will bottleneck the performance of the RTX3080 and you will waste a lot of potential performance and money, since the RTX 3080 is not exactly a cheap GPU. Both GPU and CPU have to work together, and an RTX3080 needs a high performance CPU to release it's full potential.

Unless you really want to go ahead and do this, I would suggest an RTX3070 or RTX3060 as upgrade path. You will likely get similar performance out of it at much less of a cost.

They will consume less power, put less stress on your power supply, and are a better match for your CPU than the 3080. I am not sure if your power supply can support an RTX3080.

If you absolutely want an RTX3080 I would buy a completely new machine, rather than upgrade a 2013 era machine.

Just to see what I am talking about when I am mentioning CPU bottleneck, compare the scores below. The second score is my R10 with an RTX3080, same video card as the first score. Big difference in performance.

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/35083827

https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/37673438

Here's my latest score: https://www.userbenchmark.com/UserRun/40087652

Video performance is now at 82 percentile.

Also have an R4 (year 2012) with an upgraded CPU 4930K and a EVGA GTX 1080 ti.

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Yeah, the Nvidia 1000 series cards were awesome (still are). I wonder if MSI, Zotac, PNY still makes them (or did Nvidia stop making the GPUs)?

I suppose GTX 16 series replaced those.

I upgraded my Aurora-R1 to a MSI GTX-1070 Gaming-X and it's great. I bought the Aurora-R6 with a GTX-1070. Both run anything I throw at them . High-to-Ultra graphics and 1080p/1440p (respectively).

Is it my imagination, or has each initial release since (RTX 2000 and 3000 series) been really rough (defective cards and/or drivers)? Artifacts, halos, sparkles, space-invaders, crashing, DSoD, capacitors ... always something.

I am thinking for the 3000 series Nvidia has pushed the limits to hard. 

We first had the issue with the capacitors causing issues at higher boost frequencies. 

Now it seems we have high Vram temperatures under high boost frequencies.

You can argue the capacitor issue was not Nvidia's fault but third party board makers, as they choose to use a cheaper capacitor solution. But at the same time Nvidia should have informed third party board makers they specifically choose the more expensive solution due to the cheaper solution not working well.

Same can be said for the Vram issue. Nvidia runs the GDDR6X memory at 19 Gbps instead of the possible 20 Gbps. At the same time you still can increase it to 20 Gbps with the flick of a slider on afterburner. If you do, chances are high you are going to damage the memory permanently long term. Especially if you decide to mine crypto currency since that really puts the Vrm's under high stress loads.

I think third parties are partially to blame for this, as they should have tested their designs more extensively.

At the same time Nvidia could have lowered the boost frequency a bit and still have a high performance next generation product. Without the reported issues.

I now resort to running HWinfo sensor status + Afterbuner hardware monitor on my second monitor, to ensure I am not getting too high Vram or GPU temps while gaming. I should not have to do that, but I don't want to brick the card in the long run by slowly melting it. I don't agree with Nvidia's statement that 100 Celsius is ok for the memory Tjunction temperature. Anything above 90 Celsius on an electronic component has me worried and I prefer high 70's.

Thanks for all the great advice and comments so far.

I haven't seen any mention of the 3090 yet, as I know the 3090's dimensions won't fit in the space. Therefore, I can at least say I was on the right track.

But, you have me thinking a lot more about the 3070 and 3060 now!

My current BIOS version is A07 (from October 2012). Would it be ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to flash the BIOS before the 3070/3060 GPU upgrade? Or could I just install the GPU out of the box, install drivers, and be done? If I do have to flash the BIOS, what are some links to the best step-by-step instructions to increase success rate? I don't want to brick my PC.

You can argue the capacitor issue was not Nvidia's fault but third party board makers, as they choose to use a cheaper capacitor solution. But at the same time Nvidia should have informed third party board makers they specifically choose the more expensive solution due to the cheaper solution not working well.

Same can be said for the Vram issue.

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Thing is Nvidia doesn't make video cards (they make GPUs). They have an ODM or video-card maker (like MSI or Zotac) make the first beta-boards, developer boards, and the Founder-Edition boards (which I'm pretty sure end-up becoming the "Reference Design" boards). MSI (either in their retail-boards or the OEM ones they make for Dell) and Zotac rarely drift much (if any at all) from this Reference Design. Notice how they are so similar to Founder Editions. 

So, while your explanation seems plausible, it seems like a bit of a cop-out to me and just passing the buck.

My current BIOS version is A07 (from October 2012). Would it be ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to flash the BIOS before the 3070/3060 GPU upgrade? Or could I just install the GPU out of the box, install drivers, and be done? If I do have to flash the BIOS, what are some links to the best step-by-step instructions to increase success rate? I don't want to brick my PC.

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You are welcome to "just try it". Thing is, A10 BIOS notes says "Enhance for PCIe performance". IIRC, either A05 or A10 was required for Nvidia cards of the era to work properly. There was definitely some issues until that BIOS was written and applied to the machines. A10 might have just been focused to resolve SLI issues (since that was popular at the time).

The directions are here (by @Cass-Ole and my posts are below his ).

https://www.dell.com/community/Alienware-Desktops/Aurora-R4-which-AWCC-for-Windows-10/m-p/7798935/highlight/true#M39619

Try not to brick it like this user accidentally did. If the Aurora-R4 is UEFI-based , still say they should be done from F12 menu (right after POST) inside the UEFI Environment. Some people call this "flashing from BIOS". 

If this is not possible or available, I suggest flashing from bootable FreeDOS flash-drive environment. Definitely, do not try to flash from inside Windows. Contrary to warnings from both of us,. @easycool  tried it and that likely led to the bricking. 

Hi Tesla,

I can attest to what you ans Cass-Ole recommended. First  of all I want to thank the both of you for all of your support and recommendations. 

Due to my stubbornness, I attempted to install from windows 10 as recommended by Dell. If Dell recommends it, don't you think they should produce drivers that work properly? Otherwise, why recommend it? As a result, my MB was bricked. After replacement, all is well now. 

However, let me tell you about another issue I had with Dell. My FX MIO board is also bricked through no fault of my own.! Again, Dell shafted my R4. Why you ask? Because they pushed a driver update that caused  my FX MIO board to fail. Previously, it worked just fine since I purchased it brand new.  Now, I've tried repairs, uninstalls 3x, all to no avail. I can't find any of the previous drivers either...another disaster from DELL.

With that said, I MUST state the Dell support is horrible. All of previous drivers for my R4 are missing, such as the dual wireless/ bluetooth card (802.11bgn 1T1R mini card. I only have 2.4 Ghz even though my router produces two 5Ghz signals. 

If it wasn't for folks like you 2, we would  be out of luck.

Lastly, You both recommended that I create a bootable flash drive. Well, using RUFUS, I tried numerous versions and followed instructions to the letter. I changed the boot order to my USB flash drive. Guess what? No dos boot! Am I missing something? In the past, I have created numerous dos boot disks. Never had a problem. I even followed the "How to create a Bootable USB drive on Microsoft's website. Nothing seems to work. Tesla, I put the BIOS file on the flash drive and switched to UEFI. Still wouldn't work. Thus, frustrated, I attempted to perform the windows BIOS update. Well, the procedure worked until it reached 3/4 complete, and  then it froze. I wanted  for  2 hours hoping  it would complete, but alas, no.