Dell combines an AMD Ryzen 9 3950X CPU with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti for an astonishing Alienware Aurora desktop

If you have from US$3,629.99 to US$4,429.99 burning a hole in your pocket, you could make much worse purchases than Dell’s new Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition Gaming Desktop. Not only does it feature the AMD Ryzen 9 3950X powerhouse CPU, but it also motors along with the graphics-crunching Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. With 32 GB or 64 GB of HyperX DDR4 RAM (2933 MHz or 3200 MHz, respectively) and storage ranging from a 1 TB SSD to 2 TB SSD + 2TB HDD combination, the Ryzen-based Alienware Aurora is a gaming desktop to be reckoned with. Fortunately, Tom’s Hardware has been reckoning with the beast, and the verdict was quite impressive.

While the Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 (32 GB variant) chomped up benchmarks, the outlet stated that the fans made a lot of noise during gaming sessions and the cooling solution was a tad on the weak side. With the help of the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti, the Ryzen 9 3950X-powered Aurora managed 105 fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider (FHD, Very High), 125 fps in Grand Theft Auto V (FHD, Very High), and a whopping 133 fps in Hitman 2 (FHD, Ultra). Dell also added some of its own gaming test results, which of course were carefully collated to help sell the machine (i.e. lower quality settings). But 330+ fps in Fortnite (FHD, Medium) and 220+ fps in Apex Legends (FHD, Medium) are enough to make any gamer a bit giddy.  

4K gaming results were also more than acceptable, with 71 fps reached in Far Cry: New Dawn (Ultra). Obviously, the GeForce RTX 2080 Ti in the Alienware Aurora was no slouch, but it was also interesting to see how AMD’s wonder-chip, the Ryzen 9 3950X, fared in some tests. The Tom’s Hardware review showed that although Dell’s desktop faced tough competition from HP’s Omen Obelisk and its mighty Intel Core i9-9900K processor, it coped exceedingly well with the challenges thrown at it, especially in the Geekbench 4.3 multi-core test where it amassed 56,626 points and destroyed the competition thanks to its 16-core CPU.

Dell further recorded the Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition scoring 11,010 in 3DMark’s Time Spy DirectX 12 benchmark. To put that in perspective, a system scoring 7,500 to 9,100 points is classed as suitable for “elite-level gaming”. It’s a hardly surprising result for a desktop that sports a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti from Team Green and a Ryzen 9 3950X from Team Red, proving that products from either company can come together to make a formidable combination.