Dell's Alienware desktops get upgraded with NVIDIA's RTX graphics
And the laptops are getting a few tweaks too.
Dell is wasting no time keeping up with NVIDIA's latest graphics cards. At Gamescom today, the company announced that its Alienware Aurora tower and Area 51 flagship desktop will get NVIDIA's new GeForce RTX GPUs, including the high-end RX 2080 Ti. Don't expect any design changes for the rigs, though -- these updates just involve plugging in the new cards. With the extra power, Dell says the refreshed systems will be able to tackle 8K and 12K gaming. Talk about overkill. You'll be able to preorder the new Alienware desktops in September.
Unfortunately, NVIDIA doesn't have new laptop graphics hardware yet. But Dell is still throwing notebook users a bone by adding per-key RGB lighting to the Alienware 15 and 17. That's something gaming machines from the likes of ASUS and MSI have been offering for a while now, so it's nice to see Dell catching up. And you can also expect the new machines to feel a bit different, thanks to an upgraded TactX keyboard with n-key rollover support for over 100 commands. That'll prevent the keyboard from getting confused as you obliterate your enemies.
In other news, the Alienware Command Center, which we first saw at CES, is now available to any PC user. But of course, if you don't have an Alienware computer, you'll miss out on the software's LED lighting control. And in a surprising move, Dell is also launching a beta test for Alienware Academy, an online platform to help you refine your esports skills.
