Is this a hardware problem

I’ve just started studying Blender. I have been using Blender Gurus’ videos on YouTube. So far, they seem pretty useful. But, I seem to have a basic ( I would assume ) hardware problem. I have an Alienware PC with twin 1080Ti video cards, 32 GB ramm and an i7-7820 @ 3.60 GHz processor. On his very first video, which is mostly about key basics, he ends with a burning monkee ( bring up the monkee object, set him smoking and then on fire ). All of this works except when I play the animation it only plays from 0 to 50 and then freezes, the progress indicator goes to 250, and then repeats but again freezing its progress at 50. I can’t seem to get past this, I hate to continue without solving this horribly basic problem. Is there some sort of limiter I’m not seeing or what? Everything else I’ve done with his videos seems to be going along fine. Anybody have any thoughts?