285m's Running Hot in My R1

I've been running 2 285m's in SLI in my m17xR1 for a few days now. Everything has been going well until I decided to play Crysis. After about 15 minutes of game play, I checked the temps pf the GPU's and they each were at about 81C! I noticed the fans would not go on high while playing the game--they only sped up to medium. I quit the game, and once the temps got down to 48C, the fans went down to low. I imagine if the fans were blowing at maximum the GPU's could be at a cooler temp (60-65C I hope). I used TX-4 as paste and replaced the thermal pads on the heat sinks. I plan to check my work and make certain the pads and paste are all OK, but why aren't the fans stepping up when necessary?

 

You mean GTX280 Cards ?

81 C is high but 90s is where I would really get worried.

Dell power profiles seem to lean towards quiet operation

Try using a third party fan control and force the fans to high, and test again

 

I will keep monitoring the temps. The fans had no trouble going to high speed on Crysis when my 260m's were being used. Thanks for the tip, though. I will try forcing the fans.

 

any hint on wich utility to use in order to force the fans?

 

If you have a SLi 285m i`m interested in their bios,it`ll be great if you can extract them for me.Thanks

 

Forgot to mention, these cards are NOT the GTX280's. They are 285's. I had to mod the ports on each card to get the SLI cable to fit but yeah, they are GTX285m's.

I played Crysis a bit longer than 15 minutes this morning and the fans eventually went to high speed and brought the temps of each card down to around 72C. So, the fans can handle the heat when they are on high and I imagine I can play Crysis for extended periods--at high quality too. These GPU fans behave differently with these new cards than they did with the old 260m's and that is what bothered me initially. I still want to check the heat pads and whatnot. I need to be certain they are making contact with the chips on each video card. The thermal paste is quite impressive so no worries there.

 

Could you provide pics of your mod to make the 285's fit? (sli cable etc)
I am really curious

 

81 is not hot.

 

The only modding needed is cutting the connector on the sides.
Actually the GTX 280m and GTX 285m have the same architecture exept this sli connector(in m17x)
I think there are some pictures around here,I don't remember the threads name.

 

I am feeling pretty good about the performance of the fans and heat mods I did when I installed the new video cards. The temp never got above 83C on the cards when I really pushed them. Even then the fans would go to high speed and take the temp below 80C. Yes, all I had to do was cut a bit of plastic from each card to make the SLI cable attach securely. There is another thread that goes into detail regarding this process. It's a pretty fun mod and I see a noticeable difference with these 285m's compared to my 260m's.

http://forum.notebookreview.com/alienware-m17x/503352-285m-gtx-m17xr1-confirmed.html

I think this thread describes cutting plastic from the SLI cable to make it all work. I cut plastic from plug on the cards. Either way should work fine.