Just got my 880M twins!

Yeah, vBIOS should not have any effect on the fan controls. GPUs do not control the fans in laptops... EC definitely does that.

@Arotished. Did you try a clean install, or you're still running the same Windows installation you had with the old GPUs? I've had issues doing that. When I went from 580M to 7970M and 7970M to 680M I had nightmares trying to run the previous Windows installation. It might not fix your issue, but the problems I had were pretty bad. Maybe it will help if you haven't.

 

So how can I change FAN speed? I tried with EVGA Presision X but I cant do anything there.

I havent tried that Fox but it seems like a very good idea to try it.

 

HWiNFO64 is how you control the fans. Here's a down and dirty guide for setting it up. The last photo is how to force the fans to go full blast.

<iframe class='imgur-album' width='100%' height="700" frameborder='0' src="http://imgur.com/a/UYC3s/embed"></iframe>

 

On my laptop I only have to do the steps in the first photo & last photo to force fans to 100%. Arotished, that might be all you need to do too, rather than all the photos in between.

 

All the photos in between are for things unrelated to the manual fan controls. I just tossed the last photo in to show how easy it is. It was not part of the album until this evening... added it for Arotished's benefit.

 

Thanks! I will try this and see if it works. Still suck that it dont do this automatically? Or can up setup custom speed based on temperature?. Like in EVGA Presision X you can set fanspeed according to temperature so it dont go on full blast all the time.

Really a big disappointment this. Whats strange is that all the benchmark works good the first few seconds but after this.....the performance drops dramatically. It would be ok if the temperature was far above 90 degree witch means it would begin to throttle but looking at both CORE and MEMORY MHz, it dont drop at all during benchmarks and the temp dont go far above 70 degree which is less then my 680M cards were.

I spent nearly the same money on this computer now the last 2 months as a brand new AW18 with 880M's :-( Stupid mistake.

 

But, you asked me to be sure I was running PCIe 8x but it seems to be running PCIe 2,5x even during load. Can this cause problem?

 

Did you sort this out?

 

Don't be silly bro. You made no mistake. It's pretty simple, really. You need a vBIOS. A new 18 with 880M SLI would not function correctly either because it needs the same vBIOS. An Alienware 18 would have crippling performance limitations that you don't have. If it was worth buying, don't you think Johnksss would be already benching one by now? There's a reason why he is not, and probably never will be... it's got just way too many limitations. Look what I posted last night in the benchmark thread. It certainly didn't help things that one of the GPUs was borked. Until a vBIOS mod is released, nobody has an 880M that works well. Nobody owns a 680M or 780M that works well without a vBIOS mod.

You may have additional problems that are compounding the situation. I still think you need to wipe your drive out and reinstall Windows. There's no guarantee that will fix it (it will not if you are having a hardware problem) but the only way to find out is dive in and get 'er done.

 

at least a AW18 with 880M's gives you 16000 3DMark11 points, my computers can bearly run it

 

That is because you're having a technical problem that needs to be fixed. Alienware 18 has much deeper problems and is not fixable unless Dell decides to fix it. A 16K score sucks for 3DMark11 with 880M SLI. It should be 18-20K, or at least match 780M SLI. A 16K score is 680M SLI performance. In fact, my graphics score with 680M SLI was more than 16K... it just under 18K.

 

I have this gut feeling that you will continue to have problems until you flash the vbios to match each other.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

That should be done already if it hasn't been. I have not seen an example of an SLI or CrossFire system that functions properly with mismatch vBIOS. In some cases you cannot even enable SLI or CrossFire with the mismatched firmware. No telling what kind of performance issues it might cause.

 

I read a few posts back that the drivers match but the vbios were not matching.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

Here it is. Post #199.

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

what did you mean by that?

 

Post #199 is where you mentioned the mismatched vBIOS issue had not (at that time) been addressed yet.

 

In HWinfo64, I can select FAN1 and FAN2 (FAN3 is faided out), is this normal?

I should just set FAN1 with both 3940MX DTS and GPU0?

Also, Im having problem running full force, even if I set the fans to run full force (Set manual in HWinfo64) tje fans it stops running at full rpm during 3Dmark11. If I press Set Manual, the rpm just goes to 2000RPM.



And the FPS is locked at 30ish now....

 

Yes, that's totally normal for the M18xR1/R2. The control for Fan 1 will operate all 3 fans in unison. Leave the Fan 2 alone... don't need it for anything.

In fact, don't even screw around with fan profiles for benching. It's a waste of time. You want the fans running full blast, so click "System Auto" and set Fan 1 to 4300 RPM and click "Set Manual" and all three fans should run wide open indefinitely, until you open the fan controls again and click "System Auto" to stop it.

With A07 on the Alienware 18, Fan 1, 2, 3 all work independently. It's probably the only thing that actually works properly for the 18's BIOS, LOL.

If you do set up a profile, do so using only the CPU DTS sensor reading Core Max. Do not set anything else up using GPU sensors. This can cause the M18xR1/R2 fans to malfunction and stop running. Since all three fans work in unison with Fan 1, use only the CPU as mentioned. Do nothing with Fan 2. Leave it "inactive" status for the M18xR1/R2.

 

Thanks, got it to work now.

Any idea why 3Dmark11 is stuck at 30 FPS?

 

Actually No I have not. I think its still a throttling issue. Even thought they seem to say fairly cool. 75C is the max I've seen after running a 3dmark11 test

 

It's probably not 3DMark11 being stuck as much as "can't go higher" for some reason. What are you seeing for core and memory clock speeds while the benchmark is running? My guess would be that your video cards are not running at their 3D performance clock speeds or something else is goofed up with software that is capping your performance off. It could be registry settings that disagree or conflict with your hardware. (One reason I recommended a clean Windows install was to reduce the possibility of this being a software/driver issue.)

 

Try making it stretched, it wont give so high scores if the window is set to centred.

 

Stretched does give better scores than centered, but he has something else going on here. Should be getting far better results even with one GPU running 3DMark11 in Window mode. Notice the Physics score is also pathetic, not just Graphics score. His 3940XM is running about like a 2760QM.

 

GOOD AFTERNOON STAFF ! solved the heating problem , I disassembled the notebook again, cleaned up , sinks and fans with boiling water , then dried with a hairdryer to make sure you do not get damp, then cleaned the thermal paste to the CPU and GPU , the recolei folder on both perfectly covering all coasts of both, with a very thin layer which was very laborious , removed any over and even cleaned up using a hairdryer with'' only '' AIR CONDITIONING and a old toothbrush I cleaned the motherboard and all the rest , after fully cleaned reassembled everything and amazingly decreased 14 º C CPU and 13 ° C the GPU , when I took the heatsink GPU realized I had formed triangles without thermal paste to the four corners of the back of the GPU core , was look in the sink ( AMD 100W ) and had the mark of the GPU in the black part ( that little strip that has adhesive on the heatsink underneath) that is wrong in the'' cut '' little ribbon square sink is for AMD and I 'm using in a GTX880M , rhetoric largest in a square little ribbon , based on the triangular marks that were left when I took the GTX880M , recreated say goes like the square on the tape that is beneath the sink , in a size proportionate and compatible with the GTX880M , rode everything and solve the problem from overheating , maximum temperature reached was 81 ° C in all playing Bugfield 4 ULTRA and scale textures at 150 % , frases iS a TIP If you are using NVIDIA AMD heatsinks are sure that the court's perta tape that is underneath the sink is compatible with such core of the video card that will install to upgrade, not to have this overheating problem, the attached photos back of the GPU, notice the marks on the corners with no thermal paste'' is'' where'' was'' huddle over black little ribbon, grateful to everyone who helped me as they could,Now just waiting for the VBIOS to OC \ o /

 

Good! Yes, I can clearly see where the "diamond" shaped opening in the black plastic shroud for the die on the AMD heat sinks was coming into contact with the corners of the die for the GPU core. Still need to acquire the correct heat sinks (680M part) so the pads on the components at the outer edge make good contact with the heat sink. I believe the 6990M heat sinks don't come out close enough to the edge of the PCB to reach them.

The areas marked in blue rectangles should also have thermal pads.

 

Yes, but at least now it's not boiling hot gives to endure a while, I'll buy the sink and along GTX680M buy Thermal pads to cover the areas marked in blue, which has been the pads that came with the board found too little and then I installed all still thought'' it will be like nothing?'' but anyway, is now working well, possibly still to download a 10 º C with heatsink 680 and more pads, which advises buying the thickness Thermal pads?

 

Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor,Alienware M18xR1 =]

 

Use the pads that come with the new 680M heat sink. No need to buy extra pads.

 

ok, well this is the best util now VID 0
Generic VGA video card benchmark result - Intel Core i7-2960XM Processor,Alienware M18xR1

and

http://www.3dmark.com/cg/1773620

 

CORE is 993mhz and Memory is 2500 during the hole benchmark, dont drop at all.

 

What temps are you getting btw ? I just stuck a 780 in my frineds R1 the other day and it hits into the high 80's under stress.

 

65-70 degree max.

 

hmm well having had a good look im quite happy with the heat 65-70 seems really low for 2 cards especially. His 675m i took out used to do that its an m18x r1 btw so maybe different chassis

 

Having a 2nd card when it has its own heatsink and fan should not impact temperatures significantly.

 

That doesn't make any sense. If the clock speeds stay solid, the graphics score should be many times higher.

 

but the FPS is stuck at 30ish, like there is a V-Sync activated.

 

Have you flashed the vbios so that they match?

Sent with love from my Galaxy S4

 

Yes, flashed the EUROCOM card to the same BIOS as the card from UPGRADEMONKEY.

 

You seem to be having a very similar problem to what my single 880m's performance is giving out. My core clock runs at 250mhz in 3D mark 11. I get 18FPS throughout the entire test. I've been trying for a few days now to come up with a solution. I'm yet to figure it out.

 

Okey, I have tried 5 different benchmark programs now and every single one is "stuck" at 30 FPS

3Dmark06, 3Dmark11, 3Dmark, Heaven and valley.

And I also see that my CORE and MEMORY is not running at max during test when I look in EVGA Presision X. Gonna reinstall windows now and see if that helps.

 

Good luck. I've reinstalled Windows around 3 times during the last 48 hours now. It still still hasn't resolved my reduced core clock problem while running benchmark tests.

 

This might be a long shot. But had remembered reading about Nvidia Battery Boost here. It sounded like something exclusive to the 800 series mobile GPU. Perhaps a long shot but that would explain why you're being capped at 30fps if its active. The toggle may be accessible from your Geforce Experience menu or Nvidia Control Panel if that were the case.

 

The Geforce program allows you set a cap on FPS from 50 FPS down to 20 FPS. I don't have it enabled, so it's not that for me. I wish it was though. I hope it works for Arotished.

 

Damit, now I get bluescreen everytime I try to install the 337.81 driver.................

 

Try the 337.50 driver.

 

Like Tbone says, check your settings in NVidia Control Panel. Make sure it's set to 'High Performance', and make sure no battery boost or v-sync settings in there too.

 

I think that's a good move. I had nothing but nightmares trying to switch between AMD and NVIDIA on the same operating system. Nothing worked right, on more than one occasion, involving GPU brand changes. Even if it doesn't resolve it, you'll know for sure that this isn't causing a problem. And, what's not to love about how nice a fresh installation runs when untainted by Windows Update cyber-cancer?

 

Hole computer is acting strange now, getting random blue-screen with almost every program installation and several "error under installation" messages....all from driver installations to small third party programs.

 

After a clean OS install this is happening now? You have the vBIOS matched on both cards also?