EVGA 460 GTX SLI - hot card temps

[cyber69]

I just loaded Crysis back on my PC last night and played for about 2hrs and noticed that my card temps where running very hot. I had all the settings turned up the enthusiast on Crysis and the top SLI GPU was running at 100deg and the lower one around 75deg.

The card spacing is not that great but I do have a Silverstone FT02 case which should provide enough air flow.

I'm debating if I should swap these out and go for a single 580 GTX (Asus triple slot jobby) to make the system more quiet and cooler?

I've logged a ticket with EVGA also.

 

[cyber69]

The Silverstone FT02 has three large fans pushing air upwards and out of the top of the case. I purchased these EVGA cards because they expel the heat directly out the back of PC and not into the case.

With both running at top whack they sound like a fan heater.

 

[cyber69]

Here's a pic of the innards of my desktop :=

Any suggestions to help improve cooling would be welcome. Moving one of the cards to the end slot would be the ideal answer but both the mobo and the case restrict this.

I'm seriously thinking of selling both the GPU's and getting one 580 GTX. The PC is just too loud on full whack.

 

[cyber69]

I did some troubleshooting and took the second card out of SLI and ran Crysis for about 15min and the single card topped out at 88deg with the fan running 100%.
I then swapped over the cards and it ran at 66deg with the fan running quieter so it looks like maybe the master card is running hot causing all my noise woes.

The question is.......do I RMA it back to the supplier or direct to EVGA ? The card was purchased last October.