On Monday HEXUS published an official statement from Asus regarding its recently observed practice of sending out review sample graphics cards with 'OC Mode' tuning enabled by default. Retail cards, however, shipped and continue to ship with a default 'Gaming Mode' tuning, which means slightly slower clock-speed ranges enabled. These retail cards are identical to the press samples, according to the company, and only differ with respect to which mode is enabled as standard.
Probably the impetus behind Asus issuing a statement was TechPowerUp's report late last week about the "questionable tactics" observed from Asus and MSI in supplying speed-bumped Nvidia GTX 1000 Series review cards recently. If anything, MSI is the guiltiest of the pair, as it has been indulging in two-tier review/retail graphics card default BIOS mode shenanigans for much longer, as far back as when the GeForce 600 series were current.
HEXUS hasn't received a statement from MSI this time but tech site Legit Reviews has. Looking through it, it covers much the same ground that Asus roughly forked over, to explain the slightly shifty behaviour. It goes on to explain how to 'enjoy' various vBIOSes such as the 'reviewer style' OC Mode BIOS for the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 and 1070 GAMING X 8G graphics cards without needing to use the MSI Gaming app.
MSI's full statement regarding the 'OC mode' on review sample MSI GAMING X graphics cards is reproduced below:
MSI Review samples and MSI retail cards are identical in terms of hardware and performance. Both have the exact same performance profiles available through the MSI Gaming App. All information about these performance profiles is clearly communicated and can be found on the respective product pages. (example: https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/GEFORCE-GTX-1070-GAMING-X-8G.html)
Retail cards are set to ‘Gaming Mode’ by default, which offers the best Performance per Watt, while still giving close to ‘OC Mode’ in-game performance. In order to enjoy the best performance and all features of MSI GAMING products, we highly recommend to use the MSI Gaming App which is available for free on MSI.com and the driver CD. The MSI Gaming App allows you to apply one of three performance profiles with a single click, instantly giving you the desired performance.
As several reviewers have stated, software like the MSI Gaming App is often not used in reviews. This is why review samples of the MSI GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 GAMING X graphics cards are set to ‘OC Mode’ to ensure that reviews demonstrate the same performance available through the MSI Gaming App. The award winning TWIN FROZR VI cooling is designed to handle each performance profile flawlessly, giving you the lowest noise in the industry and consistent performance so gamers can focus on their gameplay.
For those who prefer not to use the MSI Gaming App but still want to enjoy the same ‘OC Mode’ performance by default, we have released an alternative vBIOS with ‘OC Mode’ enabled by default.
Graphics Card Download Location
MSI GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G OC Mode vBIOS – https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/support/GeForce-GTX-1080-GAMING-X-8G.html#down-bios
MSI GeForce GTX 1070 GAMING X 8G OC Mode vBIOS – https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/support/GeForce-GTX-1070-GAMING-X-8G.html#down-bios
Learn more about the MSI Gaming App here: https://gaming.msi.com/article/msi-gaming-app-article
Sincerely,
MSI
