MSI gives statement on ‘modified’ GTX 1080 press sample accusations

Last week, news hit the web that MSI and Asus had been sending out graphics cards to hardware reviewers featuring seemingly higher out of the box clock speeds than what was available at retail. We have already heard Asus's side of the story and now, MSI has also released a statement on the situation, explaining their side of things and also promising to release the alternative vBIOS with OC Mode as the default.

In summary (full statement below), MSI's statement explains that many hardware reviewers don't use companion apps, like MSI's ‘Gaming App', which contains access to different performance profiles like Gaming Mode and OC Mode. To get around this, MSI sends out review samples with the OC mode on by default. All hardware though, is identical to what is available at retail and customers can obtain the exact same level of performance as reviewers.

“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. 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. 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”.

If you want to ensure that you are running the exact same BIOS version as hardware reviewers, then MSI is also releasing an alternative vBIOS for the GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 that makes OC Mode the default profile. The download links will go live tomorrow.

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KitGuru Says: Now we have heard from both Asus and MSI. From the sounds of things, reviewers will continue to receive GPUs with OC Mode activated by default, but in MSI's case, that BIOS mode will be made available to all customers if they want it. What have you guys thought about this whole story?

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