Tuesday, June 21st 2016
TechPowerUp Impact: MSI Issues "OC Mode by Default" BIOSes
MSI today issued its first official statement on our investigation which found that the company had a pattern of sending reviewers samples with higher clock-speeds out-of-the-box, than what retail cards offer out-of-the-box, by means of enabling a higher software overclock profile by default, which consumers otherwise had to enable using the MSI Gaming app. We had argued that this practice was deceptive and the review samples weren't 100% representative of retail cards.
The company today released corrective BIOS updates for at least two Gaming series graphics cards, the MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X, and the GTX 1070 Gaming X, which enable the "OC mode" clock-speed profile by default. These BIOS updates enable you to have "OC mode" clock speeds without you having to install the MSI Gaming app to enable them. The company, however, did not mention whether the cards that are currently under production will ship with "OC mode" out of the box, going forward. Without that assurance, this is a farcical workaround which will appease only those bold and skilled enough to update graphics card BIOSes, and not corrective action.
In its statement (quoted verbatim below), MSI argued that the company shipped review samples with "OC mode" out-of-the-box because it believes that the MSI Gaming app normally required to enable "OC mode" is "not often used in reviews." There's no satisfactory reply to the question we asked in our investigation, which was "If the OC mode is how the card is intended to be used, then why make OC mode the default for reviewers only, and not your own customers?"
MSI statement begins with a strawman argument that it clearly mentions the clock speeds for each of the three modes on the product pages of its graphics cards, on the company website. That was never in question. What was in question, was what people get out of the box. Reviewers are getting "OC Mode" enabled out of the box, consumers are not. "Gaming Mode" is the default mode (since that's what consumers are getting out of the box), and reviewers aren't testing the cards at those speeds. This, in our opinion, is the deception.
You can download the video BIOS for GTX 1080 Gaming X and GTX 1070 Gaming X, and flash it at your own risk, from the following links:
The company today released corrective BIOS updates for at least two Gaming series graphics cards, the MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X, and the GTX 1070 Gaming X, which enable the "OC mode" clock-speed profile by default. These BIOS updates enable you to have "OC mode" clock speeds without you having to install the MSI Gaming app to enable them. The company, however, did not mention whether the cards that are currently under production will ship with "OC mode" out of the box, going forward. Without that assurance, this is a farcical workaround which will appease only those bold and skilled enough to update graphics card BIOSes, and not corrective action.
MSI statement begins with a strawman argument that it clearly mentions the clock speeds for each of the three modes on the product pages of its graphics cards, on the company website. That was never in question. What was in question, was what people get out of the box. Reviewers are getting "OC Mode" enabled out of the box, consumers are not. "Gaming Mode" is the default mode (since that's what consumers are getting out of the box), and reviewers aren't testing the cards at those speeds. This, in our opinion, is the deception.
You can download the video BIOS for GTX 1080 Gaming X and GTX 1070 Gaming X, and flash it at your own risk, from the following links:
- MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X: https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/support/GeForce-GTX-1080-GAMING-X-8G.html#down-bios
- MSI GTX 1070 Gaming X: https://www.msi.com/Graphics-card/support/GeForce-GTX-1070-GAMING-X-8G.html#down-bios
Official statement addressing 'OC mode' on MSI GAMING X graphics cards
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.
Links to the BIOS updates presented before the statement
Learn more about the MSI Gaming app: https://gaming.msi.com/article/msi-gaming-app-article
89 Comments on TechPowerUp Impact: MSI Issues "OC Mode by Default" BIOSes
"end users can upgrade the engine to a V8 themselves if they want to"
yeah... no. small or not, its NOT the same product that is being sold so it literally is false advertising.
Do they have any plans to release the "OC mode by default" BIOS for older cards? As I would like one for my 980ti as I don't want to use their app.
Whether its a small difference or not is irrelevant, its a very dangerous precedent to allow, as that will only grow further. "Cherry picked" review samples have long been mocked in the industry.
I could understand if the default Bios OC for review samples was superior to the OC Mode setting that was available to the retail customers, but this is not the case, it is merely that the OC Mode was selected by default.
The advertised clocks for each factory preset Mode were correctly stated by these companies, so how is it a different spec?
MSI Gaming X 1080
So, it never bothered me that he was doing testing at about 30Mhz higher than I received a card. The little bit hardly makes a huge difference; maybe 1 FPS. What his benchmarking shows is a representation, not what I can necessarily expect to get. Reviews are just to give you an idea what the card is capable of and how it will likely perform.
I agree it was deceptive on their part. I'm glad it was brought to light and they are changing their stance. It's not a world-stopping event, though. @Mussels has a great, even-keeled attitude about it. The internet "rage" over this, as if they just killed all their employees and hired replacements immediately without a second thought is...bewildering.
It was done to mislead reviewers and customers about out of box performance (if it wasn't supposed to mislead then they would have admitted to it sometime in the last three years). The will be many many customers who bought the card based on it's review numbers with the expectation that it would do those numbers out of the box plus higher if they used the software to activate the OC mode. There will also be many customers who bought the cards instead of other cards which appeared slower in reviews but were actually faster in practice.
No one here is saying the speed change is a big deal, the fact they ship with a customised bios is the big deal. whats next, the review models have a higher TDP/wattage limit, or a more aggressive fan curve? next time will it be 50MHz, 100Mhz, 200? Will the put in a hidden voltage offset to make the cards OC better than retail models?
as someone who used to do hardware reviews, nothing is worse than finding out the product you got and recommended has been changed for the worse, in the retail models. It makes a liar out of the people who reviewed them.
First of all, those "6" numbers are really just 3... the boost clock, in the end, is what is important. And yes, the app can change between them. That doesn't mean its a different card. There are variations on each level of card and those clocks.
EDIT: As far as making a liar out of the reviewer, no... just no. It doesn't. If one can't explain their way out of some troll calling a reviewer a liar for this, that person probably shouldn't be writing reviews (and takes things too seriously).
EDIT2: I have also mentioned this point in my reviews. What I did miss in all of that is the BIOS was doing it and not the app I had installed. ;)
If a user buys a card based on a review that shows OC factory preset benchmarks and fails to select this preset for himself to get similar results, it is not the fault of the manufacturer.
It's the exact same for the HD7970 and the HD7970 GHz edition.
They tricked reviewers into recommending a different product to what customers received and they hid the fact they were doing it.
Let me explain a bit further. MSI 1070 Gaming X comes with a choice of 3 clockspeeds. Review samples set to the highest it can go. Its not a different card because of that. However for the sake of clarity, it would be best if the samples sent were the same as retail... but it is NOT a different card.
The same was true of the HD7970/HD7970ge/280X, the HD7950/HD7950 Boost, the GTX680/GTX770, etc.
Edit: Do the tiers/models of these cards overlap with the silent/gaming/oc modes? Evga likely would since they will have like 8 models, but they don't do this. What about asus and msi? The meager increases are not bumping it up to the next tier in their lineup.
No its not a bad flash. It crashes in Witcher 3 and bf4 after an hour or so whereas my retail BIOS did not. Currently I'm completely stable with a custom BIOS at 1480/8GHz at max voltage.