MSI responds to its GTX 1080s sent to the press with a modified BIOS

MSI's GeForce GTX 1080s that are being sent to the press have 'OC Mode' enabled by default, retail cards set to 'Gaming Mode'

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The news broke a few days ago that MSI and ASUS were shipping GeForce GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 cards with a modified BIOS, with higher-than-normal clock speeds on the GPU.

MSI responds to its GTX 1080s sent to the press with a modified BIOS | TweakTown.com

MSI have sent me an email explaining the GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X 8G and GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G shipping with higher speeds out of the box for the press, versus a few extra MHz slower on the retail cards. MSI has said that the MSI Gaming App isn't used by most reviewers, which is true, so they ship their GeForce GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 cards with 'OC Mode' enabled by default to the press. The retail cards on the other hand, are shipped to consumers with 'Gaming Mode' by default, which is slightly slower than the clocks on the OC Mode.

MSI has responded with links to an updated vBIOS for their GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X 8G, and their GeForce GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G - so that they'll both spool up to the 'OC Modes' which are 1607MHz Base, and 1797MHz on Boost compared to 1582MHz Base and 1771MHz on Boost with Gaming Mode.

I've also talked with a friend who acquired a retail version of MSI's GeForce GTX 1080 and told me it shipped with the 86.04.17.00.27 BIOS, while my sample shipped with the 86.04.17.00.50 BIOS. So we've confirmed that MSI's samples are shipping with the different BIOS (with 50 at the end, versus 27). We've got links above for the updated vBIOS on MSI's GeForce GTX 1080 Gaming X 8G and GTX 1070 Gaming X 8G, if you want to have your card boosting to 'OC Mode' by default.

Anthony joined the TweakTown team in 2010 and has since reviewed 100s of graphics cards. Anthony is a long time PC enthusiast with a passion of hate for games built around consoles. FPS gaming since the pre-Quake days, where you were insulted if you used a mouse to aim, he has been addicted to gaming and hardware ever since. Working in IT retail for 10 years gave him great experience with custom-built PCs. His addiction to GPU tech is unwavering and has recently taken a keen interest in artificial intelligence (AI) hardware.

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