I'm sorry but a "secret overclock" was not what happened here with these ASUS and MSI 1080s; it was sent with the OC Mode profile selected. The OC Mode BIOS clocks that review samples have are the same OC Mode BIOS clocks that retail customers can enable at will.
Sorry but you seem to have missed what I said before, the software doesn't switch between three BIOS, the cards only have one BIOS, what the software does is overclock or underclock the card depending if the user wants more power or less noise. The review cards had a different BIOS to the retail cards which enabled more performance out of the box.
Shame on all the reviewers that were surprised by this because they did not even check to see what clock speeds were selected
The funny thing is the clock speeds are shown in the reviews by GPUz, but MSI got away with it for three years because neither the reviewers or the readers picked up on it.
nor did they bother to test the preset mode options!
It's not normal to test bundled overclocking software in reviews (outside of overclocking tests, which are normally done with manual software).
I must disagree with this whole concept of solely testing a default setting "Out of the box".
That's how it has always been done, and how it will always be done (hence why MSI shipped review cards with a custom BIOS to trick reviewers).
These cards are designed to allow users to define which preset mode they choose, this choice is available as soon as one installs the card "Out of the box".
No it's not, the MSI overclocking software has to be installed to allow it. The retail cards have a balanced mode set in the BIOS and the bundled overclocking software can enable the OC or silent modes, the review cards have a different BIOS with the OC mode set as default in order to boost review scores.
Just because some reviewers or retail customers choose not to avail themselves of these factory preset modes does not mean there was any dishonesty on the part of these companies
Yes it does, MSI secretly shipped review cards that were faster than retail cards FOR THREE YEARS. Now they have been caught they have admitted what they have done, promised it won't happen in future, started shipping retail cards with the review BIOS and released the review BIOS for download for customers who already bought cards. NB: they have only done this for 1000 series cards, customers who bought 600/700/900 series have to manually find the review cards BIOS online.