MSI Gaming APP and Clock Frequencies

MSI Gaming APP and Clock Frequencies

As board partners are allowed to release the 1080 model cards in their own configurations you will see many versions, mostly based on customized PCB/component and the obviously mandatory different cooling solutions.
  

 
Above you can see the updated Gaming APP which functions as HUB for both the CPU and GPU. If you hit that OC mode, your MSI (if applicable) will  alter the clock frequencies of your CPU as well. Be sure to disable it. The red ring surrounding the icon logo states what is activated or not.  The MSI GeForce GTZ 1080 Gaming Z cards have three configurable clock frequency modes:

• 1911 MHz / 1771 MHz / 10108 MHz (OC Mode)
• 1873 MHz / 1733 MHz / 10108 MHz (Gaming Mode)
• 1733 MHz / 1607 MHz / 10010 MHz (Silent Mode)

The MSI GeForce GTX 1080 GAMING X 8G ships at default clock frequencies of 1873 MHz (boost) / 1733 base) MHz with a 8192 MB GDDR5X / 10108 MHz effective data-rate on the memory. Alternatively you can switch to OC modus that clocks in an extra notch at 1911 MHz / 1771 MHz / 10108 MHz. We've put that modus to test today. So what does that look like going from Gaming mode towards OC mode in performance ?:
  

 
So above you can see the performance difference, this is Hitman (2016). You card default performance at 2560x1440 -at 89.85 FPS. Once you select the OC mode, you will retrieve a perf boost of 0,46 FPS. This is the nature of tweaking with Pascal and the tweaking differences are simple not very substantial. This is why all tweaked cardsfrom all brands  hoever roughly in the same performance bracket as they all boost in that same Boost frequency zone. We are not a fan of the Gaming APP as it created too much confusion on the expected clock frequencies and would like to see MSI move away and go for just one default mode setup as BIOS default, the advertised OC mode.