MSI says its Afterburner software isn’t discontinued after developer raises doubts
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MSI Afterburner’s Russia-based developer Unwinder says he might need to drop the project, but MSI says it’s working to resolve the issue.
By Jon Porter / @JonPorty
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Image: MSI
The future of popular overclocking utility MSI Afterburner has been called into doubt after developer Unwinder claimed MSI has “semi abandoned” the project and has “stopped performing [its] obligations.” Unwinder, who TechPowerUp reports is Russian national Alexey Nicolaychuk, suggests that MSI hasn’t been paying him for the better part of a year and that he may need to drop development of Afterburner “and switch to something else, allowing me to pay my bills. ”
But in a statement, MSI says it intends to continue developing the software. A spokesperson for the company tells PC Gamer that it “fully [intends] to continue with MSI Afterburner.” They added that MSI has been working toward a solution and expects it to be resolved “soon.”
Doubts were raised after Nicolaychuk wrote that the “MSI Afterburner project is probably dead” on the Guru3D forums, where he provides development updates for the project. “I tried to continue performing my obligations and worked on the project on my own during the last 11 months, but it resulted in nothing but disappointment; I have a feeling that I’m just beating a dead horse and [wasting] energy on something that is no longer needed by [the] company.”
Nicolaychuk’s statement on MSI Afterburner’s development.Screenshot: Guru3D.com
MSI Afterburner is one of the most popular programs used to overclock graphics cards, allowing skilled users to — among other things — squeeze more performance out of their hardware by increasing clock speeds and adjusting voltages.
Despite its name, MSI Afterburner supports both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards from a variety of vendors beyond just MSI, making it a popular tool that you’ll often see recommended in overclocking guides like this one from PC Gamer or this from Rock Paper Shotgun.
Nicolaychuk says the cause of the apparent payments issue is “war and politics,” and the timeline he describes lines up with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in harsh economic sanctions being placed on the country by the international community.
In a statement given to Wccftech’s Hassan Mujtaba, a spokesperson for MSI said that its “product marketing and accounting team are dealing with this problem now. Due to the war, our payment couldn’t transfer to the author’s bank account successfully. We are still keeping in touch with him and figuring out how to solve this.” Neither MSI nor Nicolaychuk immediately responded to The Verge’s request for comment.
If a solution can’t be found, it’s unclear how long MSI Afterburner will continue to be usable with modern hardware and Windows updates.
The last stable version of the software was released in December 2021 but is still able to recognize graphics cards released more recently, like the Nvidia RTX 4090. (Though, in our testing, it was only able to adjust clock speeds — not voltages.)
Although he’s indicated his desire to move on from MSI Afterburner, Nicolaychuk says he intends to continue working on RTSS, a closely related application often used alongside Afterburner to display information about hardware performance while playing games. One noted MSI Afterburner competitor is EVGA’s Precision X1 app, but with EVGA exiting the graphics card business, it’s unclear how long its overclocking software will continue to be supported. Here’s hoping another manufacturer is willing to throw its hat in the ring if MSI and Nicolaychuk can’t find a solution.
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Future of MSI’s Afterburner Program in Doubt Due to Russian Sanctions
Sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine have apparently resulted in MSI halting support for its overclocking tool, Afterburner, according to its developer, Alexey “Unwinder” Nicolaychuk, who lives in Russia.
Last week, Nicolaychuk took(Opens in a new window) to the forums on Guru3D.com to explain that “war and politics” were derailing development updates to the Afterburner tool, which has long been available for free(Opens in a new window).
“The project is semi abandoned by company during quite a long time already. Actually we’re approaching one year mark since the day when MSI stopped performing their obligations under Afterburner license agreement due to ‘politic situation’ [sic],” he wrote in the post.
Nicolaychuk added: “I tried to continue performing my obligations and worked on the project on my own during the last 11 months, but it resulted in nothing but disappointment; I have a feeling that I’m just beating a dead horse and waste energy on something that is no longer needed by company.”
Afterburner program interface
(Credit: MSI)
Although he plans to continue supporting Afterburner’s development in his spare time, Nicolaychuk said he’ll probably need to drop the project for something else so he can pay the bills.
“I see no sense to try to make it profitable if company decided to freeze the licensing. So if it is dead—let it be so,” he added.
The statement doesn’t bode well for Afterburner, which was last updated(Opens in a new window) in October with a beta version. Nicolaychuk published his forum post after a user noticed the Afterburner tool failed to show the GPU power usage state for AMD’s Radeon RX 7900 graphics cards, which launched in December.
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Despite the grim assessment from Nicolaychuk, MSI says Afterburner is far from dead. “We fully intend to continue with MSI Afterburner,” the company told(Opens in a new window) PCGamer. “MSI have been working on a solution and expect it to be resolved soon.”
In the meantime, Nicolaychuk has said work on his RivaTuner Statistics Server(Opens in a new window), a frame rate monitoring tool, remains active.
“It is separate and fully hobbyist application created many years before MSI Afterburner was even born,” he wrote. “So with or without MSI, RTSS will be alive and get future updates and support.”
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MSI Afterburner Developer Faces Project Development Problems, But MSI Believes in Continued Cooperation / Sudo Null IT News MSI believes in continued cooperation and has no plans to close the project.
Aleksey Nikolaychuk, known in the profile community under the pseudonym Unwinder, reported on the Guru3D forum that the MSI Afterburner project has been mostly dead for 11 months, since MSI, for its part, does not fulfill financial obligations to the developer under the license agreement due to sanctions and the current situation.
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“I’ve been trying to keep up with my commitments and have been working on the project on my own for the last 11 months, but it has resulted in nothing but frustration. I feel like I’m kicking a dead horse and wasting energy on something that the company no longer needs, ”Nikolaychuk explained the situation.
The developer said that he continues to independently maintain the MSI Afterburner utility and update the application in his spare time, since he stopped receiving payments for this project. nine0005
«Anyway, I’ll try to keep supporting it myself as long as I have free time, but I’ll probably have to quit the project and switch to something else that will allow me to pay my bills,» Nikolaychuk added.
As regards the development of the RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) application, Nikolaychuk’s plans have not changed. The developer assured that he would continue to work on this project. Especially since RTSS is not affiliated with MSI and is not limited by any third party licenses.
Moreover, based on RTSS, the overlay of the MSI Afterburner application just works. nine0005
“Everything I said above applies to the Afterburner project, but I didn’t say anything about stopping development of RTSS. It is a standalone and completely enthusiastic application, created many years before MSI Afterburner was introduced. RTSS is still a lot of fun for me to develop, and tweaking and implementing new features for it has become a hobby of mine. So, with or without MSI, RTSS will live and receive future updates and support. As for the Afterburner part, I don’t see the point in trying to make it profitable if the company decides to freeze licensing. So if this project is dead, so be it,” Nikolaychuk summed up. nine0005
According to PC Gamer, MSI does not agree that this is the end of Afterburner. “We intend to continue working on the MSI Afterburner project,” MSI explained. The company clarified that they are working on resolving the situation and expect that they will be able to agree and resolve financial problems with the developer in the near future in order to continue cooperation.
It is noteworthy that this is the second project with utilities for video cards, which has recently ceased development. At the end of September 2022, EVGA announced the termination of cooperation with Nvidia due to «disrespectful attitude» after more than 20 years of partnership and stopped releasing new video cards. Also, EVGA will soon stop work on the development of the Precision X1 utility, designed for overclocking, monitoring and tuning GeForce RTX video cards. nine0005
Asus GPU Tweak, which supports Radeon and GeForce cards, remains as analogues of Precision X1 and MSI Afterburner.
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3DNews Software News MSI Afterburner software hasn’t been updated for almost… The most interesting in the reviews
01/09/2023 [16:25], Nikolai Khizhnyak MSI Afterburner, a popular graphics monitoring and overclocking application, has been declared a «dead project» due to licensing issues.
Image source: MSI According to him, the program has not received updates for 11 months, but Nikolaychuk himself continued to work on it all this time. The reason for the licensing issues is the current «political situation» which prevents MSI from fulfilling its financial obligations to the developer. It is curious that the Taiwanese company still continues to sell its computer components on the Russian market. nine0005 “I feel like I’m kicking a dead horse and wasting my energy on something that the company no longer needs” , Nikolaychuk commented, at the same time adding that he could continue to support Afterburner on his own and deal with app updates, but only in his own free time, because this direction no longer brings him income.
MSI Afterburner is an essential tool for more than just overclocking and monitoring graphics card health. Without MSI Afterburner, many enthusiasts may find themselves without a handy GPU monitoring feature. Support for the second most popular program with such tools, EVGA Precision X, was also discontinued after EVGA decided to exit the graphics card business. Updated: MSI commented: “ Our marketing and accounting team is currently looking into this issue. <..> our payment could not be successfully transferred to the developer’s bank account. |
The developer of this software, Russian Alexei Nikolaychuk, better known in enthusiast circles under the pseudonym Unwinder, told about this at the Guru3D forum. 
It is also popular among graphics card reviewers and general users as it comes with a built-in overlay feature that allows you to monitor GPU status in real time, such as in games. The deprecation of this utility could potentially impact the millions of game streamers who rely on this feature. Unwinder has clarified that it will continue to support the RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) application, which is not owned by MSI. It is on its basis that the overlay of the MSI Afterburner application works. nine0005 