MSI says Afterburner isn’t deserted, regardless of its developer’s doubts

The way forward for fashionable overclocking utility MSI Afterburner has been referred to as into doubt after developer Unwinder claimed MSI has “semi abandoned” the undertaking and has “stopped performing [its] obligations.” Unwinder, who TechPowerUp reports is Russian nationwide Alexey Nicolaychuk, means that MSI hasn’t been paying him for the higher a part of a yr and that he might have to drop improvement of Afterburner “and switch to something else, allowing me to pay my bills.”

But in a press release, MSI says it intends to proceed creating the software program. A spokesperson for the corporate tells PC Gamer that it “fully [intends] to continue with MSI Afterburner.” They added that MSI has been working towards an answer and expects it to be resolved “soon.”

Doubts had been raised after Nicolaychuk wrote that the “MSI Afterburner project is probably dead” on the Guru3D forums, the place he offers improvement updates for the undertaking. “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.”

MSI Afterburner is without doubt one of the hottest packages used to overclock graphics playing cards, permitting expert customers to — amongst different issues — squeeze extra efficiency out of their {hardware} by growing clock speeds and adjusting voltages. Despite its title, MSI Afterburner helps each Nvidia and AMD graphics playing cards from quite a lot of distributors past simply MSI, making it a preferred device that you just’ll usually see advisable in overclocking guides like this one from PC Gamer or this from Rock Paper Shotgun. 

Nicolaychuk says the reason for the obvious funds situation is “war and politics,” and the timeline he describes strains up with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has resulted in harsh economic sanctions being positioned on the nation by the worldwide group. 

In a press release given to Wccftech’s Hassan Mujtaba, a spokesperson for MSI mentioned 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 instantly responded to The Verge’s request for remark.

If an answer can’t be discovered, it’s unclear how lengthy MSI Afterburner will proceed to be usable with fashionable {hardware} and Windows updates. The final steady model of the software program was released in December 2021 however remains to be in a position to acknowledge graphics playing cards launched extra not too long ago, just like the Nvidia RTX 4090. (Though, in our testing, it was solely in a position to alter clock speeds — not voltages.) 

Although he’s indicated his need to maneuver on from MSI Afterburner, Nicolaychuk says he intends to proceed engaged on RTSS, a carefully associated software usually used alongside Afterburner to show details about {hardware} efficiency whereas taking part in video games. One famous MSI Afterburner competitor is EVGA’s Precision X1 app, however with EVGA exiting the graphics card enterprise, it’s unclear how lengthy its overclocking software program will proceed to be supported. Here’s hoping one other producer is prepared to throw its hat within the ring if MSI and Nicolaychuk can’t discover a answer.