MSI Afterburner, one of the best overclocking monitoring tools for Windows, has hit a wall due to MSI’s inability to pay the developer.
MSI Afterburner has stood for years as the best PC monitoring or overclocking tool. You may have seen a benchmark in a video with some statistical information in the upper left corner, and odds are that MSI Afterburner is the app that does it. However, development of the project has stalled and may be halted permanently due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.
Unexpected consequence of penalties
Alexei Nikolaychuk, who handles Unwinder, is a Russian programmer who developed MSI Afterburner under the auspices of MSI, and now the company has “stopped fulfilling its obligations” According to a post on the forum by Nicolaychuk. Several countries imposed sanctions on Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine early last year, and these sanctions are an obstacle to the continued development of MSI Afterburner. The app received its latest update in December 2021.
Nicolaychuk said on the same forum that he would like to continue developing overclocking and monitoring software on his own time and money, but expressed his disappointment in MSI and his need to make a living. Meanwhile, Rivatuner Statistic Server, which provides on-screen display (or OSD) functionality for MSI Afterburner, will continue to be developed even if MSI no longer supports Afterburner.
In response to Nicolaychuk’s posts, MSI released statements of their own saying that the company wants to continue development for Afterburner but has yet to find a solution. The main problem seems to be payment, like MSI simply can’t send Nicolaychuk paychecks Because of the sanctions, as reported by Hassan Mojtaba, correspondent of Wccftech. Despite these issues, MSI says they should “expect to be resolved soon.” In a statement provided by the company to PC Gamer.
What happens if support for Afterburner ends?
Hopefully, MSI’s optimism about the situation is justified, because the end of MSI Afterburner will be a big deal. This application has been around for more than a decade and is still considered the best software for monitoring and overclocking your computer. It’s not like other companies haven’t challenged Afterburner; There are plenty of alternative apps out there, but Afterburner has stood the test of time thanks to its great user interface and functionality. What is supposed to replace MSI Afterburner?
This conundrum probably couldn’t come at a worse time, as development on EVGA’s competing Precision X1 overclocking software also has an uncertain future due to the company’s exit from the graphics card market. There’s GPU Tweak III from Asus and Sapphire’s TriXX, but neither of those apps offer as many features as MSI Afterburner, and they’re kind of better. AMD GPUs have access to the Wattman tool, and it’s actually pretty decent integrated into AMD drivers, but like other implementations, it’s also an over-engineer and not particularly fast.
MSI Afterburner is special because it strikes an almost magical trio: fast response, a plethora of features, and support for basically any component regardless of manufacturer. There’s a great pair of shoes to fill for any GPU overclocking program if MSI Afterburner is already developed. We can only hope that it won’t be necessary and that MSI works out the issue with Nicolaychuk.
Source: Guru3D Forums
via: TechPowerUp
