News MSI Afterburner Project 'Probably Dead,' Due to Ukraine War Sanctions

[Admin]

Russian Afterburner developer explains that popular tool is "probably dead," as he hasn't had support or resources from MSI for nearly a year.

MSI Afterburner Project 'Probably Dead,' Due to Ukraine War Sanctions : Read more

 

[BX4096]

"Actually we’re approaching one year mark since the day when MSI stopped performing their obligations under Afterburner license agreement due to 'politic situation'."

MSI has no obligations to the developer according to international law. The country was sanctioned legally, following an illegal (according to the world: 143 countries voted to view it as such, with only 5 (Russia, Belarus, North Korea, Syria, and Nicaragua) voting against) invasion of a sovereign state. The reason I'm mentioning it is not because of the politics, but to point out that the developer uses the situation to spread pro-Russian propaganda.

As for MSI Afterburner's future, I'm sure there's plenty of talented programmers can be found elsewhere. I stopped using it years ago anyway.

(reason for edit: hasty typos)

 

[ManDaddio]

Well it is sad individuals have to suffer because of what governments decide to do.
I don't think things that don't have much or anything to do with "the war" should fall under sanctions.
Sanctions rarely deter and mostly hurt people in one way or another.
Anyway, I am glad I know this now as I don't like using unsupported apps in most cases.
Afterburner is loved by many.

 

[atomicWAR]

Lets keep the politics out of the forum please. I get this subject is rife for political slants but Tom's isn't the place for that.

 

[Rogue Leader]

All,

This is a politically charged topic and as such will create a lot of opinions. That said this forum is dedicated to being apolicial. Meaning if you decide to take a severe political slant or use this comment section to denigrate any country or ethnicity you will be sanctioned. Keep it civil.

but to point out that the developer uses the situation to spread pro-Russian propaganda.

Hint, this is not the direction you want to continue.

 

[nightbird321]

As someone who uses Afterburner and a MSI 4090, this is important news. I hope the issue is resolved amicably.

 

[ezst036]

If MSI actually cared to save the project, they could easily open source it.

I highly doubt they will. Just saying, they could.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

"Actually we’re approaching one year mark since the day when MSI stopped performing their obligations under Afterburner license agreement due to 'politic situation'."

MSI has no obligations to the developer according to international law. The country was sanctioned legally, following an illegal (according to the world: 143 countries voted to view it as suck, with only 5 (including Russia and Belarus) voting against) invasion of a sovereign state. The reason I'm mentioning it is not because of politics, but to point out that the developer uses the situation to spread pro-Russian propaganda.

As for MSI Afterburner's future, I'm sure there's plenty of talented programmers can be found elsewhere. I stopped using it years ago anyway.

I'm not sure how him saying he's not getting the information he needs to continue development, or being paid for that matter, qualifies as "spreading pro-Russian propaganda." Sounds like a statement of fact from his view, and moving to a new country isn't exactly an easy solution.

As for others being able to do this, I'm sure there are plenty of programmers that could do it, including within MSI. But the benefit of MSI Afterburner was that it worked with just about any GPU (outside of Intel Arc and many integrated solutions). I don't need another Asus GPU Tweak clone, or ASRock OC Tuner, or Gigabyte Control Center, or EVGA Precision X1, or any other specialty variants that are bloated and only support graphics cards from one company. MSI Afterburner is lightweight and works at least as well as any of those others I just named.

I do wonder who actually owns the source code for this project. Sounds like some of it is MSI, but potentially a lot of it is the developer's own stuff and perhaps MSI doesn't even have all the code necessary.

 

[hannibal]

If MSI actually cared to save the project, they could easily open source it.

I highly doubt they will. Just saying, they could.

MSI don´t own the code behind the afterburber, the programmer does own the rights. MSI has just lisensed the product aka payed for it and thus allowed the development, but as I said, they don´t own the code.

 

[Deleted member 2731765]

There has actually been an update. MSI has now responded with a statement to Hassan Mujtaba of Wccftech:

"Our product marketing & 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"

https://twitter.com/x/status/1612449753903554560

View: https://twitter.com/hms1193/status/1612449753903554560

 

[BX4096]

I'm not sure how him saying he's not getting the information he needs to continue development, or being paid for that matter, qualifies as "spreading pro-Russian propaganda." Sounds like a statement of fact from his view, and moving to a new country isn't exactly an easy solution...

As MSI's former employee, I'm sure he knows perfectly well that MSI is a Taiwanese company and therefore is subject to Taiwanese laws. Taiwan is one of the countries that joined the international economic sanctions opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, so accusing the company in not fulfilling its "obligations" is biased, to say the least.

 

[saunupe1911]

Wow! The company and it's software suite is definitely a major priority when purchasing a GPU (or NVME) these days.

This wasn't a problem for me in the past because I exclusively bought EVGA. Asus has always been a second choice but I'm not a fan of their support. Welp we'll see what the 5000 series brings us.

 

[Giroro]

If MSI doesn't make, own, or maintain the software... then why is it called MSI afterburner?
If it's just some random programmer doing whatever, then why isn't he making it open source?

 

[AgentBirdnest]

I had no idea that Afterburner and RTSS were the work of just one freelance developer(?) I always assumed MSI had their own software team or something. Wow...

I feel bad for the guy. I hope he's able to get by.
I also hope Afterburner can continue. I use it and RTSS daily.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

As MSI's former employee, I'm sure he knows perfectly well that MSI is a Taiwanese company and therefore is subject to Taiwanese laws. Taiwan is one of the countries that joined the international economic sanctions opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, so accusing the company in not fulfilling its "obligations" is biased, to say the least.

He's not a native English speaker, and saying MSI is "not fulfilling its obligations" can be taken many ways. I read it as, "I'm getting nothing from MSI due to the current political situation." It doesn't matter at all whether MSI can legally pay him and provide information or not. It's not biased and it's not praising Russia. It's saying, "I don't have the information I need, MSI isn't (can't) providing it, so this project is probably dead now."

But the funny thing is MSI is now apparently trying to rectify the situation, which in turn implies that legally it is NOT prevented from paying him or providing him information; it's just difficult and it didn't see a need to do so... until this story broke and MSI started getting negative feedback. Which has happened with other people working for other companies as well. Stir the Twitter pot and big corporations will try to cover their mistakes.

 

[-Fran-]

Hm... So... Would this tell or hint nVidia to build OC capabilities in their drvers like AMD?

For all the hate AMD gets for its* drivers, they do have a very comprehensive OC tool already built in. Plus, they have plenty of other 3rd party tools that also work just fine. Look at Igor's Lab for some of them.

Intel doesn't have anything as far as I know, but I'd imagine they could expand their XTU software for that purpose?

Regards.

 

[ThatMouse]

TIL another important tech thing comes from Russia: Tetris, a popular pirate site, and now Afterburner!

 

[JamesJones44]

If MSI doesn't make, own, or maintain the software... then why is it called MSI afterburner?
If it's just some random programmer doing whatever, then why isn't he making it open source?

The same reason GE appliances still carry the name GE, even though GE hasn't owned/made appliances in over 10 years now... Brand recognition.

P.S. In case anyone is wondering, GE no longer makes/owns/sells any consumer goods. Those light bulbs, appliances, silicon sealer, extension cords, etc. are all made and owned by Chinese companies.

 

[atomicWAR]

This is unfortunate. MSI afterburner is an excellent bit of kit and the devs work is well regarded among enthusiasts for it ease of use, lightweight code and consistent evolution while 'mostly' remaining stable. I am saddened at these developments and hope that things can be resolved in the future.

 

[Furbo]

"figuring out how to solve this" so MSI has never heard of crypto?

 

[Endymio]

I'm sure he knows perfectly well that MSI is a Taiwanese company and therefore is subject to Taiwanese laws. Taiwan is one of the countries that joined the international economic sanctions opposing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, so accusing the company in not fulfilling its "obligations" is biased, to say the least.

Oops! Taiwan only sanctions the export of certain high-tech equipment to Russia. Taiwan and Russia still do nearly the same amount of trade they did before the war began. The trouble obviously isn't with Taiwan law, but rather the US sanctions affecting SWIFT payments.

 

[BX4096]

Oops! Taiwan only sanctions the export of certain high-tech equipment to Russia. Taiwan and Russia still do nearly the same amount of trade they did before the war began. The trouble obviously isn't with Taiwan law, but rather the US sanctions affecting SWIFT payments.

The SWIFT sanctions are not "US" ones. Taiwan choose to join them on their own free will. Next time research stuff before "oopsing".

Taiwan to follow SWIFT move, sends medical aid to Ukraine

"Taiwan will join moves to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system and has sent humanitarian aid to Ukraine to show support for the international "democratic camp", the government said on Tuesday. [...] Premier Su Tseng-chang told reporters Taiwan was in lock-step with its democratic partners around the world on its sanctions decision, adding that on SWIFT the government will "cooperate" with what Western countries have decided. ​

​

"The move is largely symbolic as Taiwan's trade with Russia is minimal. "​

 

[ezst036]

MSI ...... don´t own the code.

If it's just some random programmer doing whatever, then why isn't he making it open source?

I was mistaken about the code ownership, but it's kind of the same in a way. If this developer actually cared to save the project, they could easily open source it.

I highly doubt they will. Just saying, they could.

And that would actually help improve it significantly because afterburner would be a great thing to have on Linux and it is likely that some members of the community would come around and make it so.

 

[umeng2002_2]

I think MSI Afterburner just interfaces with nvidia's APIs. There is nothing magical about Afterburner except it's good execution. EVGA made their own tool as well as Asus. Overclocking nVidia GPUs are not going to get harder if Afterburner goes away.

It is the most feature rich and polished, which why I stick with it.

 

[Endymio]

The SWIFT sanctions are not "US" ones. Taiwan choose to join them on their own free will. Next time research stuff before "oopsing".

Oops again! Allow me to quote more of your reference article:

"...Taiwan will join moves to block some Russian banks from the SWIFT international payments system ... Premier Su Tseng-chang [said that] Taiwan will "cooperate" with what Western countries have decided. ... Taiwan's Financial Supervisory Commission said on Monday any transfers to Russia do use SWIFT but go via intermediary banks...."

Any entity which refuses to follow US regulations on SWIFT transfers itself risks being cut off from the US banking system. Taiwan bowed to pressure ... but still makes transfers to and from Russian via intermediate banks. And Taiwan's trade with Russia is indeed minimal -- about 0.7% of Taiwan's GDP, or almost exactly what it was before the war began.