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[TVexperto]

SI Afterburner is arguably the most popular graphics card overclocking utility that everyone from gamers to professional overclockers swear by. It is used across graphics card brands, and helps you tune up both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. While you enjoy Afterburner with your new-generation GeForce RTX 40-series "Ada" and Radeon RX 7000 series RDNA3 GPUs that were released in 2022, do remember that Afterburner's developer hasn't been paid a penny for it.

MSI Afterburner is developed by Russian national Alexey Nicolaychuk, who goes by the name Unwinder across tech forums. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early-2022, MSI stopped payments to Unwinder citing "political reasons." Unwinder had been independently (read: without payment) supporting Afterburner out of personal interest throughout 2022 in hopes that MSI would figure out a way to pay him. Interestingly, MSI PC hardware continued to be sold in the Russian market throughout 2022. Despite continuing to develop Afterburner throughout 2022 without payment, MSI hasn't resolved its payments. In a community post, Unwinder announced that he is finally calling it quits, and is halting development of the app. This development ensures that the app works reliably with new GPUs as they're being launched, fixes bugs, and patches security issues.

War and politics are the reasons. I didn't mention it in MSI Afterburner development news thread, but 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". 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. Anyway I'll try to continue supporting it myself while I have some free time, but will probably need to drop it and switch to something else, allowing me to pay my bills.

MSI Afterburner is an important tool used not just for its overclocking features and monitoring on the app's UI, but the in-game overlay feature (ability to have GPU and other real-time stats overlaid on top of game streams). Discontinuation of Afterburner could potentially affect millions of game streamers that rely on this feature. Unwinder clarified that he will continue to support RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), the backend component that makes Afterburner overlay work.

The discontinuation of Afterburner would graphics card overclocking in jeopardy. The second most popular app, EVGA Precision X has effectively been discontinued, with the company's exit from the graphics card business; and now the Unwinder-developed Afterburner stares at an uncertain future, too. MSI's reasons for not paying Unwinder are debatable. There are several civilian payment channels to Russia still open. There are also neutral countries like India, which have direct settlement of Russian Rubles without involving US Dollars or SWIFT. MSI India, for example, sells graphics cards for Indian Rupees, and uses Indian banks that can settle Russian Ruble payments to Unwinder on behalf of MSI. Perfectly legal ways to pay Unwinder exist. Unwinder and Afterburner are two precious jewels for the DIY PC enthusiast community, and we hope MSI can sort this out, pay Unwinder his arrears for 2022, and fund continued development of Afterburner.

Update 15:53 UTC: MSI in a statement to Hassan Mujtaba of Wcctech says:

"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"

We will be periodically checking with Unwinder on whether he has been paid.

MSI Afterburner Developer Hasn't been Paid for a Year, Product Development in Limbo

MSI Afterburner is arguably the most popular graphics card overclocking utility that everyone from gamers to professional overclockers swear by. It is used across graphics card brands, and helps you tune up both NVIDIA and AMD GPUs. While you enjoy Afterburner with your new-generation GeForce...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

Maybe send a suitcase MSI ?

 

[M1chl]

I feel zero sympathy

 

[cireza]

If he doesn't have anything to do, he can always work on an After Burner Climax port to current consoles instead.

 

[PhoenixTank]

I feel zero sympathy

 

[a multicultural team of v]

If he doesn't have anything to do, he can always work on an After Burner Climax port to current consoles instead.

 

[th4tguy]

Time to move development to a developer/ studio located in a non hostile nation.

 

[nightmare-slain]

I was wondering why the latest version available is a beta that hasnt been updated in a while.

While I use Afterburner there is also Hwinfo for monitoring temps/usage/voltages etc and there are many ways to view FPS.

It would suck if there was no way undervolt/overclock. Why dont Nvidia release a tool for doing this...or maybe they have?

Hopefully they can sort it out and pay the guy or hire someone else. It's a very important piece of software it cant be abandoned.

 

[TrueLegend]

Yes some assholes suggesting here let's punish some random Russian who makes computer softwares that makes games run better. Like how much of a retard you can become. Guy deserves payment for work done, he is not committing war crimes ffs especially since MSI is selling in Russia. Citing political reason to not pay a dude....radom neoGAFer - let's side with some corporate assholes.

 

[GreatnessRD]

MSI ain't shit for doing my mans Unwinder cruddy like that. Doing the work that these billion dollar corporations can't seem to figure out themselves. Same thing with Rem0o and the fan control software.

 

[Rocco Schiavone]

I feel zero sympathy

MSI Afterburner killed 0 ukranians so what's your point here??

Doesn't fit into your stupid black and white bubble, does it?

Evil russian doesn't deserve payments.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

I feel zero sympathy

You should, except if you like to work for free and not getting paid.

 

[Denton]

I feel zero sympathy

Very much doubt Unwinder is in any way pro-Putin Z asshole.
He should take his family and leave though.

 

[jigglet]

I agree he should be paid.

Just to play devil's advocate though, I wonder if MSI can't pay due to part of that going to tax, which would violate some sort of sanction they're forced to comply with. I wonder if they can pay him via bitcoin or some other way that might not incur tax? I'd prefer all of the money to go to the dev, fuck taxes / the Russian government.

 

[Sleepwalker]

Very much doubt Unwinder is in any way pro-Putin Z asshole.
He should take his family and leave though.

Maybe he could leave if he was paid the money owed.


MSI can suck a dick.

 

[EDMIX]

You should, except if you like to work for free and not getting paid.

Agreed.

No one should have to work like this.

 

[A.Romero]

I feel zero sympathy

Even if you in particular don't feel sympathy (whatever the reason) it is a fucked up thing to do.

Also it impacts PC gaming greatly, if you read OP Afterburner is the number one in it's kind. If you are not a PC gamer then you have no business here evidently.

 

[M1chl]

Even if you in particular don't feel sympathy (whatever the reason) it is a fucked up thing to do.

Also it impacts PC gaming greatly, if you read OP Afterburner is the number one in it's kind. If you are not a PC gamer then you have no business here evidently.

Yeah I should delete it, thanks for reminding me.

Very much doubt Unwinder is in any way pro-Putin Z asshole.
He should take his family and leave though.

This was pretty much what I am thinking. You are getting in way more trouble staying there, than just not getting paid.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

This was pretty much what I am thinking. You are getting in way more trouble staying there, than just not getting paid.

You have to know the reality of his life and give him the benefit of doubt, it's not an easy task, it's an euphemism, to move away from a country leaving everything you know and from your life. Also, not getting paid is not helping.

 

[kiphalfton]

Good.

MSI Afterburner wouldn't adjust my clocks correctly, so had to use EVGA Precision, which worked fine.

 

[Brigandier]

MSI is a shitty company that is doing shitty things....

 

[Atrus]

This is just the risk they took of living in a dictatorship. One day money can’t come in and the next you’re conscripted to kill innocent people for your dictator.

Anyone sensible should have left the country if they intended to keep business relations outside Russia.

 

[Tams]

Guy's probably gonna be conscripted soon, so why does he need the money?

And really, he's expecting a Taiwanese company to break sanctions? The guy is completely tone deaf; not surprising for a Russian though. Furthermore, if this is his job, then he could very easily move to Georgia, Kazakhstan, Argentina, etc. and then easily be paid and still work as it's all remote.

I hope MSI don't pay him unless he moves out of Russia.

 

[TLZ]

Guy's probably gonna be conscripted soon, so why does he need the money?

And really, he's expecting a Taiwanese company to break sanctions? The guy is completely tone deaf; not surprising for a Russian though. Furthermore, if this is his job, then he could very easily move to Georgia, Kazakhstan, Argentina, etc. and then easily be paid and still work as it's all remote.

I hope MSI don't pay him unless he moves out of Russia.

What a hateful, spiteful, ignorant post.

Would you "very easily" leave your country? No one does that. It's always a hard decision and he already has a job. And it's his country, not only Putin's. A lot Russians don't support him. Are you saying they should all "very easily" leave their country because of one man? We've had many dictators throughout history. You saw people just left en masse because of them? No one does. It's the country they know and love. They can't just leave their livelihoods, just because of one man/regime. A lot of these people suffer(ed), but still remain(ed) in their homes.

Don't be an asshole.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

This is just the risk they took of living in a dictatorship.

You don't choose where you born neither leave a country in a Thanos snap.

I hope MSI don't pay him unless he moves out of Russia.

That's so easy to speak, I would like to see you if your country does something wrong. Leaving your family, your friends, your memories, your habits, your city, your country, your entire life. You're all living in beautiful country delusional about the sad reality in a black & white Manichean scenario.

 

[Jinzo Prime]

Lot of entitled, sheltered pricks in this thread. People need learn that everybody is suffering, not just one group of people.

 

[lukilladog]

Bro, this guy has freely contributed so much to the enthusiast part of Pc gaming world wide, for this?. We are the pricks.

 

[Atrus]

You don't choose where you born neither leave a country in a Thanos snap.

That's so easy to speak, I would like to see you if your country does something wrong. Leaving your family, your friends, your memories, your habits, your city, your country, your entire life. You're all living in beautiful country delusional about the sad reality in a black & white Manichean scenario.

He isn’t a baby, he’s an adult and businessman. If he intended on continuing his business relations then he should have done what millions have wisely done already and left.

It’s not like he’s in some gulag in Siberia literally shackled to Russia.

I myself was born in a developing country, literally sleeping on straw mats, and my family did the same despite being even poorer.

All I see is infantile whining.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

He isn’t a baby, he’s an adult and businessman. If he intended on continuing his business relations then he should have done what millions have wisely done already and left.

It’s not like he’s in some gulag in Siberia literally shackled to Russia.

I myself was born in a developing country, literally sleeping on straw mats, and my family did the same despite being even poorer.

All I see is infantile whining.

All I see is a lack of empathy/understanding and a hasty harsh judgment in a binary thinking.

 

[Tams]

You don't choose where you born neither leave a country in a Thanos snap.

That's so easy to speak, I would like to see you if your country does something wrong. Leaving your family, your friends, your memories, your habits, your city, your country, your entire life. You're all living in beautiful country delusional about the sad reality in a black & white Manichean scenario.

I'm lucky that I was born in a decent country. But still, I actually have upped and left, to a country that couldn't even speak the language of when I first arrived.

Look at his situation though.

• He was being paid by a company that let him work completely remotely.
• Said company would be breaking multiple sanctions sending him money.
  • The company is based in a country that has a neighbour who would love to invade them and isn't exactly against Russia's invasion, so sending any money or doing any business in Russia is a terrible look for them (and morally wrong). Their allies, the only thing really keeping their neighbour from invading, are all firmly against the Russian invasion.
• There are neighbouring countries that many of his fellow countrymen have fled to that allow Russians to have access to bank accounts etc. and even now, to a degree, tolerate Russian language use. Many of those Russians work remotely.
  • He works remotely anyway, so he can take his work with him.
• MSI sound like they'd pay him if he moved out of Russia.

We're not asking him to be a hero. But it does sound like he's like most Russians just letting life go on around him. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought the invasion would be successful and that he'd get paid in the end. But that's not the case. So instead of working despite no payment for 11 months, he could have left Russia and set up shop somewhere he could get paid. He didn't; so he isn't getting paid.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

I'm lucky that I was born in a decent country. But still, I actually have upped and left, to a country that couldn't even speak the language of when I first arrived.

Look at his situation though.

• He was being paid by a company that let him work completely remotely.
• Said company would be breaking multiple sanctions sending him money.
  • The company is based in a country that has a neighbour who would love to invade them and isn't exactly against Russia's invasion, so sending any money or doing any business in Russia is a terrible look for them (and morally wrong). Their allies, the only thing really keeping their neighbour from invading, are all firmly against the Russian invasion.
• There are neighbouring countries that many of his fellow countrymen have fled to that allow Russians to have access to bank accounts etc. and even now, to a degree, tolerate Russian language use. Many of those Russians work remotely.
  • He works remotely anyway, so he can take his work with him.
• MSI sound like they'd pay him if he moved out of Russia.

We're not asking him to be a hero. But it does sound like he's like most Russians just letting life go on around him. I wouldn't be surprised if he thought the invasion would be successful and that he'd get paid in the end. But that's not the case. So instead of working despite no payment for 11 months, he could have left Russia and set up shop somewhere he could get paid. He didn't; so he isn't getting paid.

I totally understand this point of view and I'm glad your took the time to share it, but in a life, as you already know considering your past, there is so many variables which can interfere with what we would like to achieve and we can actually do.

We can just speculate, maybe he tried to leave at some point and failed ? Maybe he never tried because he love his country ?
That doesn't make him a supporter of the horrible Ukraine war.
And not getting paid for a job he does is unfair, he's not the one responsible of the atrocity.
At worst you can accuse him to be a passive Russian, but how could you interfere with a older man madness taking the power since... I don't remember ?
He maybe did what he can, or nothing. Maybe he's a nice person or maybe an asshole, we don't know him personally. He's maybe not in politics at all.
The world is doing business with China, the land of the censorship and that doesn't bother anyone, but we support a dictatorship by doing so. Are we hypocrite ? I don't know, probably yes.

Maybe he thought also, as you said, the situation was going to be quickly solved. We don’t know so much to be honest.

I think it's going too deep, it's just about a dev getting paid for his work, that's it.

 

[Tams]

I totally understand this point of view and I'm glad your took the time to share it, but in a life, as you already know considering your past, there is so many variables which can interfere with what we would like to achieve and we can actually do.

We can just speculate, maybe he tried to leave at some point and failed ? Maybe he never tried because he love his country ?
That doesn't make him a supporter of the horrible Ukraine war.
And not getting paid for a job he does is unfair, he's not the one responsible of the atrocity.
At worst you can accuse him to be a passive Russian, but how could you interfere with a older man madness taking the power since... I don't remember ?
He maybe did what he can, or nothing. Maybe he's a nice person or maybe an asshole, we don't know him personally. He's maybe not in politics at all.
The world is doing business with China, the land of the censorship and that doesn't bother anyone, but we support a dictatorship by doing so. Are we hypocrite ? I don't know, probably yes.

Maybe he thought also, as you said, the situation was going to be quickly solved. We don’t know so much to be honest.

I think it's going too deep, it's just about a dev getting paid for his work, that's it.

It's not just about a dev getting paid for his work though, is it?

It's about a dev asking his employer to breach sanctions and possibly (in a minor way) have that employer endanger their home country's security by straining its alliances.

It also does not change the fact that he is in a position that allows him to work almost anywhere in the world. He may well have elderly relatives to care for, but that can be addressed by him personally getting money into Russia to support them, if need be. And look, if he gets drafted (and then possibly killed), he ain't going to be working on MSI Afterburner any more, is he?

I'd also hazard a guess that MSI would be more than willing to pony up some funding to get him a rental place in, say, Georgia and help him set up there. It would be peanuts for them.

 

[SlimySnake]

lol I love how MSI continues to sell GPUs there but wont pay this guy. Just paypal him if the bank account transfer is prohibited. Or set up a gofundme or something. Send cash in an envelope. this shouldnt be that hard.

 

[ZoukGalaxy]

It's not just about a dev getting paid for his work though, is it?

It's about a dev asking his employer to breach sanctions and possibly (in a minor way) have that employer endanger their home country's security by straining its alliances.

It also does not change the fact that he is in a position that allows him to work almost anywhere in the world. He may well have elderly relatives to care for, but that can be addressed by him personally getting money into Russia to support them, if need be. And look, if he gets drafted (and then possibly killed), he ain't going to be working on MSI Afterburner any more, is he?

I'd also hazard a guess that MSI would be more than willing to pony up some funding to get him a rental place in, say, Georgia and help him set up there. It would be peanuts for them.

Personally I see it as simple as that, yes.

Let's just agree we disagree. You had some valid points though, but we can argue each other with endless argumentative which are finally just hypothetical speculations. My point that he did a work, he must be paid.

But we can agree at least on one thing: MSI doesn't seem to do much to solve the situation, they doesn't shine here.

 

[GreatnessRD]

So it took a breaking story to find a way to get this man his coins after almost a year. At least MSI is getting active, I guess. I hope he gets his funds and continue the project. I don't use Afterburner anymore personally, but when I did, it was a real treat.

 

[Ovek]

I would have just stopped developing it after they missed my first pay check

 

[TLZ]

So it took a breaking story to find a way to get this man his coins after almost a year.

No... It can't be... MSI are breaching sanctions and endangering their security paying him..! But how can this be?!

 

[phil_t98]

Guy's probably gonna be conscripted soon, so why does he need the money?

And really, he's expecting a Taiwanese company to break sanctions? The guy is completely tone deaf; not surprising for a Russian though. Furthermore, if this is his job, then he could very easily move to Georgia, Kazakhstan, Argentina, etc. and then easily be paid and still work as it's all remote.

I hope MSI don't pay him unless he moves out of Russia.

you do know that people in Russia don't want to go to war, the former Everton player has been called into the army and is distraught about it.as for moving out of Russia it aint that easy for somepeopl

Everybody deserves to be paid for the work they have done, he cannot control what's happening in his country

 

[Tams]

you do know that people in Russia don't want to go to war, the former Everton player has been called into the army and is distraught about it.as for moving out of Russia it aint that easy for somepeopl

Everybody deserves to be paid for the work they have done, he cannot control what's happening in his country

Being distraught about it does jack shit. That's one of the major problems with this war; too many Russians are so nihilistic, that they just roll over and take the punches.

And, oh, woe betide me! I've been drafted! I can't get paid! THEN DO SOMETHING FUCKING ABOUT IT. IT'S YOUR FUCKING COUNTRY!

Edit: Mods, I hope you don't see this as political. It's directly linked to why Alexey Nicolaychuk has not been paid.

 

[KungFucius]

So it took a breaking story to find a way to get this man his coins after almost a year. At least MSI is getting active, I guess. I hope he gets his funds and continue the project. I don't use Afterburner anymore personally, but when I did, it was a real treat.

In companies details like this often get missed by the people who would care about them. What probably happened at MSI is that some dude in accounts payable got an error, tried again, got another error and either failed to escalate and follow up because he didn't give a shit or because he forgot due to being busy with other work. This is hardly the whole company being a shit and needing to be called out, it is just poor information flow getting sorted thanks to social media outcry.

 

[nightmare-slain]

don't want to get into the politics but hopefully it's sorted out soon.

is there any way to undervolt/overclock a gpu without afterburner? i can use other software for capping fps and monitoring stuff but it would suck if i couldn't undervolt/over clock.

im sure if afterburner was scrapped something else would replace it. the pc gaming community would have to do something about it. well ... can they? or does it need to be made by a gpu maker to access stuff like clocks/voltages? i mean MSI has afterburner and EVGA had precision. would Asus or Gigabyte need to do it or could anyone start building a program to do it?

 

[manfestival]

So it took a breaking story to find a way to get this man his coins after almost a year. At least MSI is getting active, I guess. I hope he gets his funds and continue the project. I don't use Afterburner anymore personally, but when I did, it was a real treat.

A lot of people do not realize the difficulties that surround this situation. Like my company has a few employees in Ukraine and we are constantly having to adjust things for the latest changes just to make sure those people can get paid. I can't imagine the hoops and difficulties surrounding an employee that is within Russia. Granted, MSI should've been aware of this far sooner but it is what it is and I imagine that they will at least retroactively pay him.

 

[Flutta]

Guy's probably gonna be conscripted soon, so why does he need the money?

And really, he's expecting a Taiwanese company to break sanctions? The guy is completely tone deaf; not surprising for a Russian though. Furthermore, if this is his job, then he could very easily move to Georgia, Kazakhstan, Argentina, etc. and then easily be paid and still work as it's all remote.

I hope MSI don't pay him unless he moves out of Russia.

What a disgusting post.
How the f do you know it’s ”easily” for anyone in Russia to move to a different country???? Especially in the situation they’re in right now.

This an example of a person with no moral compass. A complete BOT. Congratz for being an idiot!

 

[nightmare-slain]

is Asus GPU Tweak III worth trying? in case AB is dead.

 

[The_Mike]

He isn’t a baby, he’s an adult and businessman. If he intended on continuing his business relations then he should have done what millions have wisely done already and left.

It’s not like he’s in some gulag in Siberia literally shackled to Russia.

I myself was born in a developing country, literally sleeping on straw mats, and my family did the same despite being even poorer.

All I see is infantile whining.

You make it sound so simple.

What if he will be hindered because of family and relations not being able to follow along, or having something else he doesn't feel he could abandon?

I mean, if everyone you know is dead and you are a caveman it could be easier, but don't forget there's alot of poor Russians, and by him not getting paid for a year tells me he doesn't have the biggest capital to pursuit that adventure.

 

[Alexios]

Hope they work it out, don't care for the OC stuff, I usually just make a more aggressive than default fan curve since GPUs nowadays self OC to a degree by default anyway, but I do find it very reliable for screenshot taking and fps limiting (which I guess is RTSS on that end but he maintains that too).

 

[ScHlAuChi]

lol I love how MSI continues to sell GPUs there but wont pay this guy. Just paypal him if the bank account transfer is prohibited. Or set up a gofundme or something. Send cash in an envelope. this shouldnt be that hard.

Sorry, but that post is pretty ignorant:
GoFundMe = US based -> sanctions
Paypal = US based -> sanctions
Sending alot of cash in an envelope -> fantastic idea, certainly wont get stolen!

The only way to get past the sanctions is using crypto, but thats a can of worms too.

 

[bbeach123]

iirc he's the creator , MSI just hired him then slap the brand on the app .

 

[Rickyiez]

Dude had done some miracle works for the PC enthusiast and all he get are idiotic slanders from idiotic peoples who have no idea what is going on behind the scene . What a sad reality

 

[FullMetalx117]

For the amount of contribution he did to the gaming scene, and seeing how loud and proud the pc master race is - and seemingly a wealthier group with how expensive parts can be - I’m surprised this guy ever had to worry about money at all. I’d imagine he’d have some following that helped with funding, maybe even take MSI logo off.

But alas…some comments in this thread really show how unsympathetic, crude, and ungrateful/entitled gamers can be