MSI Afterburner Overclocking Utility Reclaims Its Crown with First Stable Release in Years

The wait is over. After years in beta, the popular graphics card overclocking software, MSI Afterburner, has officially launched its stable release. Version 4.6.6 marks a significant milestone for the utility, bringing not only support for new hardware but also a host of technical refinements. A major underlying change is the complete drop of Windows XP support, a move necessitated by the shift to the Microsoft Visual C++ 2022 compiler. To tackle the issue of a bloated installer size, the developers are now offering a compact web installer that downloads the necessary components on the fly.

This update is laser-focused on compatibility with next-gen flagship graphics cards. It introduces full support for NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 5000 series—including control for up to four fans on reference models—and experimental support for AMD's RDNA 4-based Radeon RX 9000 series. Overclocking enthusiasts will appreciate the expanded memory clock offset range for RTX 5000 cards, now increased to +3000 MHz, alongside the addition of voltage control for the Radeon RX 7800 XT and select budget-friendly RTX 4000 models.

The program's interface now defaults to a Windows 11-style dark theme. A handy new feature allows users to hide integrated GPUs (iGPU) from the main device list, cleaning up the interface by removing unnecessary entries. On the security front, a critical step was patching vulnerabilities in the low-level RTCore driver, enhancing overall system safety. The developers strongly recommend downloading the software only from official MSI websites, warning of a rise in phishing sites distributing malware-infected copies.

The companion utility, RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS), which handles the on-screen display, hasn't been left behind. It's been updated to version 7.3.7, featuring over 150 changes, improved compatibility, and better integration with NVIDIA's latency-reducing Reflex technology. The final release of MSI Afterburner 4.6.6 draws a line under a lengthy testing period, offering users a stable, feature-packed version for fine-tuning their graphics cards.

While this new Afterburner update unlocks full overclocking access for the latest GPUs, their potential manifests differently in laptops versus desktops. As a recent side-by-side comparison revealed, chasing the flagship mobile RTX 5090 is often hard to justify—it's only marginally faster than a mobile RTX 5080 yet falls significantly behind its desktop counterpart. Meanwhile, more affordable mobile models like the RTX 5050 and RTX 5060 deliver performance that is much more competitive with their desktop equivalents.