MSI Afterburner 4.6.6 Beta 5 adds Nvidia RTX 50 plus initial Arrow Lake and Zen 5 support

The creator of MSI Afterburner, dubbed "Unwinder," has delivered a large number of updates in version 4.6.6 Beta 5 of the software. A timestamp for the stable release has not been promised. However, the updated beta version is available at Guru3D and will be downloadable from MSI's official website after the Chinese New Year holidays. The latest version supports Nvidia's RTX 50 Blackwell GPUs and offers experimental compatibility with the latest processors from Intel and AMD.

MSI Afterburner, an overclocking utility, comes packaged with RivaTuner to monitor your hardware's statistics. As discussed previously, Unwinder suggested that triple-fan RTX 50 GPUs would include three fan controllers, allowing us to regulate the speed of each fan independently. The update brings software support for up to four independently controllable fans on GPUs. We're unsure if all RTX 50 GPUs share a single fan-to-controller configuration, though the patch notes make it seem like Nvidia's reference PCB mandates a one-to-one ratio.

Once nothing more than an April Fool's joke, recent advancements in AI have made Nvidia's G-Assist feature a reality, slated for February. If you plan on using the on-device utility, Unwinder has added software integration in MSI Afterburner, which should allow for AI-assisted overclocking and tuning in the future. MSI Afterburner will now default to the Windows 11 Dark skin, matching the overall look and feel of Windows. The release notes specify that the quad-fan-control GUI is only available in the dark and light editions of the MSI Windows 11 and a new MSI Special skin.

RivaTuner has also been updated to version 7.3.7 Beta 5, with quad-fan monitoring support for RTX 50 GPUs. Previous versions lacked proper sensor compatibility with Intel's latest Core Ultra 200S (Arrow Lake) and AMD's Ryzen 9000 (Zen 5) CPUs, an issue that has been addressed in this update. As RTX 50 GPUs lack a HotSpot sensor, RivaTuner currently reports the metric at a fixed 255 degrees Celsius, which should be fixed in a future update.

Since this is a beta release, some quirks and bugs are expected and should be addressed before the stable version. If you wish to try out the new features, you can download the latest release via the link, top.