MSI Afterburner Issue after GPU Swap

R

rhys.bussier155202d9

New member
Joined
May 17, 2025
Messages
9
I have a Reddit thread about it HERE as well, but I will also type this up right here, and I am hoping someone can point me in the right direction because I have been at this for over a week now and cannot figure it out :cry:

I was running AB and RTSS completely fine. I had a 7900XTX, which I swapped to a 5070 Ti, and now here are the specific issues that are occurring:
  1. 1. MSI boots up perfectly, but automatically sets itself to the AMD onboard graphics.
rich text editor image

2. Any changes I attempt to make in any way and then hit "apply" will cause MSI to crash.

3. I can switch the profile from the onboard to the GPU here, but if I try to make any sort of change like a custom fan curve, as soon as I hit apply, it crashes.

rich text editor image

4. I can get my OSD stuff set up because I don't have to click "apply", just "ok," and that seems to not crash the program. It's when I hit apply that it crashes.

Here are the things I have attempted so far:
  1. 1. Complete uninstall of MSI and RTSS using Revo Uninstaller. I have done this 4 times now. The issue occurs every single time, without fail.
  2. 2. I uninstalled every AMD thing possible except for the AMD Install Manager because I have a 7800x3d CPU. I have also wiped every possible trace of AMD GPU stuff from the computer that I can think of. MSI AB, RTSS, BIOS, and Nvidia Driver are all the most current versions.
  3. 3. My BIOS has a setting where I can change onboard graphics from auto to disabled or forced. I changed it to disabled, it did nothing, and MSI wouldn't even open, so I changed it back. This was in between one of my many full uninstalls of the program.
  4. 4. I have used DDU to wipe any trace of AMD off the computer. I first uninstalled MSI and RTSS using Revo, then did the DDU wipe (selected clean and shut down), let it sit for about 45 minutes, started up, re-downloaded the MSI Afterburner from MSI website, installed, and it is STILL SHOWING AMD! :mad:
Whenever I pin the new link to MSI to my taskbar, it shows up as a blank link, so to me, that reads that something somewhere is not fully uninstalled. But Revo should have found it?

rich text editor image


I'm kinda at a loss here, I'm not sure what else to do besides a factory reset? But I REALLY don't want to do that as I have so much stuff and I can't select to keep settings and apps since an app is the issue I am trying to resolve, lol. I've been at this trying to fix it for about 5 days now, any help would be greatly appreciated! I really want to set up a fan curve and OC, but I cannot do a thing until I get this resolved...

Thank you in advance to anyone who can help!
 
Sort by date Sort by votes
Upadate*

I disabled the onboard graphics in Device Manager, and restarted the computer, and it still shows up first and now looks different as well. I cannot seem to catch a break with this, lol

1747493791308.png
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
I've been working on a comprehensive guide to MSI Afterburner and so I'm interested in your problem. Can I assume that you have MSI Afterburner set to run at Windows startup? Can I also assume that you did not disable this startup when you swapped graphics cards? Let me know the answers to those two questions and I might have a clue as to what happened, assuming that we're not just looking at a application bug - which is always possible.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
FlyingScot said:
I've been working on a comprehensive guide to MSI Afterburner and so I'm interested in your problem. Can I assume that you have MSI Afterburner set to run at Windows startup? Can I also assume that you did not disable this startup when you swapped graphics cards? Let me know the answers to those two questions and I might have a clue as to what happened, assuming that we're not just looking at a application bug - which is always possible.
Click to expand...
When I did the swap, I had it selected to run at startup, and it was not disabled when I switched cards.

I have never had to do that before, and the last 12 years I have been running AMD CPU with Nvidia cards, but I never swapped from an AMD card to an Nvidia card, so I think that it never really had to fight with driver issues, I guess I am not sure tbh?

20 minutes ago, I reset my PC because I was honestly out of options. I tried everything I could possibly think of.

My guess is that because it was selected to run at startup, it kept the settings, and since I had AMD for my CPU, it couldn't wipe the onboard graphics stuff, so it just stuck around and I couldn't get past it
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
rhys.bussier155202d9 said:
When I did the swap, I had it selected to run at startup, and it was not disabled when I switched cards.

I have never had to do that before, and the last 12 years I have been running AMD CPU with Nvidia cards, but I never swapped from an AMD card to an Nvidia card, so I think that it never really had to fight with driver issues, I guess I am not sure tbh?

20 minutes ago, I reset my PC because I was honestly out of options. I tried everything I could possibly think of.

My guess is that because it was selected to run at startup, it kept the settings, and since I had AMD for my CPU, it couldn't wipe the onboard graphics stuff, so it just stuck around and I couldn't get past it
Click to expand...
Yes, you basically stated the likely problem. As I understand it, the issue is that MSI Afterburner can start up before the new hardware drivers are installed. At least, I belief that can be the case. It is the case with mouse drivers versus mouse startup applications, like Logitech's software. Also, since you were making such a radical switch in hardware this time, you likely caused some conflicts with what ended up in the Windows registry, etc.

My suggestion is to try to go back to square one.
[1] Uninstall MSI Afterburner and reboot. Use Revo if you want to.
[2] Uninstall the AMD drivers using DDU. Reboot.
[3] Install the new AMD drivers. Reboot.
[4] See below ** point.
[5] Reinstall MSI Afterburner. Reboot.

Hopefully, that clears up any Windows Registry mess just enough to get you where you want to be, although there's no guarantee. And, again. It could be an application bug.
Also, I'm attaching a graphics card swap guide that I made for myself. Although, I've only ever tested it on a Nvidia to Nvidia swap. Maybe my notes will help. Let me know if I can improve my guide when it comes to Nvidia and AMD swaps, or any other information that is not accurate or clear.
Cheers!
FS

**Here is a snip-it from the guide. You need to try this in addition to the above suggestions.

Reset to "Factory" Defaults​

You can reset all your custom settings, including Global settings, OSD configuration settings, OC Profiles, etc. by following these steps:
1. Close the MSI Afterburner application.
2. Navigate to C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\Profiles
3. Rename the folder Profiles to ProfilesBK (e.g. "BacKup").
Now when you restart MSI Afterburner, it will create a new and blank Profiles folder. You will also find that all your custom settings have been reset back to what they were when you first installed the application.
 

Attachments

  • How to Install new Nvidia GPU (quick method).pdf
    432.1 KB · Views: 31
Upvote 0 Downvote
FlyingScot said:
Yes, you basically stated the likely problem. As I understand it, the issue is that MSI Afterburner can start up before the new hardware drivers are installed. At least, I belief that can be the case. It is the case with mouse drivers versus mouse startup applications, like Logitech's software. Also, since you were making such a radical switch in hardware this time, you likely caused some conflicts with what ended up in the Windows registry, etc.

My suggestion is to try to go back to square one.
[1] Uninstall MSI Afterburner and reboot. Use Revo if you want to.
[2] Uninstall the AMD drivers using DDU. Reboot.
[3] Install the new AMD drivers. Reboot.
[4] See below ** point.
[5] Reinstall MSI Afterburner. Reboot.
Click to expand...
So I don't think you read everything I have done, lol. I did what you posted above 3 separate times. I did that in safe mode, as well. I have wiped MSI and RTSS at least 6 times using Revo. I have used DDU 3 times. I just reset my entire PC and downloaded MSI and RTSS, and it is STILL DOING IT.

I am at a loss and honestly pretty upset and beaten. I am going to set up my OSD and just come to terms with the fact that I will not be able to OC or make any adjustments within MSI at all. Bummed is an understatement
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
rhys.bussier155202d9 said:
So I don't think you read everything I have done, lol. I did what you posted above 3 separate times. I did that in safe mode, as well. I have wiped MSI and RTSS at least 6 times using Revo. I have used DDU 3 times. I just reset my entire PC and downloaded MSI and RTSS, and it is STILL DOING IT.

I am at a loss and honestly pretty upset and beaten. I am going to set up my OSD and just come to terms with the fact that I will not be able to OC or make any adjustments within MSI at all. Bummed is an understatement
Click to expand...
I did read what you had done, but thought if you did it one more time (in my exact order) and stood on one leg with one eye closed, it would work this time. You know, 4 times could be the charm :p [Although, my instructions should have said Nvidia instead of AMD. I had things the wrong way round.] But I hear you. You say you've been there, done that. So, I'm at a loss, too. Perhaps you should not have jumped ship and joined the likes of Jensen and his leather jacketed developers!
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0 Downvote
FlyingScot said:
I did read what you had done, but thought if you did it one more time (in my exact order) and stood on one leg with one eye closed, it would work this time. You know, 4 times could be the charm :p [Although, my instructions should have said Nvidia instead of AMD. I had things the wrong way round.] But I hear you. You say you've been there, done that. So, I'm at a loss, too. Perhaps you should not have jumped ship and joined the likes of Jensen and his leather jacketed developers!
Click to expand...
:ROFLMAO::ROFLMAO:
Unfortunately, I had tried everything in every order possible and imaginable, and after ~2 weeks, I gave up and did the reset, and it still failed me. But thanks for the input - I didn't know about the profiles thing, so that was good knowledge for the future. In this instance, it makes no difference because I can't even create a profile without MSI crashing, so 🤷‍♂️ eye dee kay

I was going to stay with the 7900XTX cause it was a phenomenal card, I had zero complaints, but I listed it for trade to get a white GPU of 5070ti or better to match my build, and this deal came up on the 5070ti I got that I couldn't pass on. Lesson learned on GPU swapping, need to uninstall MSI and RTSS, use DDU, and THEN swap the cards, reinstall everything, and hope I don't get unlucky again!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
kaustubhratnaparkhi2159202db said:
Just do it and be bamboozled
Click to expand...
1749072595158.png


I cannot believe that "worked".........

It still shows up that AMD onboard graphics are the #1, BUT I can now make a fan curve and do things that don't cause it to crash immediately. Plus since the 5070ti still shows as GPU #2 I can easily switch to that one and save/apply (that I couldn't do before!) and it will stay!

I also needed to do a quick workaround because the icon kept appearing as blank, so I created a shortcut, updated the icon, and then pinned it.

But IT WORKED.

I am so happy and yet so frustrated/sad, that's all that was needed 😅😅

Thank you for the insight!!
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Back
Top