People are stupid...
Global MSI Page...
www.msi.com/Landing/afterburner/graphics-cards

kapone32This is why I use AMD software for my GPU.

Hard to do as a Nvidia user.

Jokes aside, I don't understand people who even in today download stuff from shady sites. I get my stuff either from the official sites or from Cnet or similar well-known site.

LenneHard to do as a Nvidia user.

Jokes aside, I don't understand people who even in today download stuff from shady sites. I get my stuff either from the official sites or from Cnet or similar well-known site.

Usually I'd agree but given that this is google running these ads it's hard to say this is only on end users. It's one thing for a smaller website to accidentally run an infected ad, it's another from one of the world's largest tech companies.

IMO it's long long past time the government intervenes in google's search monopoly. Either google needs to be split up or they need to agree to a set of rules in regards to ads, data collection, marketplace competition, and more.

evernessinceUsually I'd agree but given that this is google running these ads it's hard to say this is only on end users. It's one thing for a smaller website to accidentally run an infected ad, it's another from one of the world's largest tech companies.

IMO it's long long past time the government intervenes in google's search monopoly. Either google needs to be split up or they need to agree to a set of rules in regards to ads, data collection, marketplace competition, and more.

Yeah, good point there. A typical user probably won't check the address and he/she could go to a fake site easily.

LenneHard to do as a Nvidia user.

Jokes aside, I don't understand people who even in today download stuff from shady sites. I get my stuff either from the official sites or from Cnet or similar well-known site.

I used to use Cnet in its early days, but they started adding Toolbar addons and such to the installers and after accidentally installing one and net being able to uninstall it, I said no more. I hope its been cleaned up since, it was a source for lots of malware/spyware at one time.

Its official sites or not at all, thats what should be taught here.

JismIts obviously because of the "Adv" elements on Google search for example.

Advanced? :p

WavetrexAnd then Google is Surprised Pikachu that people use ad-blockers.

Ads ARE the malware of the world !

You use ONLY adblockers?

LenneI get my stuff either from the official sites or from Cnet or similar well-known site.

Majorgeeks I my fav! They're secure and reliable.

kapone32This is why I use AMD software for my GPU.

Don't know about now, but back in the day of first GCN (HD7xxx) AMD software did not allow to change vcore, also the OC was capped.

But funny thing back when I had my HD 7950 - Afterburner crashed my whole system and the card was from MSI itself! Switched to Sapphire Trixx (which is based on the same software) and it worked like magic. :)
(also - the card was a beast: OC'ed from Core 800 / Mem. 1200 to 1200/1700, got ~40% more performance in games and it was not it's limit!)

DammeronDon't know about now, but back in the day of first GCN (HD7xxx) AMD software did not allow to change vcore, also the OC was capped.

But funny thing back when I had my HD 7950 - Afterburner crashed my whole system and the card was from MSI itself! Switched to Sapphire Trixx (which is based on the same software) and it worked like magic. :)
(also - the card was a beast: OC'ed from Core 800 / Mem. 1200 to 1200/1700, got ~40% more performance in games and it was not it's limit!)

It has been improved, despite the bugs and instability. The tuning options are pretty good though in my computer enabling SAM causes Radeon Software to never open again until I disable it.

Feel the burn ;)

ArkzWhy would you ever get it from anywhere other than msi.com?

I use to get it from guru3d a few years back , was too lazy to go to the main website haah. But i hear you now :)

u2konlineI use to get it from guru3d a few years back , was too lazy to go to the main website haah. But i hear you now :)

Forum member Unwinder, creator of MSi AB and staff member on Guru3D forums is active there and you are safe downloading from Guru3D. Beyond those two sites though, I would be skeptical.

lexluthermiesterAlso agree with this point. TPU is one of the few places on the net that is actually ad safe. W1zzard takes personal pride in this place and actually cares about the visitors, audience and forum users.

While, I too, agree with this, I do not practice it. There have been times where ive seen people make posts that were about sketchy ads but usually that wound up being an issue with the ad publisher and not TPU directly. Even still though, not worth the risk IMO.

LenneYeah, good point there. A typical user probably won't check the address and he/she could go to a fake site easily.

But why would a typical user, who can't even discern a legitimate site from malware, need MSI Afterburner in the first place?

ArkzWhy would you ever get it from anywhere other than msi.com?

*Why would you ever get it from anywhere other than Guru3d forums or downloads section?

Ah, better :-D

WavetrexAnd then Google is Surprised Pikachu that people use ad-blockers.

Ads ARE the malware of the world !

This!

Also, this is why I always say that Nvidia should and must include a tuning tool in their drivers just like AMD and Intel do. :shadedshu:

bugFwiw, I don't get those whether I enable the ad blocking or not. Do ad blockers really block Google's own ads on google.com?

Thats why i advise not one, but two. Adblock and Ublock origin.

It's said that Google pays Adblock to pass through acceptable ads. But the same acceptable ads is exactly what this whole thread is about.

There's a few key advantages to using a adblocker:

- Cleaner websites
- Faster rendering
- Less overhead or CPU Cycles needed
- Safer browsing!

The downside to this is:

- Less revenue for websites and provider(s), hence why newspaper now head all to a Pay subscription model

Also, people using these toolbars to verify a website trustworthyness etc; its all garbage and intended as mass datacollection on the sites you on avg visit. I stopped running with a antivirus for 3 years now. Once in a while i do a scan, but if you just use your common sense really nothing can bad can happen. For mobile phones i suggest Adguard.

Jism- Less revenue for websites and provider(s), hence why newspaper now head all to a Pay subscription model

That is their own problem of their own making. If everyone would practice ethical advertising we wouldn't need to block ads. But they don't and here we are.

GunShotI asked the same exact question for other stuff too that I find super loco. e.g. Why would anyone ever get NVIDIA's, etc. drivers anywhere other than NVIDIA's OFFICIAL site? Why would anyone use any 3rd-party tools (DDU, etc.) to remove drivers rather than the vendors removal tools or system (Windows, etc.) baked-in tools? On and on.

But, many users make-up these very lame shilled/uninformed excuses (mainly due to others persuasions or because an old issue that happened moons ago or they just lack the talent and they need a quick so-called remedy) for today's issues. But, these same users that are utilizing these 3rd-party sources/apps are also wondering at times, why do they continue to have so many performance issues, etc.

WELP! :kookoo:

You kinda bent it in your favor there.

1. Drivers I can understand, but there are tools like Snappy Driver Installer(and DriverPack Solution in the past, when it used to not install bloatware) that make life many times easier for people who, say for example, perform windows installs for people on a very frequent basis, like 4-5 times per day. Of course said tools would also have their own official sources to download them from, after that everything else is a risk.

2. 3rd party tools are often much more functional and thorough than the baked-in alternatives.
- the DDU example is massively wrong - I use it in my line of work very often to fix people's mess when they've downloaded and installed driver upon driver upon driver and wondered(like you said) why they have many performance(or other) issues. So far I've only once or twice used it to clean up Realtek HD Audio driver, it did the job. But for graphics drivers it's a must, this tool. Clean windows 10/11 install or just installing new driver/cleaning leftovers from old drivers.
- my own example would be abbodi1406's Visual C++ and DirectX repacks - both are a fraction of the total size of the official download(~30MB each repack vs ~100MB for directx alone and maybe the same if not more for multiple separate vc++ installers, all of which have a bunch of installer payload you don't really need), perform a cleanup before installing anything, have switches you can use to perform specific tasks. All this made by a trusted person on a well-known trusted forum(I'm sure some here have an idea)

There are probably many positive examples to be given, I just haven't experienced the need to use some of the stuff that exists out there. After that come things like crappy bloatware/shady/malicious websites that use the name of an otherwise useful piece of software to rack up clicks and spread unwanted/harmful crap.

TL/DR: Don't lump everything under the same lame mentality of only using what the manufacturer provides. I use non-oem aluminum window hangers on my Golf Mk4 because the oem plastic ones break whenever they feel like it. People use cheap "aliexpress/ebay turbos" because buying a proper built turbo from a reputable manufacturer costs "too much" and is "unnecessary". Those are two completely different approaches to solving problems. Same with software.

I think it ain't the first time?

Seconds regarding drivers... AMD/NVIDIA and Intel should pull their head out of the arses and make proper driver cherry picked driver packages with build bot. Intel Arc ones are 1.2GB... well that's an OS size not a driver.

Basically you can set up your arch, OS, features and games, ability sort profiles to make drivers thinner, as thin you can... put a check mark and let a build bot assemble the precompiled packages with a signed driver. It really ain't that hard. You can compile entire OS like that without any issues... But hey... why to use your head...

They are holding on the driver inefficiency for that long it has become a cancer. The worst, nvidia has to rely on third party for making it usable while under/overclocking, that's absurd.

Not sure anyone’s mentioned it, but using virustotal.com (and plugin) for every download, then moving to the decon websites works wonders. These sandbox machines can tell you what the installer is doing.

JismThats why i advise not one, but two. Adblock and Ublock origin.

It's said that Google pays Adblock to pass through acceptable ads. But the same acceptable ads is exactly what this whole thread is about.

There's a few key advantages to using a adblocker:

- Cleaner websites
- Faster rendering
- Less overhead or CPU Cycles needed
- Safer browsing!

The downside to this is:

- Less revenue for websites and provider(s), hence why newspaper now head all to a Pay subscription model

Also, people using these toolbars to verify a website trustworthyness etc; its all garbage and intended as mass datacollection on the sites you on avg visit. I stopped running with a antivirus for 3 years now. Once in a while i do a scan, but if you just use your common sense really nothing can bad can happen. For mobile phones i suggest Adguard.

You're saying that if I'm not seeing the ads with or without blocking ads (just Vivaldi's built-in ad blocking), that's reason for me to run two adblockers?

Btw, my weapons of choice are AdBlock+NoScript.

I think it's too easy to get biased in a group like this. It's easy for us to say, that people are stupid when they're not checking url's they get from search engines. You have to spell check everything and your language skills or eye sight may not be perfect.

Lot of kids from different ages just click the search results. I know my kid did. The same goes for elder people. They don't know enough or they have already forgotten something. A teenager's friend from school said download this and your game play gets a significant boost.

And that's it. Clickety-Click.

My mom is over 70 and she reads news, pay her bills and so on with her laptop and mobile phone. And at least once in every two months or so we go through this same conversation: something is not working like it used to be, did I do something wrong and got a virus and lost my savings?

No she didn't, so far. But these things aren't so simple and easy for all of us. We may well need a little bit more understanding outside of our own bubble.

HattuLot of kids from different ages just click the search results. I know my kid did. The same goes for elder people.

That is an education thing. People in the know need to be teaching people not in the know so that they DON'T click on everything that is displayed to them. However, your point is a perfect example of why we need tools like ad blockers, java-script mangers, cookie & ltso managers and other such security tools.

Teaching everyone we know the basics of a secure computing ethic is very important. Actively blocking any avenue of entry for those malicious in intent is also very important.

lexluthermiesterThat is an education thing. People in the know need to be teaching people not in the know so that they DON'T click on everything that is displayed to them. However, your point is a perfect example of why we need tools like ad blockers, java-script mangers, cookie & ltso managers and other such security tools.

Teaching everyone we know the basics of a secure computing ethic is very important. Actively blocking any avenue of entry for those malicious in intent is also very important.

Yes. We must educate others. Some of them take that information and use it, some of them lack even the basics or are in some other way incapable.

I installed ad-blockers and other stuff to my mom's laptop and gave her lessons about basic security. And that's why I get those calls, when something is not the way it used to be.