While the specific name has evolved over the years—most notably into and MSI Dragon Center —the utility's core purpose remains the same: to ensure hardware components communicate effectively with the Windows operating system.

MSI systems rely on Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) from NVIDIA or AMD. While these drivers are often managed via the NVIDIA GeForce Experience or AMD Adrenalin software, the MSI Driver Utility ensures the base framework is installed correctly, particularly for "Dragon Center" to control GPU overclocking and cooling.

Despite its utility, MSI’s software has a controversial reputation within the PC building community. Critics argue that what begins as a driver tool often metastasizes into resource-hungry bloatware. The installation of MSI Center frequently brings ancillary services—LAN managers, audio boosters, and hardware monitoring overlays—that run persistently in the background. Independent benchmarking from tech outlets like Gamers Nexus and UltrabookReview has noted that Dragon Center (and early versions of MSI Center) could consume upwards of 200-400 MB of RAM and cause latency spikes (DPC latency) on certain configurations, negatively impacting audio streaming and gaming smoothness.