MSI Afterburner is the finest software to use if you want to overclock your graphics card and gain extra performance. A user manual is provided below.
MSI Afterburner is a well-liked benchmarking and GPU-tracking program made by MSI. Thankfully, it’s also a piece of software that can be downloaded and utilized with minimal effort. It’s not only a great monitoring tool, but it can also be used to overclock or underclock your GPU.
Let’s not confuse new users with the MSI moniker right now. The program may have been created by MSI, but it is compatible with cards from any manufacturer.
Brands like EVGA, Gigabyte, MSI, and more that are AIB partners of AMD, NVIDIA, and Intel can utilize this software with confidence.
MSI Afterburner: What Is It?
You probably know what this program is and what it can do if you’ve heard of it before. To get the most out of such a potent and practical resource, you should be familiar with all of its features.
MSI Afterburner is a fantastic monitoring and benchmarking tool, as was previously noted. Its overclocking and underclocking skills, however, are where it really shines.
MSI Afterburner is amazing because it gives you fine-grained control over the GPU’s core clock, memory clock, fan speed, power limit, and core voltage. These qualities make it a fantastic resource, but we recommend it because of how straightforward and easy it is to employ.
You may not only tweak and play with your GPU’s most crucial parameters, but you can also see the results of your tinkering in real-time.
MSI Afterburner includes a stylish and, more importantly, efficient overlay display that lets you rapidly evaluate the impact your actions have had on your game’s frame rate.
The option to save and switch between user profiles is another useful function. For your gaming purposes, for instance, you can set up a dedicated overclocked profile.
Should You Use MSI Afterburner?
You may be wondering if MSI Afterburner’s features are required for someone like you after reading all this and perhaps having a complete understanding of what it is and what it can achieve. The answer, as usual, is conditional on the specifics of your situation.
- As a casual gamer, you may be surprised by how much Afterburner can help improve your frame rate, even if you’re using a mid-range or low-end graphics card or even the flagship from the previous generation. In this situation, you should test it out and see for yourself if it works.
- Contrary to popular belief, Afterburner is still useful even if you’re using the most cutting-edge graphics card currently available. You can use it for overclocking to get even more frames per second or to make sure your 4K cards are functioning properly.
- The ability to regulate fan speed is an important but frequently ignored function. Overheating of the graphics processing unit is not something to be taken lightly, as it can negatively impact gameplay and potentially lead to hardware failure.
You may set the temperature at which Afterburner’s fans kick in and the rate at which they do so with the program’s fan speed control. Even if you choose to set it up manually, the software is highly recommended.
How To Use MSI Afterburner
You’re undoubtedly eager to start overclocking now that everything is ready and waiting for you. Yet, there are a few things you should keep in mind when you arrive.
You should exercise extreme caution and patience before making any external changes to your System, especially to the more delicate components like the graphics processing unit (GPU) and central processing unit (CPU).
What we mean is that you shouldn’t just blindly overclock your GPU (or CPU), but instead take baby steps toward the sweet spot until you find it.
Let’s check out MSI Afterburner’s many configuration choices.
MSI Afterburner Layout
Three buttons labeled “Kombustor,” “Help,” and “Information” may be found directly behind the Afterburner logo in the upper center of the screen. If you don’t have Kombustor, you won’t see the “Kombustor” option. If you don’t have it, clicking it will take you to a page where you can get it.
As was previously indicated, Kombustor is a stress test tool that can be put to good use right after overclocking is complete. However, alternative stress testing applications, such as FurMark, 3DMark, or Unigine Heaven, are better and more comprehensive. They are highly suggested by us!
The “Help” option currently only takes you to the Afterburner website, however, this is likely the product of a recent redesign and will be fixed in the near future. You can get some basic information about your computer’s processor and graphics processing unit (GPU) by clicking the “Information” button, but it won’t tell you anything you can’t already see in another program, like CPU-Z.
The Most Important Part
It’s a good thing that MSI locked the first one by default for security reasons. Core Voltage is measured in millivolts and has the appropriate label (mV). It can be adjusted to increase or decrease the GPU’s processing power.
The “Power Limit” slider, which is a percentage, is located directly below the core voltage control. If your graphics card is compatible, you can use this to change the global GPU power limit.
The “Temperature Limit” is up next, and it needs to be applied in tandem with the higher core clock and memory clock. In order to avoid having your GPU unexpectedly shut down due to overheating, the temperature limit is almost obligatory while increasing the clock speed.
The core clock of the GPU can be adjusted using the following “Core Clock” slider. Increased computing capacity and enhanced efficiency. Nevertheless, as was previously noted, you need to have other parameters aligned in order to receive that performance improvement with stability.
If you want your data returned at a faster rate, you need to increase the “Memory Clock” slider, which works in tandem with the “Core Clock” slider. You need to have all the other settings adjusted in the same way as the central clock.
The master GPU fan speed can be adjusted using the ‘Fan Speed’ slider down below. The default setting of “Auto” is actually the optimal choice. You can play around with this setting all you want, but the simplest method for managing the fans is to let the software take care of it.
Your graphics processing unit (GPU) software may provide for independent control of each fan in a three-fan graphics card deal, but such granular control is usually unnecessary.
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The Other Buttons
After the main part of the program, there are three more crucial buttons: “Settings,” “Reset,” and “Apply.”
The first, as expected, will launch a new window with the software’s configuration options, the second will restore the default values, and the third will allow you to save your current configuration.
You may set Afterburner to launch automatically with Windows, view information about your graphics card and its drivers, and store multiple overclocking profiles from this menu.
The first two are more general, while the third is more specialized. You may wish to overclock your GPU for a specific game while being content with its standard performance in others.
Monitoring Tools
The GPU and memory clocks, as well as the voltage and temperature, may be seen in the analog meters on each side of the central slider. They help you keep tabs on whatever changes you make. Since most individuals learn better when information is presented visually, this is a useful tool for monitoring progress.
The monitoring window, located in the window’s footer, is limited by Afterburner’s inability to show multiple graphs at once.
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OC Scanner
The OC Scanner is positioned in the upper left corner of the screen. MSI markets OC Scanner as an “overclocking in a click” solution. There are a few more mouse clicks involved, but otherwise, the basic idea is the same. It will use an algorithm developed by NVIDIA to calculate the best overclocking parameters for your GPU.
You must activate voltage control and voltage monitoring in the OC Scanner’s settings box for it to function properly.
After that, you should raise the settings for “Core Voltage,” “Power Limit,” and “Temperature Limit” to their maximum values. It may seem counterintuitive to push the GPU to its limits, but each of these sliders has been calibrated by the graphics card manufacturer to safely handle loads up to the GPU’s maximum capability.
The next step is to activate the OC Scanner and select the “Scan” button. Using the aforementioned technique will determine the most stable frequency for your graphics card by testing it at four different voltage levels.
After the scan has finished, you should select “Test” to ensure everything went smoothly. This will give you an idea of how much faith MSI placed in the newly built OC profile. Anything over 60% is acceptable, but a score over 90% would be ideal.
The Afterburner adjustments can then be made. To easily toggle between the two modes, we advise saving each to its own profile.
MSI Afterburner has a wide variety of applications, but its overclocking capabilities stand out. It’s no wonder that this is one of the most downloaded and used overclocking tools because of how simple it is to use.