MSI Afterburner is the most widely used graphics card utility software. Afterburner offers a wide range of system tuning options, allowing you to tweak and monitor your system’s performance.
We’ve given a detailed explanation of MSI Afterburner and also covered important add-ons and features.
Is MSI Afterburner safe to use?
MSI Afterburner can be installed on any computer. It is a utility program for graphics cards, designed by MSI, a well-known PC hardware manufacturer.
However, it should be noted that scammers created a fake MSI Afterburner download website in the early 2021 according to PCgamesn.com. Many people fell for the scam site and ended up downloading malware onto computers. This problem can be avoided by downloading Afterburner directly from MSI. (See below. (See below.
Where can I download the MSI Afterburner
MSI Afterburner can be downloaded directly from MSI, or, more specifically, this link.
https://www.msi.com/Landing/afterburner/graphics-cards
Techspot.com, guru3d.com and other sites offer safe downloads. However, it is safer to download the software directly from MSI.
It is easy to install the program: just download it, open it and follow the instructions.
Important note: During the installation, you will need to choose whether you wish to install RivaTuner Statistics Server. Afterburner will have more functionality if you tick the box.
What GPUs does MSI Afterburner work with?
MSI Afterburner works with both AMD GPUs and NVIDIA GPUs.
MSI Afterburner features
MSI Afterburner has three main features…
- GPU Overclocking
- Fan Control
- Hardware Monitoring
This program can be used to directly overclock your GPU from within the software. It also allows you modify your GPU’s core and memory clock speeds.
You can also manually adjust your GPU’s fan speed or create custom fan curves.
MSI Afterburner, which can be used as a hardware monitor program, allows you to view your CPU and GPU usage, temperature, and other important information about your system.
How to use MSI Afterburner
These sections will explain how to use MSI Afterburner’s various features.
How to Overclock Your GPU with MSI Afterburner
MSI Afterburner makes it easy to overclock your GPU, especially when you use MSI’s OC Scanner.
- Once the software is open, click the settings icon.
- Check the boxes to ensure that “Unlock voltage control” and “Unlock voltage monitoring” are turned on. Make the necessary changes and apply them.
- You can exit the settings menu.
- Click the OC scanner icon. It will usually have a combination of ‘OC” and a maginifying/search icon. (
- Open the MSI Overclocking Scanner window and click ‘Scan.
- OC Scanner will now run a series tests to determine the best stable overclock for your GPU. This process may take between 10-20 minutes.
- After the scan is completed, you can test the settings to make sure that the system is stable. Click ‘Test’. The entire process takes approximately 5 minutes.
Once the process is completed, you will be able to create a custom curve which will control the voltage and speed at which your GPU works under certain loads.
OC Scanner, while it is the fastest way to speed up your GPU with MSIAfterburner, doesn’t actually overclock your GPU’s memory. You can overclock your GPU’s RAM using the memory clock slider located on the main page.
You can also manually overclock your GPU using OC Scanner instead of using the Core Voltage and Core CPU sliders. Although there’s no risk to your GPU if you adjust the sliders manually, it can take a while to find the best settings for your system. To ensure stability, it is recommended to slowly increase the sliders and then test each change.
Reverting to or saving changes
To reset your GPU’s default settings if you have problems with it after you’ve overclocked it in MSI Afterburner, click the “Reset” button.
You can also save your settings to a profile if you achieve a stable overclock. This will allow you to easily overclock your GPU to a more stable level in the future.
Fan Control
MSI Afterburner offers a few different options to increase the speed of your GPU fan.
You can manually adjust the fan speed using Power Limit and Temp Limit sliders in the user interface.
You can also create a fan speed curve by clicking the “User define” icon. This will allow you to modify the fan curve to your liking.
Hardware Monitoring
The MSI Afterburner interface allows you to monitor the clock speed, memory speed, voltage and temperature of your GPU.
Other system information can be viewed, including your CPU usage, GPU usage and CPU temperature. You can also view memory usage and clock speed. Click on the “Detach” icon to open the MSI Afterburner hardware monitor window.
Alternatives to the MSI Afterburner
Although there aren’t many options that offer all features MSI Afterburner offers, there are many tools that can duplicate the various features Afterburner offers.
GPU Overclocking
- EVGA Precision
- ASUS GPU Tweak
- RivaTuner (on its op-ed)
- NVIDIA Inspector
Fan Control
- FanControl
- Zotac Firestorm
- SpeedFan
Hardware Monitoring
- GPU-Z
- HWiNFO64
- Open Hardware Monitor
