How To Use MSI Afterburner

The easiest way to understand what MSI Afterburner does is to break the utility down into categories. Below, are the fundamental features that make up the software and exactly what they offer.

Overclocking

For many, overclocking is a daunting task which means walking a fine line between better performance and broken hardware. MSI recognizes this and has created its own overclocking utility within Afterburner which simplifies the process. The overclocking feature provides precision settings that allow you to push your GPU to its maximum potential while protecting your hardware from permanent damage.

The software can tweak almost every aspect of a GPU, including clock speeds, core voltage, power limit, temperature limit, memory clock speed, and fan speed. Afterburner gives you all the necessary tools to tweak your GPU to your exact specifications, something other software applications don’t provide.

For Afterburner to work alongside every graphics card available, it uses OC Scanner, a utility that uses an algorithm developed by Nvidia to determine any model of GPU (whether it’s a 960 or 2080). Once the OC Scanner has determined what card you are running, it will work out the highest and most stable overclocking settings for that specific card. Then, it applies the changes to your card for instantaneous performance gains.

Afterburner also lets users fine-tune their fan profile by allowing you to choose a customized fan speed curve that alters depending on your GPUs temperature. The higher the temp, the fastest the fan will spin, the lower the temp, the slower. Pretty straightforward.

All your overclocking profiles can be saved onto the software and toggled with the click of a button. Find your desired settings, save them, and game on!

Monitoring

So, at this stage, you might be considering doing a little bit of tweaking yourself, maybe just a small boost in clock speed? Well, if you are, that’s great! Afterburner has a cool monitoring feature that allows you to see live changes made to your GPU and what they’re doing to every aspect of your graphics card.

The utility allows you to monitor everything from GPU temperatures, core and memory clock speeds, voltage, FPS, and usage percentage via a series of graphs and a full on-screen display.

The on-screen display also makes use of the Rivatuner statistics server, which can be pre-programmed for several different uses. Keeping track of your GPU activity whilst gaming is a large part of benchmarking today, and the monitoring feature allows you to do this with live, on-screen updates.

Benchmarking

Benchmarking is hugely popular amongst product testers and enthusiasts alike today, and especially now that there is so much competition surrounding the GPU industry. People want to know which card is best and what better way of showcasing that than in a fair, level playing field, benchmarking test.

MSI Afterburner includes a benchmarking tool called MSI Kombustor which runs a serious of stressful GPU processes to see how well your graphics card reacts to the pressure. It’s a great way to see whether or not your overclocking tweaks have made an impact on the performance of your GPU. We will go into exactly how to use the software further down.

Video Capture

There is a tonne of video capturing methods out there, and you guessed it, Afterburner has its own unique capture software built right in. The application is named Predator and helps capture in-game footage, tutorials, benchmark results, and more. You can capture in a number of different formats, qualities, and frame rates.

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