Are you a gamer or enthusiast looking to overclock your graphics card and monitor its temperatures and fan speeds? Look no further than MSI Afterburner, a widely popular and highly capable tool for GPU optimization. Created primarily by a single developer, this application is the go-to choice for many due to its impressive capabilities. In this blog, we will see How to Use MSI Afterburner.
Using MSI Afterburner is straightforward and user-friendly, allowing you to optimize your GPU to its fullest potential. Whether you’re a hardcore gamer or a technology enthusiast, Afterburner is the tool you need to take your GPU performance to the next level.
Say goodbye to lags and subpar frame rates, and say hello to an optimized gaming experience with MSI Afterburner. Looking to get started with MSI Afterburner?
First Step is Installing It
Here’s how to do it:
Step: 1
Head to the official MSI website and download the Afterburner installer. It’s important to note that there have been reports of fake sites offering the software, which could contain harmful malware. Stick to the official source.
Step: 2
Once you have the installer downloaded, simply launch it and follow the instructions on the screen. While it’s not strictly necessary, installing RivaTuner Server Statistics can add some valuable features, including an in-game overlay to show you important performance metrics.
Method to Track Your GPU’s Temperature
Keeping tabs on your graphics card’s core and memory temperature, and other crucial data points is possible through the built-in monitoring feature of MSI Afterburner. The following steps explain how you can do it with ease.
Step: 1
Run MSI Afterburner as you would launch any software.
Step: 2
Click on the cog symbol located on the left-hand side to open the Settings menu. Once it opens, switch to the Monitoring tab located on top of the window.
Step: 3
Under the Active hardware monitoring graphs category, ensure that the GPU Temperature box is checked by clicking on it. You may select or deselect other parameters of your interest, too. After finalizing your selection, press Apply followed by OK.
Step: 4
At the bottom of the left-hand menu, you will see an icon resembling a monitor displaying an EKG reading. By clicking on it, you can access the monitoring graph that displays the GPU temperature and its changes over time. As long as you keep the window open, it will keep track of the temperature and graph it.
Overclocking your Graphics Card with MSI Afterburner
Approaching the process of overclocking your graphics card with caution and ample time is crucial for finding stable and effective overclocking. Luckily, MSI Afterburner provides a step-by-step guide to get you started on this task.
Firstly, upon opening MSI Afterburner, take note of the stock frequencies it presents to you. Running a benchmark or demanding application for a few minutes will give you an idea of load temperatures, frequencies, and power draw.
Next, use the slider to raise the power limit to its maximum, then select the central tick button to apply it. Although there may not be much headroom on some cards, others can have up to a 25% increase in power.
This gives your graphics card the ability to draw more power from the wall, which can lead to higher clock speeds, thus driving the GPU with more power. Once you have increased the power limit, use the slider to raise the Core Clock speed in small increments.
Popular increments are around 25Mhz, but you can choose to increase the clock speed as small or large as you’d like. Apply the changes and run a benchmark or game for a few minutes to ensure stability.
Repeat this process until you find that the benchmark or game isn’t stable, and lower the frequency back down to its highest stable frequency. For a stronger stability check, run a game for a few hours to ensure that the settings are reliable.
Be cautious of temperatures and keep an eye on them. If your GPU hits its temperature limit, it could lead to thermal throttling, where the card slows down. Overclocking beyond a reasonable limit will be pointless if your card is unable to play a game without throttling.
In addition, if your GPU permits it, raising the core voltage can increase your maximum core clock speed. However, overheating and overpowering the GPU can result in damage. Therefore, it’s important to Google the safe maximum voltages for your specific card before proceeding.
Lastly, once you’ve settled on a stable core clock, repeat the process for the memory clock. Once you’ve achieved a stable overclock, select the save button at the bottom of the window, which looks like an old floppy disk.
Press one of the numbered buttons on the right-hand side to save it as a profile. You can now load the profile upon booting your PC to reapply your overclock. To conclude, with a careful approach and patience, overclocking your graphics card using MSI Afterburner is straightforward.
Adjustment of Fan Curve in MSI Afterburner
Are you tired of dealing with excessive heat and noise from your graphics card? If so, it might be time to adjust your fan curve in MSI Afterburner. By telling your GPU fan to spin at certain speeds at specific temperatures, you can improve cooling and performance, or reduce noise levels.
To get started, open MSI Afterburner and select the Settings cog icon. From there, choose the Fan tab and tick the box for “Enable user-defined software automatic fan control.” This will allow you to customize your fan curve based on your GPU’s performance during certain workloads.
If you want your fan to kick in sooner at higher speeds, adjust the fan speed at lower temperatures or drag the higher speed points to activate at lower temperatures. You can also add new points to the graph for even more precise control.
And don’t forget to adjust how often the fan speed is checked or override zero fan speed settings as needed. By taking control of your fan curve in MSI Afterburner, you can optimize your GPU’s cooling and noise levels for the best possible performance.
Conclusion
MSI Afterburner is a highly capable tool for optimizing your graphics card performance, monitoring its temperatures and fan speeds, and adjusting your fan curve. In this blog we give you step by step guide on How to Use MSI Afterburner with easy-to-follow instructions for installation and usage, anyone can use Afterburner to take their gaming experience to the next level.
Just be sure to approach overclocking with caution and always monitor your GPU’s temperatures to prevent damage. With Afterburner, you can say goodbye to lag and noise and hello to optimized performance!
