How to use MSI Afterburner to overclock and monitor your PC

It's compatible with most desktop and laptop GPUs from Nvidia, Intel, and AMD, and it’s a fantastic tool that allows you to optimize your GPU's performance to meet all your gaming needs.

Prerequisites

Installing MSI Afterburner

Installing MSI Afterburner is a straightforward process that can be completed in a couple of minutes.

1. Go to the MSI Afterburner official website and download the application.
2. After you've downloaded the file, run MSIAfterburnerSetup.exe as an administrator, and then press Next.
   

   

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3. Enable the checkbox next to RivaTuner Statistics Server, then click Next.
4. MSI Afterburner should automatically open after the installation. If it doesn't, open it as administrator from the icon on your desktop.
   

   

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Before you start changing all the settings in MSI Afterburner, you'll need to get a benchmarking tool so that you can stress test your PC in between setting changes.

Installing a benchmarking tool

We will use Cinebench for this example, but you can use any benchmarking tool to test your overclocked settings.

1. Go to Cinebench's official website.
2. Click on the Download Cinebench 2024 dropdown button and choose the version you need. Once downloaded, open the installer and follow the prompts.
   

   

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Why do you need to benchmark your GPU?

While you tweak settings on MSI Afterburner, you will need to benchmark your GPU's performance to make sure that your overclocked settings are stable. There are quite a few options when benchmarking your PC.

There are so many great GPU benchmarking programs like 3DMark, PCMark, and Superposition. Although these are all great options, I personally just use Cinebench. Cinebench is the gold standard for CPU benchmarking and at the end of 2023, Maxon re-added a GPU benchmarking tool that went missing after R20.

This simplifies the process, allowing you to stress test both your CPU and GPU, eliminating the need for multiple different tools, and it's completely free to use.

How to overclock your graphics card using MSI Afterburner

Overclocking and temperature

Overclocking is the process of pushing your GPU’s core and memory clocks past their default values. It may seem risky to modify the factory settings, but thankfully, MSI Afterburner is a lot safer to use these days. Assuming your PC has adequate cooling, you won't damage your graphics card unless you go overboard with the voltage settings or tamper with its BIOS.

The temperature of the GPU can get extremely high during the overclocking process, especially when you stress test it for stability. Even if you end up with a perfectly stable overclock profile, your GPU will hit higher temperatures more frequently when you run games with the OC settings enabled.

Staying at high temperatures can lower the lifespan of the graphics card, so it’s a good idea to keep experimenting with your GPU's overclock settings to strike the perfect balance between clock speed and temperature.

How to overclock your GPU with MSI Afterburner

If you want to overclock your GPU, follow the steps below.

1. The first thing you'll need to do is push the Power Limit slider all the way to the right. By doing so, you will max out the Temperature Limit of your GPU.
2. Use the Core Clock slider to increase the clock speed of your GPU's core by 25MHz at a time. Alternatively, you can use the Overclocking Scanner tool located on the left side of MSI Afterburner's interface to determine the starting point for overclocking the clock speed.
   

   

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3. After you have changed the settings, you will need to benchmark your GPU to test the stability of the overclock. You can compare your GPU scores every time you do a benchmark.
4. If your GPU is still fine, then you can repeat steps 2 and 3 until you notice instability in your system, i.e. game crashes, overheating, and frame drops. This is where you should stop and revert to the last stable value of the Core Clock.
   

   

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5. Next, you will have to boost the Memory Clock of your GPU. 500 MHz is a good starting point, then you can increase it by increments of 50-100MHz at a time.
6. Once you’re satisfied with the overclock, click on the Save icon and select a Profile Slot to save your settings.
   

   

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If your PC crashes during the overclocking process, and it is unstable, you will have to reset all settings in Afterburner. Unfortunately, this means you'll have to go through the process again, starting from step 1.

How to undervolt your graphics card using MSI Afterburner

What is undervolting?

While MSI Afterburner is known for its overclocking features, few know that the software also allows you to undervolt your GPU. What is undervolting you may ask?

In simple terms, undervolting involves lowering your graphics card’s core voltage to reduce its temperature and power consumption, thus increasing its lifespan. By decreasing the voltage supplied to your GPU, undervolting can prevent it from thermal throttling, and you might even see some improvement in its performance.

While the exact voltage settings for undervolting vary from one GPU to another, first-time users shouldn’t go under 900mV. Undervolting the GPU past a certain level may improve its temperature, but it will also negatively impact its overall performance.

How to undervolt your GPU with MSI Afterburner

1. Write down your GPU’s base clock speed and voltage by running an application like GPU-Z. You can also see the specs of your GPU on the manufacturer's website.
2. Reduce the Core Clock by around 100MHz and click on the Apply button.
   

   

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3. Click on the Curve Editor button under the Voltage section to open the voltage-frequency graph. The vertical axis on the graph represents the clock speed of your GPU’s core while the horizontal axis shows the core voltage in mV.
4. Select the gray square corresponding to the voltage that's around 50 to 100mV lower than your GPU's stock voltage. Drag the square along the vertical axis until it hits the default boost clock of your GPU and press the Apply button.

   If you don't know your GPU's voltage, the 950mV square is a good starting point, and you can pick a lower voltage if you want.

   

   

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5. Run a benchmark on your GPU and compare your results.
6. If the undervolt profile is stable, keep lowering the Core Clock until the stress test app crashes. When that happens, simply revert to the last stable value of the core clock.
7. You’ll want to save the undervolt settings by clicking on the Save icon and choosing a Profile Slot.
   

   

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How to change fan speed using MSI Afterburner​​​

How to adjust fan speed in MSI Afterburner

The easiest way to adjust fan speed is to manually enter the percentage of the RPM that you want your GPU fans to spin at.

1. Enable manual control of the fan speed by clicking on the Auto (A) button under Fan Speed (%).
2. You can drag the fan speed slider towards the left to slow down the RPM.
3. Dragging the slider to the right will increase the fan speed at the cost of increasing the noise level.

How to make a custom fan profile in MSI Afterburner

Alternatively, you might want a custom fan profile that dynamically adjusts the fan speed as needed. You can do so by following the steps below.

1. Click on the Settings icon and navigate to the Fan tab. Toggle the Enable user-defined software automatic fan control checkbox.
2. Left-click anywhere on the graph to add a new node. Dragging the node along the vertical axis will alter the fan's speed, and moving it horizontally will change the temperature range for the node.
3. Press the Apply button and click on OK once you’ve finished customizing the fan profile.

How to monitor hardware stats using MSI Afterburner

You can also use MSI Afterburner to give you hardware statistics like GPU and CPU temperature, in-game FPS, and RAM usage.

1. Click on the Settings icon and head to the Monitoring tab.
2. Select the check mark next to the hardware statistic of your choice to modify its properties.
   

   

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3. Check the Show in On-Screen Display box to add the hardware metric to the OSD.
4. Switch to the On-Screen Display tab, and enter a hotkey for the Toggle On-Screen Display option. Here, we've used Ctrl + Shift + N. Alternatively, you can enable the Show On-Screen Display option in Rivatuner Statistics Server if you want the OSD to automatically appear every time you boot a game. Make sure the Application detection level in Rivatuner Statistics Server is not set to None.
   

   

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5. You can also press the Detach button if you want to open the hardware monitor as a separate window.

Sometimes, certain metrics like the minimum, maximum, average, and 1% low FPS may not show up on the overlay even if you enable them in the Monitoring tab. Luckily, you force them to appear in the OSD by pressing the hotkey used to benchmark your PC. You can set this hotkey by heading to the Benchmark tab in MSI Afterburner's Settings and entering your preferred key combination for the Begin recording option under the Global benchmark hotkeys section.

How to screenshot and record using MSI Afterburner

How to take a screenshot with MSI Afterburner

You can even use MSI Afterburner to capture screenshots of your PC. You can set up screen capture by following these steps.

1. Click on the Settings icon and go to the Screen capture tab.
2. Set a hotkey to take the screenshot. Here, I've used Ctrl + Shift + B.
3. Press Apply and select OK to save the settings.

How to record your screen with MSI Afterburner

MSI Afterburner also allows you to record your screen and supports a surprising number of video formats.

1. Click on the Settings icon and navigate to the Video capture tab.
2. Press the key combination that you want to use to start and end the recording. Here, I've used Ctrl + Shift + R.
   

   

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3. Hit Apply and click on the OK button.
4. Click on the tray icon of Rivatuner Statistics Server and set the Application detection level to None if you want to record your screen even when no games are running on your system.

How to change the theme of MSI Afterburner

If you find the way MSI Afterburner looks to be rather bland, then you'll be happy to know that you can customize the app's layout using several skins and themes.

1. Click on the Settings icon and head to the User Interface menu.
2. Click on the arrow button on the Skins List to open a drop-down menu containing different themes for MSI Afterburner.

MSI Afterburner is an all-round useful tool to have

That's everything that MSI Afterburner has to offer. Whether you're here to overclock your GPU, adjust your fan speed, or just record your screen, this tool will help you out with just about whatever you need.