What is MSI Afterburner?
MSI Afterburner is the leading graphics card overclocking tool developed by Guru3D and MSI. The latest version 4.6.4 offers users a range of features to fine-tune their graphics card settings, including core clock, memory clock, voltage, and fan speed. The software also comes with RTSS, a statistics server that provides real-time on-screen display monitoring and DirectX 12 overlay support. The release notes detail all the updates and changes, making it easy for users to stay informed. The stable build releases of MSI Afterburner do not have an expiration limit, but it’s recommended to always use the final build for optimal performance. Guru3D and MSI are the only authorized distributors of MSI Afterburner and downloading it from any other source can potentially risk downloading a vulnerable version.
Download MSI Afterburner 4.6.5
How to set up MSI Afterburner?
To set up MSI Afterburner, follow these steps:
- Download and install MSI Afterburner from the official Guru3D website.
- Launch MSI Afterburner and go to the “Settings” tab.
- In the “General” section, make sure the “Start with Windows” option is checked.
- Go to the “Monitoring” tab and select the graphics card parameters you want to monitor, such as core clock speed, GPU temperature, and fan speed.
- Go to the “Overclocking” tab and adjust the core clock, memory clock, voltage, and fan speed to your desired values.
- Click on the “Apply” button to save the overclocking settings.
- You can use the “Profile” section to save different overclocking profiles for different scenarios, such as gaming and benchmarking.
- To monitor the graphics card parameters in real-time, go to the “On-Screen Display” section and enable the “Show in-game OSD statistics” option.
That’s it! You are now ready to use MSI Afterburner for overclocking and monitoring your graphics card. Just remember to monitor the GPU temperature and make adjustments as needed to avoid overheating.
Compatibility MSI Afterburner
MSI Afterburner is compatible with a wide range of graphics cards from different manufacturers, including NVIDIA and AMD. It also supports a range of operating systems, including Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 8.1, and Windows 10.
It is important to note that not all graphics cards are compatible with overclocking, and the level of overclocking will vary depending on the specific graphics card model and its capabilities. Before overclocking your graphics card, it’s important to check the manufacturer’s specifications to ensure that it can handle the increased voltage and clock speeds.
In general, MSI Afterburner is a powerful tool for graphics card overclocking, and it’s widely used by gamers and PC enthusiasts to get the most out of their graphics card. However, as with any overclocking software, it’s important to use caution and monitor your system closely to avoid damaging your graphics card or other components.
MSI Afterburner does not start
If MSI Afterburner is not starting, here are some common troubleshooting steps you can try:
- Download the latest version of MSI Afterburner.
- Disable anti-virus software: Some anti-virus software can interfere with MSI Afterburner, causing it not to start. Try temporarily disabling your anti-virus software and then try launching MSI Afterburner again.
- Check the graphics card driver: Make sure you have the latest graphics card driver installed, as outdated drivers can cause compatibility issues.
- Reinstall MSI Afterburner: If none of the above steps work, try uninstalling MSI Afterburner and then reinstalling it.
- Check for compatibility issues: MSI Afterburner may not be compatible with certain graphics card models or operating systems. Check the official MSI Afterburner website for a list of compatible graphics cards and operating systems.
Releases (changelog)
MSI Afterburner 4.6.5
- Added NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40×0 series graphics cards support
- Added voltage control support for GA103 and GDDR6x based versions of NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
- Added AMD RADEON RX 7900 series graphics cards support
- Added total board power monitoring support for AMD RADEON RX 7900 series graphics cards
- Added some future AMD and NVIDIA GPU PCI DeviceIDs to hardware database
- Added Intel Arc GPUs support to hardware monitoring module. Please take a note that Intel Arc GPUs overclocking and tuning is currently not supported due to Intel hardware control API support limitation to x64 applications only
- Added experimental support for Intel 13th generation CPUs
- Added experimental support for AMD Ryzen 7xxx CPUs
- CPU usage data sources in hardware monitoring module have been switched to alternate implementation based on NtQuerySystemInformation(SystemProcessorIdleInformation), because traditional legacy idle time reporting in NtQuerySystemInformation(SystemProcessorPerformanceInformation) is broken in current Windows 11 22H2 builds
- Added workaround for broken fixed fan speed programming API (Overdrive 5 compatible fallback path) for old Overdrive 7 GCN GPUs on 22.5.2 and newer AMD drivers
- Added config file switch for disabling native reliability voltage control API on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 9×0 series graphics cards and forcing legacy P-state 2.0 voltage control API usage on such hardware. Power users may use this switch to bypass voltage control lock on NVIDIA Maxwell series graphics cards on release 515 and newer drivers families
- Improved correction formula parser with data format conversion, rounding and min/max functions support
- Added OCMailbox based bus clock frequency monitoring for Skylake and newer Intel CPUs. Unlike traditional legacy timestamp clock based bus clock frequency estimations, OCMailbox provides support for overclocked BCLK monirtoring. Please take a note that access to OCMailbox is blocked by design of OS when HVCI is enabled
- Improved SMART.dll monitoring plugin. Added temperature monitoring support for NVMe devices, including the secondary controller temperature for some Samsung NVMe drives
- Default clock frequency limit of voltage/frequency curve editor window has been extended to 3.5GHz. Please take a note that you may still customize the limits via config file if necessary
- Update server location changed to new URL inside update checking system. Old update server location reached EOL
MSI Afterburner 4.6.4
- Added new MSI Windows 11 themed skins (Light and Dark editions) by Drerex design
- Added voltage control for reference design AMD RADEON RX 6700 XT series graphics cards
- Added experimental support for Intel 11th generation CPUs
- Added experimental support for Intel 12th generation CPUs
- Added experimental support for mobile AMD Ryzen CPUs
- Fixed issue with missing memory temperature sensor on AMD RADEON 5700 / 5700 XT series graphics cards
- Fixed issue which could prevent MSI Afterburner from opening from tray via main application icon after accessing properties via clicking monitoring tray icon
- Increased memory overclocking limit for NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30×0 series graphics cards
- Added workaround for internal DirectInput issue, which could cause hotkey handler to stop processing hotkeys correctly after locking/unlocking PC from keyboard with <Ctrl>+<Alt>+<Del> or <Win>+<L>. To bypass it MSI Afterburner is resetting hotkey handler state after lock screen transition now
- Optimized monitoring profiles switching implementation for situations when profiles contain different sets of data sources displayed in monitoring tray icons
- Application tray icon is DPI aware now:
- OS level tray icons scaling is disabled now to prevent tray icon text distortion. Power users may revert back to the previous DPI unaware tray icon rendering mode via configuration file if necessary
- Added new bigger tray icon fonts for >=150% and >=200% DPI scaling ratios. Power users may also select tray icon font independently of selected DPI scaling ratio via configuration file if necessary
- Application installer is DPI aware now
- RivaTuner Statistics Server has been upgraded to v7.3.3
MSI Afterburner 4.6.3
- Added NVIDIA Ampere GPU architecture support:
- Added new fan control 3.0 API support
- Added new integrated OC Scanner API support, please read below to get more information about new OC Scanner implementation
- Updated bundled MSI Overclocking Scanner application:
- Starting from 455.xx drivers family, NVIDIA OS Scanner is no longer implemented as a separate software component redistributed with each AIC partner’s overclocking software. Now NVIDIA OC Scanner is integrated into the driver and third-party software can natively access it via NVAPI. Such implementation simplifies the process of OC Scanner maintenance for NVIDIA, it is no longer necessary to ship updated software components to AIC partners and re-release each partners’ software when something needs to be changed inside OC Scanner from NVIDIA side. MSI Overclocking Scanner supports both implementations of NVIDIA OC Scanner API:
- Old legacy implementation of NVIDIA OC Scanner via separate software components for NVIDIA Pascal and Turing architectures for pre-455.xx drivers family
- New integrated NVAPI based implementation of NVIDIA OC Scanner for 455.xx and newer NVIDIA display
- drivers
- New NVAPI based OC scanner implementation features the following changes and improvements:
- Automated overlocking support for both core and memory clocks
- OC Scanners’s results are now persistent. It means that once the scanning process succeeds, NVIDIA driver internally saves optimized voltage/frequency curve and overclocked memory clock and apply them as new system defaults after reboot, even if you close or uninstall overclocking application. Now there is new “Revert” button inside MSI Overclocking Scanner, which allows you to revert overclocked curve and memory clocks to their real defaults
- Manually adjusted clock/frequency curve stability testing functionality is deprecated and no longer available
- Added voltage control for reference design NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30×0 series graphic cards
- Added new MSI Ampere and Indigo skins by Drerex design
- Added experimental support for Intel 10th generation CPUs
- Added native NVAPI based implementation of absolute GPU power monitoring for NVIDIA GPUs
- Altered synchronization mutex name for AMD SNM registers access in AMD Ryzen temperature monitoring implementation
- Fixed abnormally high PCIE bus usage value monitored on NVIDIA GPUs after display driver crash and recovery or on Optimus
- platforms when discrete GPU is sleeping
- Added workaround for AMD driver bug causing short display flicker during applying new fan settings on some multi-monitor or single monitor high refresh rate display configurations
- Now MSI Afterburner is forcibly disabling Zero RPM when applying new fixed fan speed in order to bypass AMD driver bug
- preventing fan control from working when Zero RPM mode is enabled on some systems. If Zero RPM is working properly on your system and you still want to keep it enabled when adjusting fan speed, you may disable forcible Zero RPM override with power oriented switch in application configuration file ow MSI Afterburner is displaying the minimum allowed fan speed in software fan curve editor window on Overdrive 8 capable AMD GPUs. The latest AMD drivers will not allow you to set fan speed below this limit, that’s by design of driver AMD ADL components are loaded by absolute path now to prevent possible DLL hijacking.
- Tightened IO driver access policy, the driver can no longer be accessed by users with no administrative rights RivaTuner Statistics Server has been upgraded to v7.3.0. This version introduces plugins architecture and brand new visual overlay editor plugin, we strongly recommend you to try it if you’re advanced user and want to customize your OSD beyond the possibilities of MSI Afterburner’s internal OSD layout editor.
- MSI Afterburner 4.6.3 beta 5 will additionally contain one minor functionality upgrade for AMD 6800/6900 users: now it internally switches “Tuning control” to “Manual” mode automatically, so it is not necessary to do it yourself in Adrenalin control panel. And of course, it will contain updated RTSS 7.3.0 Beta 10 bundled with it.