The Tool Desk
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MSI Afterburner lets you monitor a graphics card, display selected readings in games, adjust supported fan controls, and try GPU overclocking. Start by downloading it from MSI or Guru3D, then set up monitoring before changing performance settings. The available controls vary by graphics card; tuning is optional and can cause instability.
Download and install Afterburner safely
MSI says Afterburner is free and works with graphics cards from all brands. Get it from MSI’s official Afterburner page or Guru3D, the other download source MSI recognizes. Avoid other download mirrors: MSI warns that fake sites may distribute modified installers. The MSI page listed version 4.6.6 Final (October 2025) and version 4.6.7 Beta (February 2026) when checked; confirm the current release on the page before downloading.
Install current graphics drivers before launching the utility. If Afterburner does not recognize a newly installed graphics card, MSI advises restarting the PC after installing its drivers. See MSI’s Afterburner installation and usage instructions for its complete workflow.
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Understand the main controls
Afterburner’s main window brings together graphics-card readings and adjustable controls. Depending on the card and its firmware, you may see GPU/core and memory clocks, temperature, power, fan speed, and controls for power or temperature limits. The layout and which sliders are available can differ; an unavailable or locked control is not necessarily a software problem.
#1 Best Overall
- Chipset: GeForce RTX 3050
- Boost Clock / Memory: 1492 MHz / 14 Gbps
- Video Memory: 6GB GDDR6
- Memory Interface: 96-bit
- Output: DisplayPort x 1 (v1.4a) / HDMI 2.1a x 2
- Readings: Use the displayed values to observe the card’s current behavior.
- Sliders: Adjust only controls your card exposes. Clock and limit changes affect how the GPU operates; fan changes affect cooling and noise.
- Apply and Reset: Apply commits the current settings. Reset returns tuning controls to their defaults.
- Profiles: Save a known configuration to a profile slot before experimenting so you can return to it.
MSI documents the controls, but it does not establish that a particular setting will improve performance on every card or workload. Use monitoring to understand what is happening before attempting a change.
Set up hardware monitoring and the in-game overlay
The hardware monitor is a separate view of selected readings. Monitoring a metric and displaying it over a game are separate choices: first select the readings you want to track, then enable the OSD option for each reading you want shown in-game.
Rank #2
- Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
- Video Memory: 12GB GDDR6
- Memory Interface: 192-bit
- Output: DisplayPort x 3 (v1.4a) / HDMI 2.1 x 1.Avoid using unofficial software
- Digital maximum resolution: 7680 x 4320
- Open Settings (the gear icon), then choose the Monitoring tab.
- In the active hardware-monitoring graphs list, select a metric such as GPU usage, clock, temperature, power, memory, fan speed, or frame rate. Make sure monitoring is enabled for that metric.
- With the metric selected, enable Show in On-Screen Display if you want it to appear over a game. Repeat for each reading; selecting it for monitoring alone does not put it in the overlay.
- Install RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) if prompted. MSI’s OSD workflow requires RTSS; leave both Afterburner and RTSS running in the background while you play.
- Launch a game and check that the selected readings appear. Use RTSS to adjust the overlay’s size, color, and placement.
For additional screenshots and context, see MSI’s On Screen Display, Monitoring and Features walkthrough.
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OC Scanner is MSI’s automated overclocking option. MSI describes it as a way to find stable overclock settings for a card, but its result is not a guarantee of stability in every game, workload, or system. Save your current settings to a profile before starting, and treat the scan as optional rather than necessary.
Rank #3
- Chipset: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080
- Video Memory: 16 GB GDDR7
- Memory Interface: 256-bit
- Output: DisplayPort x 3 (v2.1a) / HDMI 2.1b x 1
- Digital maximum resolution: 7680 x 4320
- Save a profile containing your current settings.
- Run OC Scanner using the control in Afterburner. MSI’s tutorial estimates that a scan may take around 30 minutes; this is a procedural estimate, not a safety guarantee.
- Apply the resulting curve, then check it under a benchmark or the workloads you actually use. MSI suggests a 10-minute benchmark run, but that duration does not prove stability in all conditions.
- Watch for flickering, crashes, shutdowns, or other abnormal behavior. If a problem appears, use Reset to return to defaults, or revise the setting and test again.
Manual overclocking and undervolting require deliberate, incremental changes and stability checks. If you want to pursue those approaches, use MSI’s overclocking and undervolting walkthrough rather than copying another card’s settings.
MSI says GPUs have built-in protections that reduce frequency or voltage at limits, but also warns that damage caused during overclocking is not covered by warranty. Do not treat those protections or a brief successful test as a promise that any tuning choice is risk-free.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Configure a fan curve where supported
For a supported graphics card, open Settings > Fan to configure a custom fan curve. The curve changes fan behavior as temperature changes, so consider both cooling and noise instead of assuming that higher fan speeds are always better. MSI says its Afterburner workflow cannot customize laptop GPU fan curves because those settings are preset in the manufacturer’s BIOS.
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Troubleshoot common problems
- The overlay is missing: In Settings > Monitoring, select the metric and enable Show in On-Screen Display. Confirm RTSS is installed and that both RTSS and Afterburner are running.
- The graphics card is not listed: Check that its current drivers are installed. For a newly installed card, restart after installing the drivers.
- A tuning change causes flicker, crashes, or shutdowns: Select Reset to restore defaults. If you continue tuning, make a smaller adjustment and retest rather than keeping an unstable setting.
- The laptop fan curve cannot be edited: MSI’s documented workflow does not offer custom curves for laptop GPUs; the manufacturer sets those curves in the BIOS.
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