Configuring MSI Afterburner: instructions, programs and reviews

Today, modern computer games, like never before, have become very demanding on hardware. In particular, this concerns video cards. But how correctly to adjust the graphic chip, so that the gameplay was comfortable, and the card worked at the maximum of its capabilities? To do this, there is a special free utility MSI Afterburner. Setting the video card in it at first glance is very simple. But this is only at first glance, because when setting certain parameters you need to take into account some nuances, so that the card does not fail.

MSI Afterburner: preliminary acquaintance

In short, MSI Afterburner is a program for controlling all parameters of video cards, adjusting their performance and overclocking. That's why it is very popular among gamers who try to "squeeze" everything they can out of the map, and overclockers.

But here there is one nuance, which is that setting MSI Afterburner works only with reference to the officially released models of NVIDIA and AMD Radeon graphics chips. In addition, some settings of the application can be blocked, and the automatic mode of application of parameters in the program is not the best. Below it will be described how to work with this utility, and so as not to disable the card.

Installation and initial setup of MSI Afterburner

The first step of the configuration is to properly install the utility. After the installer starts, the usual installation process will begin, during which the application will offer to install Riva Tuner Statistics Server additionally. This should be accepted without fail, since some functions and settings of the main program may not be available.

At the end of the installation, setting MSI Afterburner for games involves changing some key elements of the interface. If by default the English version was installed, use the Settings menu, where we select the User Interface section. Here you need to change the language and turn off the prompts, if they are not needed.

After that, you need to use the basic settings tab. Here you should tick all fields, except for the top sync line of the settings of the same GPU (it is used only if there are several video cards), the line forcing the voltage and the check point for the presence of beta versions (if desired). You can also set the start of the program when the operating system starts. After saving the presets, the application needs to be restarted for them to take effect.

Core Clock settings

The initial configuration of MSI Afterburner is complete. Now consider the main points with the available parameters. Go to the section of the frequency of the GPU.

To begin with, you can move the slider slightly to the right (about 40-50 MHz). In the special window, the current frequency is displayed. After this, it is desirable to test the video card with any dedicated utility, for example 3D Mark or FurMark. It should be noted that during the test the temperature did not rise above 90 degrees, and the monitor showed no side effects (bands, flicker, irregularities in the color palette, etc.). If the test did not reveal anything critical, for reliability it is better to run some resource-intensive game and play for at least an hour. If everything is fine here, you can move the frequency slider even to the right, but to a smaller value (say, not 40, but 20 MHz) and again to test. The further the slider moves to the right, the smaller the value is used.

In the process of passing the game, you can display the current parameters on the screen in the form of a semi-transparent window. As soon as the incorrect operation of the card is detected at a certain value, the slider should be returned to the previous position and stop at this point.

Memory Clock settings

For the memory has its own slider, located just below. In principle, you can do the same as in the previous case. First, we shift it to the right by 50 units, test it, then add another 20 units, etc. Again, the value will need to be reduced by approximately 1.5-2 times, compared to the previous state.

MSI Afterburner: tuning the cooler

These parameters can be called from the settings section, in which the corresponding tab is selected. For full access to them, immediately check the box for the inclusion of the software user mode.

Below is a graph showing the direct relationship between the fan speed and the video card's temperature. You can change parameters by moving around the area of the graph of gray squares, but for more fine-tuning it is desirable to use more of them, simply by clicking on the empty spot of the dependence line and changing the position of certain points. But do not get carried away by setting the maximum values for any temperatures. So the cooler itself can fail. By combining the parameters of the graph and the above settings, you can achieve the optimum result.

Saving settings and profiles

To save the current settings, the MSI Afterburner configuration offers the user a choice of five profiles.

On the corresponding tab in the 2D section, we leave everything unchanged, and in the 3D drop-down menu we select our newly configured profile, which will specify the settings (there is also the value "Auto", that is, this profile will be used by default when the application starts).

What if the settings are not available?

Sometimes you can find a situation where all the sliders are shifted to the right, and their position can not be changed. This is a normal lock in case the video card does not support overclocking. But there is a way out.

First, in the directory where the program was installed, we find the MSIAfterburner.cfg file and open it using Notepad. We scroll the contents up to the UnofficialOverclockingEULA line. In it, after the equal sign, you need to write the text "I confirm that I am aware of unofficial overlocking limitations and fully understanding that MSI will not provide any support on it", and then put the unit after the equals sign in the UnoficcialOverlockingMode line.

Overlay monitor

These were the main points related to the issue of how to use MSI Afterburner. User feedback indicates that it is very convenient to call all current characteristics of the video chip right during the game.

To configure the mode, we use the monitoring tab, where we select the required parameters, put the display values in the overlay display in the field values, and then assign buttons or keyboard shortcuts to the monitor on the EDI tab, although in most cases it is enough to use just one key (F9 by default) .

Capture video and screenshots

Finally, on the video capture tabs and screenshots, you can specify the appropriate settings and settings that will be applied to these processes (specify the saved formats, the location of the files, configure sound recording from the microphone, storyboard, hot keys for each procedure and much more).

In the process of passing the game, you will not have to call the program additionally.

Reset settings and total

Finally, let's see how to reset MSI Afterburner settings, if the user does not like something. This is done very simply.

In the section of the parameters of the graphic process and the memory from the bottom in the middle there is a button with a circle with an arrow similar to that displayed in web browsers to update the page. This is the Reset button, when you click on it, all settings are rolled back to the factory settings.

As you can see, setting up MSI Afterburner is not so complicated as it might seem at first glance. The main principle of manual overclocking and determining optimal parameters is only to use ever smaller intermediate differences between the previous and following parameters when increasing performance indicators.