MSI Afterburner (Windows) – Download & Review

Note: The application offers to download and install RivaTuner Statistics Server, which is not mandatory but free to use.You can consider installing this app if you are planning to record your gameplay, as it includes extra menus / options in this sense.

Video game enthusiasts are constantly on the look for a method to squeeze the most juice out of their video cards. MSI Afterburner is a graphics card utility that promises to help you monitor your GPU and bring it to its maximum performance.

Offering support for most video cards out there

The application’s core is based on RivaTuner, one of the top-rated video card overclocking software. It is designed to enhance your GPU’s performance and supports a wide variety of MSI graphic cards, offering overclocking tools for both AMD and NVIDIA.

The main goal of the application is to overcome the original limits set by the vendors, allowing you to adjust memory clocks, voltages and fan speed. However, it is advisable to modify these settings only if you are sure of what you are doing. Otherwise, your actions might cause instability issues.

Automatic detection of installed cards

The futuristic, yet simple and organized look of the application can be changed by customizing the user-interface according to your preferences. The program automatically detects your graphics card type, the driver version and displays the information in its main window.

MSI Afterburner provides important tweaking capabilities for your video adapter. It includes the ability to adjust the core, shader and memory clock levels.

Easy management of fan speed

Advanced fan speed control is another tweaking tool that you can use in order to reduce the noise or adjust the cooling level. The user can also change the core voltage, as the application promises to provide triple over-voltage, without needing to spend time modifying the card.

In addition to this, you can monitor the status of your graphics card in real time. The ‘Hardware Monitor’ window displays a graph of the GPU and memory usage, as well as basic information regarding the core and memory clocks. Logging options are also available.

Support for multiple custom profiles

The program allows you to create customized profiles for various uses, like navigating on the Web or gaming, when the card is under more intense stress. You can access the profiles rapidly by using hotkeys.

To sum it up, MSI Afterburner is a simple solution to overclock your video adapter. Power control, voltage adjustment, monitoring and screen capturing are some of the features that allow you to unleash the power of your graphics card.