▷ Msi afterburner: how to monitor temperatures of your cpu and gpu?

Do not be fooled by the word "MSI" because it does not mean that it only works for branded products. MSI Afterburner is a program that is used to monitor CPU and GPU temperatures, although it is more focused on the latter. We can countless things that we are going to talk about below. I advise you to get comfortable because this information may interest you a lot. Let's get started!

Index of contents

MSI Afterburner: the “all-in-one”

It is a complete program because it has certain functions that make it possessing that adjective. Arguably, it offers 3 main functions that are causing the public to download this program:

It allows to overclock any graphics card. Regardless of manufacturer or model, we can "touch" or modify values such as memory frequency, power limit, or core frequency. Monitors graphics card temperatures, as well as processor temperatures. That said, it is more focused on the graphics card, as we will see later. Program fan speed. GPU fans make it possible to extract heat, making their speed very important at certain times. Utilities. We have shortcuts to record what we see on the screen, being able to configure absolutely everything; screenshots and benchmark to test performance.

You can download MSI Afterburner here.

With this short introduction, we will delve more deeply into each of the functions of this magnificent program.

Overclocking

The vast majority will have entered this entrance for this reason. This program is the most critically and community acclaimed for practicing this technique on our graphics cards. I would like to take your attention to alert you that this practice requires certain knowledge and you will carry it out under your responsibility

We open the program and see the main values, which are the ones we are going to play. Also say that it is recommended to overclock, as long as the GPU comes prepared for it. As we see in the image below, in the central part, we can modify: the power limit, the temperature limit, the " Core Clock ", the " Memory Clock " and the speed of the fans.

In the section on the left, we have the use of Memory Clock and the Core Clock. In the section on the right, the voltage and temperature of the graph. Finishing with the bottom, we have a graph that works in real time and that shows the temperature of the graphics card.

We have all the overclock options as soon as we open the program. However, pay attention to the " OC " button in the upper left corner. We have the option to scan to see the potential of our GPU. This option will load our GPU 100% and will last approximately 10 minutes, although it may be longer.

I like this "OC" button because it allows us to make a custom curve of the recommended overclocking for our chart. In fact, it allows us to test it to see how it works.

As for overclocking, I advise you to study your own GPU because each graphics card is a world. If you search in forums such as Mediavida, Reddit or those of the manufacturer itself (MSI, Gigabyte, ASUS, EVGA, etc.), you will find guides and many user experiences. The culture of overclocking is trial-error, so I advise you to be very patient with this issue.

Monitor graphics card

In this section we are not going to extend much because we have already said the most important thing: we can monitor the temperatures of our graphics card thoroughly. It is true that we find programs like HWMonitor that offers the same function and not only of a graphics card, but also of all the components.

In my opinion, having a real-time graph that shows the temperature changes that occur in our GPU is very useful. In this way, we can do a more exhaustive monitoring and find answers to the different irregularities that occur.

Putting the programming section of the fan curve in this section, I find it very interesting. I am going to show you how to do it in an illustrative way.

We open the MSI Afterburner and we give the gear to the central part.

We go to the " Fan " tab and select the " Enable user program for automatic fan control " box.

On the Y axis we have the fan speed; on the X axis, the temperature. This is the curve that I have and it is very simple, there is nothing special about it. At 50º the fans will rotate at 55% efficiency, to give you an example. The colder the GPU, the better.

You can use user profiles to save several different configurations, depending on what you are going to do on your PC. Normally, people save an IDLE profile, another Gaming, another Boost, etc. Personally, I don't use them, but I find it an interesting feature.

Of course, there are many people who are obsessed with this and put it at 40º to go to 60%. Be careful with these settings because we can damage our graphics card. Think that at certain temperatures it is foolish to put the fans at high performance because they do not dissipate almost the heat, and you can check it by monitoring the temperatures.

I have been testing and monitoring my settings. My experience tells me that when the GPU is at high performance (video games) the temperatures rise to 50-60 degrees, although it depends on the model in question. In the same scenario, setting the fans to 60% or 80% gives the same result: preventing the GPU from rising in temperature, keeping the degrees constant.

From a certain point, it is useless to put the fans to more performance because we do not get a drop in temperature. So my advice is that the GPU fans have to be at optimum speed - at least performance possible, as long as temperatures are controlled.

That said, for some my fan curve may be high. I am one of those who think that prevention is better than cure because I believe in Murphy's Law: if something has to go wrong, it will go wrong.

Finally, say that in the “ Monitoring ” tab we can modify certain values related to monitoring. I leave this section to you to investigate because, simply, they are options to see more information about the temperatures or the way of viewing them.

WE RECOMMEND YOU To have minesweeper again in Windows 10 and other classic games

Utilities

To finish analyzing MSI Afterburner, we will go to the other tabs to see what options they offer us. On the one hand, we find the " Benchmark " tab, which allows us to record the results in a " TXT " file for further analysis. We have two configurable shortcuts to "start recording" and "stop recording".

If we go to the " Screen Capture " tab, we will see various options related to screenshots or screenshots. We can choose between three output formats, the quality of the captures and where we want to save them.

Also, we can enjoy screen recordings to immortalize our best moments playing. In this case, we can make use of endless options related to quality, understanding, format, etc.

To finish, we find the two remaining tabs: " Profiles " and " User interface ". In the profiles section, we can assign keyboard shortcuts to activate any profile. This is more than interesting because we can be in the game and press some combination to activate a certain profile.

To finish this analysis, we have the user interface. We can configure the time or temperature format, choose a skin / skin / theme to see our MSI Afterburner in a certain way.

Conclusions

Concluding with this analysis, say that MSI Afterburner is a very complete program that offers monitoring, overclocking, fan programming and several other utilities.

For me, it is the best on the market in terms of GPU overclocking and fan programming for it. I don't like having to rely on Nvidia or AMD software to configure the performance curve of the graphics card fans. In my experience, I had an AMD R9 380X and the brand's software wouldn't let me modify the fan curve to my liking.

Regarding overclocking, there is a division of opinions. We can do it the same or better in Adrenalin 2020 or in the Nvidia Geforce software. Equally, it seems to me a very good function that I want to highlight.

As for monitoring, we can find other programs that do the same, but let's say that MSI Afterburner focuses more on GPUs. In fact, its interface seems very compact and intuitive, which with others… that does not happen.

Finishing off with the other functions, I like the customization of the interface to suit the user. Regarding the others, MSI has considered creating an “ all-in-one ” program with the objective that users dispense with the specific ones to record video, make screenshots or to display “in-game” information. In this sense, it is fine, but it has not surprised me too much.

In general terms, it is a great program that I recommend to everyone, or, at least, that you take it into consideration. I hope this analysis has been useful to you, and if you have any questions, contact us below. Don't be ashamed!

We recommend the best graphics cards on the market

Do you use MSI Afterburner? What do you think? What is your experience?