If you are an avid gamer and want to improve your graphics card’s performance to enhance your gaming experience, then MSI Afterburner is one of the best tools available online — and it is absolutely free.
Module 01 — at a glance
- Afterburner is a free overclocking app that pushes a GPU above its stated optimum level.
- It works with most graphics cards — not just MSI hardware.
- Beyond overclocking, it monitors performance, saves five switchable profiles, and records gameplay.
- Download it only from the official MSI page; Kombustor benchmarking is built in.
What is it?
MSI Afterburner is an overclocking app. Overclocking programs are those that make your graphics card perform at higher than its optimum level. Afterburner does this by managing the various components of your system’s GPU — core clock, core voltage, power limit, memory clock and fan speed.
- CORE CLOCK
- The GPU’s working speed — the headline number of any overclock.
- CORE VOLTAGE
- The energy fed to the chip; more voltage enables higher clocks.
- POWER LIMIT
- How much total power the card is permitted to draw.
- MEMORY CLOCK
- The speed of the card’s video memory.
- FAN SPEED
- The cooling response that keeps everything above survivable.
There are other overclocking applications available on the market, but MSI Afterburner has emerged as the most effective tool of its kind — not just for MSI graphics cards, but for most such hardware.
And that’s not all. The software also allows you to monitor your computer’s performance while you are engaged in gaming.
Furthermore, you can save five different profiles, each with specific settings for those components, and shift between them easily with hotkeys.
Afterburner also lets you record your gaming performance and take screenshots as you play.
If you play well and achieve great results in one of your attempts, you can record it, share it with your friends, or even post it on YouTube as a tutorial.
How to get it?
The MSI Afterburner is free and very easy to access. All you need to do is go to the official MSI page and press the ‘Download Afterburner’ button. The setup file will be downloaded onto your system, and by running it you can get the software installed on your PC.
Versions
You can always find the latest version of Afterburner on the official website. As of this writing, the latest version is 4.4.2. One of the additional features bundled with MSI Afterburner is built-in access to MSI’s Kombustor, which is a benchmarking tool.
Kombustor — the benchmarking companion — ships with Afterburner, so you can test the effect of every change you make without installing anything else. More on that in the benchmarking guide.
Interface
Once you have installed Afterburner, open the program and you’ll be looking at its interface: sliders corresponding to the five components of the GPU that the software manages. Adjust the sliders to suit your needs.
You can also choose the interface design that suits you best from the available skins.
How would your gaming experience get better?
Very often, users struggle to enjoy their favourite games because the video or graphics card isn’t up to the latest version of the game. The results are familiar: the game moves slowly, the framerate falls below what’s required, the graphics aren’t up to the mark — and any number of other issues crop up to stop you enjoying the game to its fullest.
This is exactly what Afterburner sorts out. It makes your system compatible with the game’s requirements — or at least as close to them as your hardware allows.
This way, you won’t necessarily have to go through the arduous and costly procedure of getting a new graphics card.
How much can it improve your computer’s performance?
Afterburner can genuinely take your system to the next level of performance. If you switch voltage-tuning mode on, the software can achieve a very high rate of overclock.
Additional features
Apart from downloading Afterburner for your PC, you can also download the same software for your Android device from the same page. There you’ll also find the Afterburner Remote Server — install it on your system and you can access and control Afterburner from your Android device.
User response
So far, MSI Afterburner has received a great response from users and has emerged as the preferred choice of most gamers looking for overclocking software. This has happened despite the presence of rivals with their own overclocking applications.
Users have consistently praised the software’s efficiency compared to others — and noticed that Afterburner has a positive effect on most graphics cards, not just MSI’s own.