

As an added benefit, it can stress test your CPU as well. Kombuster can check for video card stability and max temperatures while overclocking.

Like EVGA's OC Scanner X, this stress testing and benchmarking tool uses FurMark technology. This is for a program called MSI Kombuster. You might have noticed the K button in the upper left of the main panel. They also include a lock feature to keep you from applying or changing profiles accidentally. Along with voltage adjustment, Afterburner also offers us up to five custom profiles, so you can save and apply profiles as needed. We can also adjust the GPU core voltage as well (on most GPUs) however it’s an option that needs to be enabled in the settings tab before use. Reverting to the main panel, we can see that Afterburner allows for the adjustment of the standard array of settings, everything from power limit to fan speed. There is no doubt that this is the most informative monitoring utility in our roundup, even a step ahead of what EVGA has to offer with their Precision X utility. This allows you to get a much bigger picture of what the hardware monitor has to offer. Pressing the detach button at the top of the panel allows you to expand the panel. CPU temperatures and usage are now included, and system memory usage can also be monitored. Not only can we monitor the video card(s), but we can monitor other hardware as well. As we move the slider down, we see a wealth of additional monitoring information. At a glance, we can view GPU temperatures, GPU usage, fan speed, and RPMs. First, let’s focus on the right pane, the hardware Monitor panel. Right off the bat, we see a good bit of information with just these two panels.

While it may lack the flash and style of its competitors, Afterburner makes up for it with its long list of features and advanced user options. The interface may appear subtle in comparison to most of the utilities in our round-up, but don't let that deter you. When starting the utility you'll first notice the no nonsense user interface. So let's get right to it and see what separates Afterburner from the rest of the utilities in our round-up. Like the ASUS GPU Tweak utility, that means MSI Afterburner will work with both NVIDIA and AMD based graphics cards. Nicolaychuck, and in doing so, they have added many features that are exclusive to Afterburner.ĭeveloped with MSI video cards in mind, the utility will work for all other brands of video cards as well. MSI has been very proactive in working with Mr. Afterburner uses the RivaTuner core along with an MSI designed user interface. Afterburner is collaboration between MSI and RivaTuner's developer, Alexey Nicolaychuk.
#Evga precision x hardware monitor software
The software overall is great, except the Curve setup, although I still rather use it than anything related to MSI.MSI Afterburner is the last utility we are going to look at in our round-up. Pressing "X" will close it all up, sometimes messing up the custom settings. You also need to run X1 in the background all the time, if you tinker with the software, make sure to hit the "_" on the top right instead of "X", that way it gets minimized and just runs in the background. Easiest setup is select "Stealth", then move the lowest point to 30C and 14-15%, then check the Fan Curve Control box, and hit apply. It's also better to run the fans on a 14-15% bottom to prevent the annoyance of them turning on and off. Leaving fans on Auto is not the best solution, since if you have bad airflow and/or left your preset on "prefer maximum", your GPU on idle/desktop use will still consume over 30-40 watts, and heatsoak will be present. When you set up a custom curve, you need to do it with your mouse one by one in the default section, NOT in the VF Curve tab, then when you're done, press apply, select a preset number on the right, and press save.
