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Afterburner resource usage

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driedupfish

Member
Does anyone know if you need MSI Afterburner running at startup to enable the overclocks you set?

I don't need afterburner for monitoring anymore so am thinking of disabling it at startup to free up some system usage. I don't think it takes much resource to run but still want to have as less programs running when gaming as possible.
 
driedupfish said:
Does anyone know if you need MSI Afterburner running at startup to enable the overclocks you set?

I don't need afterburner for monitoring anymore so am thinking of disabling it at startup to free up some system usage. I don't think it takes much resource to run but still want to have as less programs running when gaming as possible.
Click to expand...

It is required to be running for your OC's to take effect. It doesn't have to run at start up, but it will have to be turned on to get the profile to activate.
 
bystander36 said:
It is required to be running for your OC's to take effect. It doesn't have to run at start up, but it will have to be turned on to get the profile to activate.
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Then what is the point of the function "Apply overclock at system startup". If what you said is true then you have to start up afterburner anyways.
 
driedupfish said:
Then what is the point of the function "Apply overclock at system startup". If what you said is true then you have to start up afterburner anyways.
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I have never seen an "apply overclock at system startup" option. There is a "Start with Windows" option. Are you sure about that option wording?

If you have it checked, you don't have to worry about starting MSI Afterburner manually later. There are times when I do not want it to start automatically, due to conflicting software (Helix mod for 3D Vision crashes in some games if MSI Afterburner is open, for example).
 
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driedupfish said:
Then what is the point of the function "Apply overclock at system startup". If what you said is true then you have to start up afterburner anyways.
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How are you going to apply the overclock without running the software to apply the overclock?
 
I agree, it's wrong (text). It only works at Afterburner startup (doesn't resort to stock clocks on starting afterburner again).
 
There is an option "apply overclock at system startup" on the lower left corner:

msi_afterburner_01.jpg


I thought this option allows you to retain your overclock setting at system startup without having afterburner running.

I mean, what is the point of this option if you have to start afterburner everytime for the OC to take effect?
 
driedupfish said:
There is an option "apply overclock at system startup" on the lower left corner:

msi_afterburner_01.jpg


I thought this option allows you to retain your overclock setting at system startup without having afterburner running.

I mean, what is the point of this option if you have to start afterburner everytime for the OC to take effect?
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That is an option you'd never want to use. Basically, it makes it so your OC runs, even at the desktop. Most people go into the settings and assign a 3D Profile, that only activates during gaming.
 
I am using that option now and my gpu is definitely not running at OC when at the desktop. It only runs OC when in 3D application and downclock when idle.

So definitely not what you said
 
The setting may not work for Nvidia cards, and seems to require Overdrive enabled to work on AMD. It seems to be something a little wonky from the searches I have seen. It also seems to kick the card into what ever OC you have for a second, then go back to 2D mode. If your OC is unstable, this will cause a boot/crash loop.
 
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bystander36 said:
The setting may not work for Nvidia cards, and seems to require Overdrive enabled to work on AMD. It seems to be something a little wonky from the searches I have seen. It also seems to kick the card into what ever OC you have for a second, then go back to 2D mode. If your OC is unstable, this will cause a boot/crash loop.
Click to expand...

Do you use afterburner? If so I am guessing you don't enable that option?
 
driedupfish said:
Do you use afterburner? If so I am guessing you don't enable that option?
Click to expand...

I have before, but mostly no. The option has been known to cause the crash cycle described in a few Google searches (and personally experienced). I just run Afterburner at startup, and have my profiles selected in the settings.
 
Checking that box: Apply Overclock at System Startup retains your overclock on reboot without starting up MSI Afterburner. It still has access to your minimum 2d clocks to lower temps and save power when you aren't gaming. Check that box once you have a stable overclock.
 
Unless you have a very old system with a very low amount of RAM, having it running should have no negative influences at all.
 
2is said:
Unless you have a very old system with a very low amount of RAM, having it running should have no negative influences at all.
Click to expand...

Does afterburner also use CPU resource? Or just RAM?

I've read reports of it affecting performance because custom fan profile and gpu monitoring can be quite resource intensive. Especially when you have a custom fan profile with fan speed that changes continuously as temperature changes.

For example, let's say you have a profile with fan speed that changes linearly as temp rises or lowers. Afterburner tells the gpu to update this speed every 5 seconds (this is the default). So if the temp changes continuously, even just by a little, the fan speed will change as well. Also, the monitoring has an update period of every 1 second. This means with all these constant fan speed changing and whatever monitoring you have enabled (temp, core clock...etc), your CPU is doing more work on top of whatever 3D application you are running. Now I am not sure how much resource this may take, maybe even negligible.

Just want to throw this out there for those using the program.
 
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Well it has to poll the card so in that sense yes it does use CPU resources, but again, they are quite minimal.
 
I just checked its resource usage via having task manager opened on my 2nd monitor. Memory usage was between 1.5 and 2.5mb and CPU usage stayed a 0 almost all the time with an occasional spike to 1% this is with Heaven running and fans ramping up (via a custom profile) and The afterburner hardware monitor also up on the 2nd monitor. It's also managing two cards (SLI) so yeah, I wouldn't even bother with this. If you need more performance out of your machine, you aren't going to find it by closing Afterburner.
 
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