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MSI Afterburner Core Clock Not Changing (A Proven Fix)

Are you having a problem with your MSI Afterburner?

Is your MSI afterburner core clock not changing at all? If, yes, then you have come to the right spot.

We know the situation can get pretty annoying.

But we’ve got you covered so don’t worry.

In this article we will take a deeper look into this problem and learn its possible causes.

Besides that, you will also learn how to fix the MSI afterburner’s core clock that is not changing. We know you must be excited therefore, we won’t keep you waiting anymore.

Let’s jump straight to our complete solution to the above-mentioned problem.

Contents

3 Methods to Solve: MSI afterburner core clock not changing

Here are the three most effective and proven methods through which you can fix the MSI afterburner core clock not changing problem. Know that not all of these methods will be applicable to your situation.

msi afterburner clock not changing
Image via overlock.net

You will have to check each fix manually and see which one works for you. So you shouldn’t give up if one of the below-mentioned methods didn’t work for you.

#1 Change/Switch Driver 

The first and possibly the most basic fix to MSI afterburner core clock not changing is to update the video driver.

changing computer drivers
Image via support.microsoft.com

This could be due to many reasons but it’s possible that you don’t have the latest and updated version of your driver installed on your computer.

If this is the case then first try updating the driver and see if that works for you.

If not, then go ahead and move on to the other methods. If you don’t even know how to update your driver, then follow the instructions given in this article:

Here are some steps to switch or change the MSI drivers:

  1. Go to Device Manager and find the same model of graphic card installed on your computer.
  2. Right-click on it and select the “Update driver software” option. You can also use the more advanced and updated Driver Booster to do so.
  3. Select “Search automatically for updated driver software”. This will immediately download and install the latest updated MSI drivers on your pc.

#2 Check your MSI Afterburner Settings

Another possible fix is to check if everything is set as it should be or not.

You need to go into the MSI afterburner settings and make some tweaks there so as to enable voltage-based overclocking which will thus allow MSI Afterburner to change the core clock speed of your graphics card.

In order to do that, follow the steps below:

  • Open MSI Afterburner and go to “Settings”.
  • In this window find the “Voltage” option and check if it is enabled or not.
  • If yes, then there’s no problem with settings.
  • You can also make use of the “Scan” option that will automatically locate your computer for any problems or faults in the drivers.

For more info on MSI afterburner settings, watch the useful video below:

#3 Are you overclocking your GPU too much?

Another major problem due to which MSI afterburner core clock is stuck is the overclocking of the GPU.

If you overclock your graphic card too much then there might be a chance that MSI Afterburner cannot control it.

As we all know that there is always a safe limit for overclocking and if you exceed that limit then there are chances that this problem might occur.

Here’s how to check if you are overclocking your GPU too much or not:

  • Go to the “settings” menu in MSI afterburner and find the “scan” option
  • Click on it and now check if overclocking is enabled for both memory and core (if you can see 2 separate options then click on each of them)
  • If yes, then limit the overclocking and you will be able to fix your MSI afterburner core clock not changing problem.
  • If the overclocking option is greyed out but still you want to overclock it more then go for some other software like “RivaTuner” and see if that works for you.

#4 Use GPU-Z and fiddle with your Afterburner

If all the previous methods fail then you can try using GPU-Z to see if there’s any problem with your overclocking.

Image via Techpowerup.com

Just like the good old CPU-Z, the GPU-Z is an intelligent software that helps bring all the necessary information about your GPU.

Once you install this software on your computer, it will automatically scan your computer and list out all the info about your GPU.

So, if you think that the problem is with MSI Afterburner or you’re overclocking, then open up GPU-Z and check out the temperature and clock speed of your GPU. If they are not normal then something might be wrong with them.

This should help you fix your MSI afterburner GPU clock stuck problem.

In order to download GPU-Z, you will need to follow the steps given below:

  • Go to the GPU-Z website from your browser
  • Look for the version that is compatible with your operating system
  • Download it and install it on your computer.
  • Double click on the GPU-Z icon
  • A Window will appear having all the information including MSI GPU clock and Core Clock info.
  • Adjust the MSI afterburner according to this information

Is MSI Afterburner Supposed to Change Core Clock Speed?

Basically, MSI afterburner is a software that gives you more control over your graphics card’s clock speeds. It can be used to both increase or decrease the clock speed of your GPU.

Image via comprating.com

The developers have done an excellent job by making the user interface super friendly. You can gain full control over your graphic card installed on your computer and tweak it accordingly. 

You can even overclock your GPU using the options given in the MSI afterburner. The reason why it causes the problem is because there are other factors that affect how much power supply an NVIDIA GPU receives. 

So sometimes it might not go under the predefined level even if you lower its clock speed using MSI afterburner. To fix this, you have to disable voltage-based overclocking in MSI Afterburner settings. 

This way MSI Afterburner will only change the core clock settings and won’t touch anything else which should resolve this issue for you.

Now you have a basic understanding about the ability of the MSI afterburner  to control the clock speed and frequency of the MSI GPUs.

MSI afterburner core clock vs memory clock

There’s something more which almost every beginner must know about GPUs. You may have heard the term  “clock” over and over again. 

memory clock

It may be a bit confusing to a lot of people because there are core and memory clocks on the graphic processing units.

Before we go deep into this concept let’s take a look and see what the term clock actually means. 

The clock is nothing but a unit that measures the number of times some kind of action happens. The more the units, the faster it can be done. In computing, clock speed is used to measure how fast a computer CPU runs and how fast a GPU will run.

Basically, the clock on a CPU-based processor represents how many instructions per second a CPU can complete.

The frequency of a computer processor is taken as the number of cycles per second taken to execute instructions within a processor.

However, you have to consider that not all instructions take the same amount of time to execute.

On average, each instruction takes around 3 nanoseconds however some may take more and some may finish even before 1 nanosecond is over.

Core Clock and Memory Clock

Now let’s talk about the GPU clock.

The core clock and memory clock on a GPU basically determines how fast the data will be moved to and from the shader processors and GDDR (other special memory types like ESRAM, EEPROM, etc).

It is for this reason that it doesn’t directly affect the performance of your GPU.

The reason why there are two separate clock types is that different components of a GPU have their own speeds which need to be programmed independently from each other.

When it comes to overclocking, you can increase either one or both of these clocks and this will help in boosting the input/output speed of the shader processors and GDDR.

Now that you understand this concept, we hope you are getting a step further to solving the MSI afterburner memory clock not changing problem.

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MSI afterburner core clock not showing- What to Do?

Apart from the above discussion, some users have reported that they were not even able to see the core clock in their afterburner.

msi booth

If you are one of those folks then you need not panic as we will guide you fully until your issue is solved.

While solving the MSI afterburner memory clock stuck issue, if you don’t see any core clock on the MSI afterburner interface, you will need to follow the steps given below.

MSI afterburner core clock stuck problem

  1. Download MSI afterburner v 3.1 or any one of your choice
  2. Run it and select “performance mode” from the drop-down box on the top left corner.
  3. Click on ‘settings’ to open the performance setting window.
  4. You will have a number of options on the left sidebar, click on the ‘graphics card’ option from there, and select Nvidia GPU from the right side list.
  5. Select core clock percentage at 0%, adjust it to 100% and click on the apply button at the bottom of the performance settings window to save changes.
  6. Now run any game or benchmarking software, you will be able to see clock speed on the MSI afterburner interface.

You can also try out other MSI afterburner versions from the official download link given on this page.

You can visit the MSI afterburner support section to get a clear idea about how it works and the various features of the MSI afterburner.

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons why you may not be able to see clock speeds in your MSI afterburner interface.

MSI afterburner core clock Speeds Not Showing

The most common issue with MSI afterburner is that users are not able to see the clock speeds in the MSI afterburner software or any other monitoring software.

So let’s take a look at some of the reasons why this may happen.

MSI afterburner version mismatch

If you are using a new version of MSI afterburner on an older GPU, it is possible that you will not be able to see the clock speeds.

This happens because, at times, a new MSI afterburner version may have a different bug or compatibility issue with your GPU drivers and hence would not function properly.

Your MSI afterburner will then function properly until and unless there is a new version of MSI afterburner software available on the official website.

There could be other reasons as well, but if this is what you are facing then you should download an older version of MSI afterburner from the official website.

MSI afterburner not working with new drivers

If you have just updated your OS or Nvidia display driver, it is possible that your overclocking might get reset or disabled.

In such cases, you will have to reset your changes by going to ‘settings’ and then ‘performance settings’ in MSI afterburner software after a complete system restart.

You will be able to see the core clock speed at that time only. If it still doesn’t show up, download an older version of MSI afterburner from the official website.

We have listed some of the reasons why you may not be able to see MSI afterburner clock speeds.

However, if your issue is not resolved after reading this section, don’t forget to comment below with your system specs.

If nothing works and your clock speeds are still not visible then you should perform a clean install of MSI afterburner software by uninstalling it first, restarting the system, and then downloading the MSI afterburner setup file from the official website.

FAQs

Let’s see some popular questions and provide their answers.

How do you unlock the core clock on MSI Afterburner?

unlock-core-voltage-using-MSI-Afterburner-tutorial

MSI afterburner has the option to unlock your core clock, you just have to select performance mode from the drop-down box on the top left corner.
Then click on ‘settings” and then ‘performance settings’ at the bottom of this window.
Image via https://msiafterburnerguide.com/
After that, you will be able to see a list of options here. Click on the “unlock voltage control” option and then click “Apply” to save changes.

How Do I Reset My MSI Afterburner Core Clock?

There are two ways in which you can reset your core clock settings.
1. You can simply go to ‘settings’ and then ‘performance settings’ in MSI afterburner software. 
Click on the ‘reset user-defined settings’ button and click Apply to save changes.
2. You can also reset your core clock by going to ‘settings and then clicking on the “reset settings” button. 
Then you will have to restart your PC and after that go to the ‘performance settings’ again and click Apply to save changes.

How do I fix MSI Afterburner not overclocking?

There could be several reasons why your MSI afterburner overclocking would not work.
1. You may have installed an older version of MSI afterburner on your newer GPU drivers.
2. There could be a compatibility issue with your GPU drivers and a new version of MSI afterburner software.
3. If your MSI Afterburner software is not overclocking, you should uninstall it and then restart your system.
4. Finally, download the latest version from the official website and install MSI afterburner again.

How do I fix a stuck GPU clock?

Sometimes the MSI afterburner keeps reverting to the GPU clock. This can be an annoying situation, but fortunately there are fixes available.
First, restart MSI afterburner software and reset settings back to default. Then check for any performance issues in the game that you are currently playing.
If there are no problems, try overclocking manually by increasing core clock speed by 50MHz.
If it doesn’t work, decrease core clock speed by 50MHz. Repeat these steps until your GPU clock is stuck at a set speed.