MSI Afterburner vs HWiNFO: which should you use?
They both monitor your hardware, so people treat them as rivals. They're really complementary — and the best answer is often “both.”
Both tools are free and read the same underlying sensors, but they're built for different jobs. Knowing what each is best at makes the choice easy.
What MSI Afterburner is for
Afterburner is a GPU control and overlay tool first. Its standout features are things HWiNFO can't do: overclocking and undervolting, custom fan curves, and the RivaTuner on-screen overlay that shows FPS and stats while you game. Monitoring is included, but the point is changing settings, not just watching them.
What HWiNFO is for
HWiNFO is a monitoring and diagnostics specialist. It exposes far more sensors in far more detail — every voltage rail, power draw figure, per-core clock and temperature across your whole system, not just the GPU. It's the tool of choice for troubleshooting, logging and deep analysis. What it doesn't do is overclock your GPU or draw a game overlay by itself.
Side by side
- GPU overclock / undervolt: Afterburner. HWiNFO can't tune.
- Custom fan curves: Afterburner.
- In-game FPS overlay: Afterburner (via RTSS).
- Depth of sensor data: HWiNFO, by a wide margin.
- System-wide (CPU, motherboard, drives) monitoring: HWiNFO.
- Long-term logging: HWiNFO.
The trick: run them together
Here's what many enthusiasts actually do. HWiNFO reads the detailed sensors; Afterburner and RTSS display selected HWiNFO values in the on-screen overlay. You get HWiNFO's sensor depth and Afterburner's overlay and tuning at once — the best of both. Recent Afterburner builds include an updated HWiNFO plugin that makes this integration smoother.
Want to overclock, control fans or show FPS in-game? You need Afterburner. Want the deepest possible look at every sensor in your PC? Add HWiNFO. Most power users keep both installed.
Ready to download MSI Afterburner?
Free, from an official source — msi.com or Guru3D. No adware, no account.
Download free