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MSI Afterburner 4.6.7 Beta 2 Transforms into System Health Monitor, Adds RTX 5090 Support and Power Safeguards

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MSI Afterburner 4.6.7 Beta 2: Broadening System Monitoring and Safeguards

MSI has officially released Afterburner 4.6.7 Beta 2, a significant update that expands the utility beyond traditional GPU tuning to include comprehensive system health monitoring features. This latest iteration introduces native support for the upcoming GeForce RTX 5090 Lightning series and integrates a crucial new monitoring tool specifically designed to prevent hardware damage from faulty 16-pin power connections.

Afterburner 4.6.7 Beta 2 brings system health monitoring and critical safeguards to the forefront, alongside support for next-gen hardware.

Real-Time PSU Telemetry and Safeguards

The utility now boasts native support for real-time telemetry from high-end MSI power supply units (PSUs), specifically the MEG Ai1x00 and MPG Ai1x00TS series. This is made possible through a new PSU.dll plugin. Users can now monitor detailed PSU-level data, including voltage, current, power, efficiency, and fan speeds, directly within the Afterburner software. For supported MPG units, the update goes a step further by providing per-pin current data for 12VHPWR and 12V-2×6 connectors, offering an unprecedented level of insight into power delivery.

Automated Power Fault Response

The Beta 2 update significantly enhances safety by enabling Afterburner to take automated actions upon detecting a power fault. If the PSU reports an overcurrent or a significant current imbalance across the 16-pin connector pins, the software can trigger an immediate alarm. This includes an on-screen warning and audible buzzers, alerting the user to a potential issue.

Crucially, Afterburner can automatically reduce power by loading a predefined 'Emergency Profile'. This profile instantly lowers the GPU power limit to decrease thermal stress, providing users with crucial time to safely shut down their system and inspect the cable connection, thereby preventing potential hardware damage.

Key Improvements and Features:

  • MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Support:

    • Added native support for the upcoming GPU series, ensuring immediate compatibility.

  • Voltage/Frequency Curve Editor Enhancements:

    • The default size of V/F nodes is now adjustable via a configuration file for personalized viewing.
    • Work area can be zoomed (100%-500%) with the mouse wheel, dynamically scaling V/F node size.
    • Panning of the work area is now possible by pressing the right mouse button and dragging.
    • Restoring the default view mode (zoom and pan) is quick with the <V> keyboard shortcut.
    • Improved linear voltage curve interpolation mode with a fixed anchor point (Ctrl + node dragging), now applicable to selections.
    • Arbitrary linear interpolation mode has been added, activated by selecting a source node (I key) and then a destination node.
    • Improved V/F curve movement with preserved per-point offsets (Alt + node dragging), now applicable to selections.

  • Command Line Switches:

    • Added a switch for loading a predefined emergency profile with lowered GPU power consumption (75% power limit on NVIDIA, -25% on AMD), which can be configured for alarms.
    • A new switch allows for displaying custom text messages when applying a profile.

  • Monitoring Plugins Enhancements:

    • Plugins can now specify string names for enum values displayed in the On-Screen Display (e.g., "No,Yes" for binary 0/1 values).
    • Plugins can customize the appearance of critical threshold options, replacing "Alarm when value is out of range" with a single custom checkbox for simplified configuration.

  • New PSU.dll Plugin:

    • Provides native hardware monitoring for MSI MEG Ai1x00 and MSI MPG Ai1x00TS power supplies.
    • Monitors traditional PSU voltages, currents, output power, efficiency, temperature, and fan speed on MEG Ai1x00 series.
    • Offers additional per-pin current monitoring for 12VHPWR/12V-2×6 connectors on MPG Ai1x00TS power supplies.
    • Includes two alarm sensors for 12VHPWR/12V-2×6, reporting 0 for safe current and 1 for critical thresholds or high current imbalance between pins.
    • These alarm sensors support both PSU firmware-based and software-based implementations, with configurable thresholds via the plugin's configuration file.
    • The "GPU Safeguard+" option simplifies critical threshold configuration for alarm sensors, automatically enabling sound alarms and configuring Afterburner to load an emergency profile with reduced GPU power limit and display a notification.