GUIDE to enable "voltage control" in MSI Afterburner

[Dreamonic]

INTRODUCTION

If you've installed MSI Afterburner before (usually on a notebook) you'd remember it didn't have GPU voltage control. There are unsupported desktop GPU models that require certain workarounds to have voltage control as well working in MSI Afterburner. So this isn't just limited to notebook GPUs.

Simply put, there is a way to get it unlocked for a notebook GPU, but it is limited to +100mV (modified vBIOS allowable) using the fix we are going to apply below. You can read more about this here.


So how does this benefit you when using MSI Afterburner?

• You can monitor the GPU voltage in the OSD now, which wasn't available before.
  
  
• You can use a modified vBIOS with an increased base voltage that allows the "fix" (voltage control) to utilize the remaining 100mV of overvolt in MSI Afterburner, allowing it to be the primary OC utility.
  
• If you aren't looking to do extreme overclocking/overvolting (with a modded vBIOS but limited to +100mV).
  

ENABLE VOLTAGE CONTROL "FIX"

Step 1: Go to your MSI Afterburner Profiles folder (C:\Program Files (x86)\MSI Afterburner\Profiles)
Step 2: Right-click the file named "VEN_10DE&DEV..." and go > Properties > Security
Step 3: Select "Edit" and then click on "Users (username\Users)" and with the permission boxes below, check "Allow" for the first box - Full control. Click OK and OK again (this allows the file to be saved after editing it).
Step 4: Now you can open the file named "VEN_10DE&DEV..." in WordPad and replace everything you see with this:

[Startup]
Format=2
CoreVoltageBoost=
PowerLimit=
ThermalLimit=
ThermalPrioritize=
CoreClkBoost=
MemClkBoost=
[Settings]
VDDC_Generic_Detection=1

Step 5: Save the file and restart MSI Afterburner
Step 6: Go into MSI Afterburner settings and check the boxes under General > "Unlock voltage control" and "Unlock voltage monitoring" then click OK and restart Afterburner.
Final: GPU voltage control is unlocked and can be used now up to +100mV as well as monitoring GPU voltage in the OSD.




ADDITIONAL NOTES

This "fix" isn't new to overclocking with MSI Afterburner, it's just not a popular topic among notebook users.

Also, when I mentioned, "You can use a modified vBIOS with an increased base voltage that allows the "fix" (voltage control) to utilize the remaining 100mV of overvolt in MSI Afterburner, allowing it to be the primary OC utility" I am referring to having your vBIOS base voltage modified to 100mV below the suggested max voltage for your GPU. You can also adjust the core/boost clocks appropriately to take advantage of this to where it's stable, then flash these vBIOS values. Should you want to use MSI Afterburner as the primary OC utility, you now can since you can adjust voltage the remaining 100mV should you need to max out your overclock.

Note: Raising your base core/boost clocks and voltages to workaround this idea means you will likely run at higher load temperatures since you are no longer using stock vBIOS clocks and voltages, all the time (except idle states).

[Dreamonic]

Usually when you plug in a mic or headphones through the audio jacks, the Realtek HDA popup will display asking you what was plugged in (this can be disabled) which is right. Then if you go to the recording properties panel in Windows, it'll still show up as your Realtek internal mic, but if it's not working through the headset mic when you do that, then that implies software/drivers problem for sure.

I have not tested with PS2 yet. I have tested it with The Witcher 3, BF4, Fallout 4, etc.

I haven't tried using the forced P-States in NVIDIA Inspector for a long time so I can't say if you can or not still with that method. You could try it if you like. A vBIOS still needs to be modified to go beyond the stock OC limit with stability since increasing the core clock requires adjusting voltage accordingly, which can reach the stock vBIOS power limit fairly quickly (it's obviously adjustable in a modified one to prevent this) and is all I meant by the "1300-ish and 1.1v".

[Dreamonic]

Usually when you plug in a mic or headphones through the audio jacks, the Realtek HDA popup will display asking you what was plugged in (this can be disabled) which is right. Then if you go to the recording properties panel in Windows, it'll still show up as your Realtek internal mic, but if it's not working through the headset mic when you do that, then that implies software/drivers problem for sure.

I have not tested with PS2 yet. I have tested it with The Witcher 3, BF4, Fallout 4, etc.

I haven't tried using the forced P-States in NVIDIA Inspector for a long time so I can't say if you can or not still with that method. You could try it if you like. A vBIOS still needs to be modified to go beyond the stock OC limit with stability since increasing the core clock further requires (eventually) adjustment in voltage, which can reach the stock vBIOS power limit fairly quickly (it's obviously adjustable in a modified one to prevent this) and is all I meant by the "1300-ish and 1.1v".

[Boxis]

@Dreamonic - Are you using the stock 230W power brick while your GPU is at 1450/6000 ? Or did you buy 330W one ?

[Dreamonic]

Boxis wrote:
@Dreamonic - Are you using the stock 230W power brick while your GPU is at 1450/6000 ? Or did you buy 330W one ?

I'm using the 230W adapter.

[Dreamonic]

@Boxis

Yes. I'm using the 230W adapter for that overclock.

[Svan]

Hi, I have a G703VI with a GTX 1080 Max-Q and I would like to have full control on it to do an undervolt.

I found the answers. Thanx for this guide got max 68 degrees on heavy games with a cap at 1822mhz.

Cheers.

[smokgnu]

Hello! I am trying to undervolt my full rtx 2060 on Rog Zephyrus GX502,

I hoped to use the "Power Limit" slider in MSI to do it, and hoped that this fix will unlock it also. Unfortunately, it did not( Is there any other way to limit the voltage/temp of the GPU? I know I can't disable boost, I tried tweaking the voltage-to-frequency ratio in MSI, which is the closest thing.

@Dreamonic, maybe you know of a way to unlock "Power Limit" as well?
@ Swan, how di you achieve a "cap at 1822 mhz"?

[Da-BOSS]

smokgnu wrote:
Hello! I am trying to undervolt my full rtx 2060 on Rog Zephyrus GX502,

I hoped to use the "Power Limit" slider in MSI to do it, and hoped that this fix will unlock it also. Unfortunately, it did not( Is there any other way to limit the voltage/temp of the GPU? I know I can't disable boost, I tried tweaking the voltage-to-frequency ratio in MSI, which is the closest thing.

@Dreamonic, maybe you know of a way to unlock "Power Limit" as well?
@ Swan, how di you achieve a "cap at 1822 mhz"?

did you gave ASUS GPU Tweak II a try? it's the only utility that gives your control on GPU temperature limit 🙂

[KirkH420]

Just wanted to post that I stumbled across this thread when I wasn't really looking for this type of thing. I wasn't very hopeful that it was going to do anything for my RTX2060 Max-q, but lo and behold it worked! Well... at least the slider is unlocked, I don't know if the voltages are actually being applied though. I haven't played a game with it yet since I did this. I'm currently preparing for a system ssd wipe and fresh install of Enterprise LTSC. Looking forward to having a completely horse****-free system that I can completely customize to my own liking without all the junk drivers that ASUS distributes with their bulk driver packs. If you didn't know, the driver that interfaces with MyAsus comes loaded with things that your PC may not even have and it will install drivers that will never be used. Some of them run all the time anyway in the background. None of that is needed. There is a ROG notebook fan controller on GitHub called atrofac that works on G14 and G15 Zephyrus as well as battery charge limit program that was built for the TUF notebooks, but it works for many other ASUS laptops too. Time to dump all this Asus junk software and run a clean gaming machine!