[SOLVED] MSI Afterburner Not Detecting GPU on Windows 10/11

Not seeing your graphics card in MSI Afterburner? Everything on it greys out? You’re surely not alone—many players are reporting the same issue.

But don’t worry, it’s usually not that hard to fix.

Try these fixes:

You might not need to try them all. Simply work your way down until you find the one that does the trick.

1. Check your cable connection
2. Change properties of MSI Afterburner
3. Check if you have Vanguard
4. Update all your drivers
5. Check for Windows updates
6. Perform a clean boot
7. Try another version of Afterburner

Fix 1: Check your cable connection

First you need to be sure that you have the right display port. If you’re using the wrong port, say you have your monitor hooked up with the integrated graphics, your GPU might not show up in Afterburner since you’re not using it for display.

If you’re sure you got the right port, you can continue to the troubleshooting below.

Fix 2: Change properties of MSI Afterburner

According to some players, a possible fix of the issue lies in the compatibility settings of Afterburner. You can follow suit and see if it works in your case.

1. Open MSI Afterburner. In the left pane, click the gear icon to open properties.
   
2. In the Compatibility settings section, uncheck the box next to Enable low-level IO driver.
   
3. Restart your PC and check the results in MSI Afterburner.

If this trick doesn’t help you. take a look at the next one below.

Fix 3: Check if you have Vanguard

If you’re into Valorant, you might be familiar with Vanguard, the anti-cheat program. Records show that Vanguard is a big time trouble maker that is responsible for many game issues. And many players reported that it has something to do with Afterburner not detecting GPU. So if you have Vanguard on your system, you can try to disable/uninstall it and see if Afterburner works properly.

If you don’t have Vanguard, simply move on to the next fix.

Fix 4: Update all your drivers

If you’re not seeing your GPU in MSI Afterburner, chances are you might be using a buggy or outdated graphics driver. In fact, for your rig to function properly, you should always make sure you have all the drivers up to date.

You can update drivers manually, by visiting the graphics, motherboard manufacturers one by one, finding the latest correct installers and installing step by step. But if you don’t have the time or patience to update manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.

1. Download and install Driver Easy.
2. Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
   
3. Click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system.
   (This requires the Pro version – you’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All. If you don’t want to pay for the Pro version, you can still download and install all the drivers you need with the free version; you just have to download them one at a time, and manually install them, the normal Windows way.)
   

After updating all your drivers, restart your PC and check if Afterburner is working properly.

If the latest drivers don’t give you luck, you can continue to the next method.

Fix 5: Check for Windows updates

Windows updates help you avoid most of the software compatibility issues. You should always make sure you’re on the latest system.

1. On your keyboard, press Win+I (the Windows logo key and the i key) to open the Windows Settings app. Click Update & Security.
   
2. Click Check for updates. Windows will then download and install the available patches. It might take some time (up to 30 mins).
   

Once done, restart your computer and check if MSI Afterburner is running correctly.

If the issue lingers on, you can continue to the next fix.

Fix 6: Perform a clean boot

In addition to Vanguard, you should check if there’re other interferences in your system. You can start by doing a clean boot, which only starts the PC with the minimum set of services and programs.

1. On your keyboard, press Win+R (the Windows logo key and the r key) at the same time to invoke the Run box. Type or paste msconfig and click OK.
   
2. In the pop-up window, navigate to the Services tab and check the box next to Hide all Microsoft services.
   
3. Uncheck all the services EXCEPT those belong to your hardware manufacturers, such as Realtek, AMD, NVIDIA, Logitech and Intel. Then click OK to apply the changes.
   
4. On your keyboard, press Ctrl, Shift and Esc at the same time to open Task Manager, then navigate to the Startup tab.
   
5. One at a time, select any programs you suspect might be interfering, and click Disable.
   
6. Restart your PC.

If Afterburner works after the clean boot, you can root out the offenders by repeating the steps and disabling only half of the services and programs.

If the issue persists, you can try the next solution below.

Fix 7: Try another version of Afterburner

If none of the fixes can help you, you can try to reinstall MSI Afterburner. This should reset profiles and fix possible issues during installation. Instead of installing the same version, this time you can try the previous and beta ones, which can be easily found on Guru3D.com.

Hopefully this post helps you get MSI Afterburner working again. If you have any questions or ideas, feel free to drop a line in the comments below.

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