How to Fix MSI Afterburner OSD Causing FPS Drop

What Causes This?

MSI Afterburner’s on-screen display usually relies on RivaTuner Statistics Server (RTSS) to hook into games and draw FPS, temps, and usage stats in real time. That hook can add overhead, especially in games with anti-cheat, DirectX 12/Vulkan rendering, or already high CPU/GPU load. In some cases, aggressive polling, too many active sensors, or conflicts with other overlays can cause FPS drops, stutter, or frametime spikes. Outdated RTSS, MSI Afterburner, GPU drivers, or Windows graphics settings can make the problem worse.

Common Symptoms

• FPS drops only when the MSI Afterburner or RTSS overlay is enabled
• Frametime spikes or microstutter during gameplay
• Games feel smooth with the overlay off, but laggy with it on
• Performance gets worse when monitoring lots of sensors
• Conflicts with Steam, Discord, GeForce Experience, or Xbox Game Bar overlays

How to Fix It Manually

1. Test whether the OSD is the cause

   1. Launch your game with MSI Afterburner and RTSS running.
   2. Turn the overlay off and compare performance.
   3. Open MSI Afterburner, click Settings > Monitoring, and temporarily uncheck Show in On-Screen Display for all items.
   4. If FPS or frametimes improve right away, the overlay is likely the problem.

2. Lower RTSS and monitoring overhead

   1. Open MSI Afterburner.
   2. Click Settings > Monitoring.
   3. Disable any sensor you do not actually need in-game, especially CPU core-by-core stats, frametime graphs, RAM, and disk activity.
   4. Leave only essentials like Framerate, GPU temperature, and GPU usage.
   5. If available, increase the hardware monitoring refresh period in Settings > General to reduce polling load.

3. Update MSI Afterburner, RTSS, and your GPU driver

   1. Close your game.
   2. Update MSI Afterburner and RivaTuner Statistics Server to the latest version from the official source.
   3. Update your graphics driver:
      • Press Win + X > Device Manager
      • Expand Display adapters
      • Right-click your GPU > Update driver
   4. For best results, install the latest driver directly from NVIDIA, AMD, or Intel rather than relying only on Windows Update.

4. Disable overlapping overlays

   1. Press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open Task Manager.
   2. Close apps that add their own overlays, such as Discord, Steam overlay, GeForce Experience, AMD Software, or Xbox Game Bar.
   3. To turn off Xbox Game Bar, press Win + I > Gaming > Xbox Game Bar > switch it Off.
   4. Test the game again with only RTSS enabled.

5. Adjust RTSS application detection

   1. Open RivaTuner Statistics Server from the system tray.
   2. Select the affected game, or add its .exe file if it is not listed.
   3. Set Application detection level to Low instead of High.
   4. If the game still stutters, try disabling the OSD for that game only by setting On-Screen Display support to Off.

6. Check Windows graphics settings

   1. Press Win + I > System > Display > Graphics.
   2. Add your game if needed, click it, then choose Options.
   3. Set it to High performance.
   4. Also go to Settings > Gaming > Game Mode and make sure Game Mode is enabled.

Fix It Automatically with Kudu

Kudu can help by spotting overlay conflicts, unnecessary startup apps, background processes, and Windows settings that make RTSS or MSI Afterburner hit performance harder than they should. Instead of checking each possible cause manually, Kudu streamlines system cleanup and optimization so your games stay smooth even when monitoring is enabled.

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