Hi Irlwizard, and welcome

Each maker of custom video cards builds in features unique to that maker's line. Their software is aware of the features and can operate with them. If you're using a custom design video card eg. ASUS Matrix, you will probably need the Asus software.

"Reference" video cards are designed by the chip maker - AMD or Nvidea - then manufactured and marketed by other companies. These generic cards have standard features that nearly all GPU tweaking programs can operate. I'm using Afterburner with an Asus-made reference design R9 290X in my benching rig.

I personally like the operation and user interface of Afterburner. An important feature is that Afterburner can unlock the GPU voltage for overclocking. Check that that alternatives have that feature.

Jeff

What makes it a 'custom card'? Mine is not a ROG but it is not a 'stock' card with one fan either.

I have linked the model below, should I use the ASUS GPU tweak with that instead of afterburner if it is considered a non-custom card?
http://www.asus.com/Graphics_Cards/GTX760DC2OC2GD5/specifications/

Give precision x a try,
You can use the onscreen display to show information about your gpu when playing games. clock speed, memory clock speed, gpu temp, memory usage, frames per second and more. If you don't want to try precision x, go with afterburner.

it's all a matter of preference really, jeff likes afterburner, I like precision x. I'm not sure if precision x will let you unlock the voltage or not. I know you can't adjust the voltage on kepler cards with precision x as Nvidia has it locked.

Is it possible to have Afterburner as a monitoring software and install 'EVGA's OC Scanner X' as your stress testing software? Or do I need to use EVGA Precision X16 to use OC Scanner X?

OC Scanner X - is unique due to the fact that it can scan for artefacts. If anyone knows any other stress testing GPU software that can do this, please mention them, if they are FurMark based and the monitoring software they are compatible with e.g. Afterburner or EVGA exclusive.

You haven't chosen one yet?

oc scanner is from EVGA only but you can use it with afterburner, all 3 programs are compatible with furmark.

Irlwizard wrote:
At time of writing - GPUTweak V2.7.1.8 vs Afterburner 4.10


Please mention some pros and cons of each before you say why you think one is better then the other. Not oh, the ASUS one has prettier colours so I vote for that...

Personally I have no idea and want to find out which is better if you own a ASUS VGA card.

Let the discussion begin.

I agree, one shouldn't necessarily recommend which software is "better" simply because they feel that it's the prettier/est of the gpu tweaking software alternatives out there, but that could be the primary determining factor to that particular person. I, for instance, most definitely wouldn't prefer X software to Y software, basing my preference primarily on "prettiness" and appearance alone. Features, flexibility, customization, user-friendliness, and robustness(in no particular order), are probably my main determining factors when choosing nearly ANY software to use on my own personal computers, whether it's a gpu tweaking utility, anti-virus suite, text editor(I prefer Notepad++.), etc. Yes, using software that's visually appealing to the eye is definitely a PLUS, but it's not an absolute mandatory requirement in my opinion. It sure is nice to be able to have the best of both worlds though!

That said, I can't exactly follow up with my personal recommendation because I haven't gotten a chance to use the GPUTweak software yet on my pc. I've just recently switched from the MSI R7 250 2GB DDR3 to the ASUS R9 270X DC2T 2GB DDR5 and I've been running the Afterburner software for quite some time on my old MSI card, which proved to be quite an invaluable tool to have. I actually just installed my new GPU a day or two ago and haven't had the time to "tweak" it to my liking, but I'm about to get that taken care of today. I'm gonna follow this up with downloading the newest GPUTweak software and give it a try though!

http://station-drivers.com/index.php/forum/news/762-msi-afterburner-v4-1-0-rivatuner-statistics-serv...
new version afterburner