Think about this: You construct a strong gaming PC, with a Corsair CPU cooler and a GPU that (hopefully) value lower than your hire. You decide up a feature-packed keyboard from SteelSeries and probably the most comfy mouse Razer has ever made. You need to program a few macros on the keyboard, examine the battery life on the mouse, and see in the event you can alter the lighting on the cooler.
Does this seem to be a activity that requires a program that continuously runs 20+ background processes, makes use of 72% of your GPU, and secretly hoards 10GB of area in your laborious drive? No? It doesn’t? Effectively, that’s technically appropriate — you don’t want a program; you want three of them, every of which eats up lots of system assets and has its personal distinctive set of points.
However I’m certain you already knew this, in the event you’ve ever needed to set up any software program for any gaming peripheral, ever. Nonetheless, since it’s worthwhile to purchase into not less than certainly one of these software program suite-supported ecosystems (assuming you need one of many greatest gaming mice, gaming keyboards, gaming headsets, and so forth.) it appears value exploring which firm has one of the best software program ecosystem to maintain your rig operating as easily as potential.
Effectively, the reply is: none of them.
Sure. Imagine it or not, I initially envisioned writing an article rating the utilities from greatest to worst. , However then I began performing some analysis and it ended up taking me two weeks to write down this story as a result of each time I attempted to go in and have a look at the software program, I discovered some new, sudden bizarre or horrible factor — after which my system would instantly crash, a number of occasions in a row.
Evidently, I’m not the largest fan of gaming peripheral software program in the mean time. The excellent news is that whereas completely different applications have completely different points, all of them have sufficient issues to be tied for worst — so it’s effective to simply decide your manufacturers primarily based on {hardware}.
You could be questioning why these manufacturers make such universally horrible software program — when, for probably the most half, they make superb {hardware}. I can’t say for certain, nevertheless it does seem to be it could be difficult to keep up environment friendly, steady software program whereas additionally having to continuously add on assist for each spherical of peripheral and part drops. Or maybe the businesses are simply attempting to focus on how good their {hardware} is by giving us horrible software program compared.
Listed here are the highest 5 most irritating gaming peripheral apps, and so they’re all tied for worst with each different gaming peripheral app:
Asus Armoury Crate
Armoury Crate is Asus’ software program suite supporting its ROG-branded parts and peripherals, together with motherboards, screens, graphics playing cards, keyboards, headsets, mice, desktops, laptops, coolers, and so forth. You need to use Armoury Crate to replace firmware, configure and calibrate {hardware}/peripheral settings, and customise RGB utilizing Aura Sync (which is now a part of Armoury Crate).
In all probability one of the best factor I can say about Armoury Crate is that I don’t have tremendous robust emotions about it — its interface, usability, affect on system assets, and so forth. — as a result of I virtually by no means use it. In fact, the explanation I virtually by no means use it’s as a result of I can not often get it to work.
Living proof: I’m penning this on an Asus ROG monitor with Aura Sync enabled, and Armoury Crate sees nothing — doesn’t acknowledge it, can’t management it, nothing. (And sure, my Armoury Crate is updated, my drivers are updated, the monitor is listed as supported in Asus’ Armoury Crate FAQ, and so forth.) And that is truly an enchancment — most of my expertise with Armoury Crate up to now has been having it crash immediately upon launch.
Along with not recognizing the merchandise it helps, or managing to remain launched for greater than 3 seconds, Armoury Crate is simply type of a large number. (Seems I lied earlier — up to now hour or in order that I’ve been attempting to get Armoury Crate to work, I’ve developed some emotions, and so they’re fairly robust.) The interface is complicated (and stuffed with pointless movable tiles?) and laggy — switching between tabs and clicking by means of menus is a chore. It additionally takes up over 1GB on my system for some cause and has suspiciously scheduled a bunch of logon duties I didn’t ask for.
The cherry on prime is that you simply’ll most likely want to make use of the Armoury Crate Uninstall Device (opens in new tab) to uninstall it — nothing says “simple to uninstall” like a devoted uninstaller supplied as a separate obtain. You probably have an Asus motherboard, chances are you’ll want to vary some settings within the BIOS, as a result of Asus likes to place the Armoury Crate auto-installer within the BIOS.
In fact, that’s assuming Armoury Crate even acknowledges your motherboard — Tom’s {Hardware} Senior Editor Andrew E. Freedman spent a month unable to show off the RGB in his PC (when the PC was off) as a result of the software program wouldn’t acknowledge his motherboard. “Ultimately uninstalling it and reinstalling it — utilizing their official uninstaller — labored,” Andrew mentioned. “However I couldn’t let you know why.”
Corsair iCue
I requested my colleagues which peripheral software program they disliked most, and whereas it wasn’t unanimous, and was clearly primarily based totally on whichever peripheral software program had crashed or crippled their system throughout the final hour, one of many applications that was talked about a number of occasions was Corsair’s iCue (at present: iCue 4).
As a result of what’s extra infuriating than attempting to obtain a easy app that can allow you to change your fan lighting and ending up with the resource-draining, performance-sucking, unsuspectingly large piece of software program that’s iCue ?
Whereas Corsair does make peripherals, it’s higher identified for its parts — particularly, CPU coolers, followers, RAM, and circumstances. So whereas iCue does allow you to configure {hardware}, replace firmware, and all that, we primarily flip to it for one factor: RGB. That’s it. Significantly. All we actually need is to have the ability to change the colour of the RGB lighting on our followers, possibly program some kind of pastel spectrum animation on the pump — and that’s it.
Now, iCue does allow you to do that, assuming you’ll be able to determine how one can use the app’s lighting results part to create the look you need, with out getting overwhelmed by the assorted lighting profiles, colours, animations, and results — to not point out utilizing fan order to arrange results that transfer fluidly all through your system. But it surely additionally makes use of lots of, properly, every little thing: assets, reminiscence, area.
It’s laborious to find out precisely how a lot area an app takes up in Home windows 11. Home windows 11 lists reported app sizes in its settings menu, however this doesn’t inform the entire story (particularly since not all apps report their dimension to Microsoft). However relaxation assured that iCue is in some way large for an RGB-controlling companion app — its installer alone is roughly 1GB — and isn’t sorry. Within the put in apps menu in Home windows 11, iCue reviews its dimension as 3.54GB. I used SpaceSniffer to substantiate that on my system, iCue is taking over round 1.1GB in Program recordsdata, and is occupying one other 2.35GB in ProgramData.
I can spare the three.54GB, however I’ll admit that I’m fairly curious to know why iCue wants a lot area simply to vary the colours of, like, seven lights. I do know iCue additionally screens {hardware} (unsolicitedly — I didn’t ask for this from my RGB software program, Corsair), and this explains among the app’s heavier useful resource utilization however not its dimension.
Looking on the Corsair folder in ProgramData reveals that roughly all the area iCue makes use of right here comes from…recreation integration — recreation/app developer-created presets to sync your system’s RGB lighting with the sport you’re enjoying. It appears like there are round 30+ supported video games (together with a 1.64GB “frequent” folder for generic recreation integrations). Of the 30+ video games supported, I play one — Subnautica Beneath Zero — nevertheless it’s very accommodating of Corsair to go forward and retailer 2.35GB of RGB profiles on my PC, anyway.
However squatting in your ProgramData folder most likely isn’t even probably the most draining factor iCue does. Anecdotally talking, iCue is incessantly accountable for utilizing a ton of assets, crashing your system, crippling updates, and…principally every little thing else.
Whereas I used to be writing this text — on cue (haha) — iCue apparently corrupted the AMD driver dll of Tom’s {Hardware} Offers Author Stewart Bendle, who then needed to run Show Driver Uninstaller (DDU) — twice — earlier than he was capable of boot to Home windows with out it crashing inside 20 seconds.
The following time your PC feels sluggish, your first step needs to be to uninstall iCue (and Armoury Crate), and bask within the placing efficiency acquire — chances are you’ll not even have to do anything.
Logitech G Hub
Logitech has been within the peripherals recreation for a very long time. And as an alternative of making one app again in 1994 and including onto it piece by piece over years and years and years till it grew to become an unrecognizable mishmash of settings, Logitech did the seemingly good factor and created new apps for brand spanking new merchandise and features.
Besides now Logitech has one thing like 12 related however completely different apps with overlapping assist for various peripheral traces (that are considerably haphazardly outlined within the first place), that means you’ll want not less than three completely different Logitech apps to configure your keyboard, mouse, webcam, and headset. And in some way none of those apps can be as purposeful or as intuitive as Logitech’s legacy apps.
However since we’re gaming peripheral software program, let’s concentrate on Logitech G Hub, which is designed to assist Logitech G merchandise: gaming keyboards, mice, headsets, controllers, and a few random streaming gear (webcams, mics, and lights). G Hub is the place you’ll go to configure {hardware} settings, program buttons and keybinds, alter audio/mic settings (together with Blue Vo!ce software program), and play with RGB lighting colours and results.
At a look, G Hub truly appears fairly good. However don’t be fooled by its slick, deceptively straightforward-looking interface — with G Hub, Logitech has conveniently taken all the settings you as soon as knew how one can change and turned them into one thing unnecessarily convoluted and 0 p.c intuitive.
In any case, why would you need to reprogram keys utilizing one thing easy, like…your keyboard…when you’ll be able to as an alternative scroll by means of a number of lengthy lists of keys, actions, instructions, system…instructions, and roughly 3000 different choices you didn’t know you by no means wished to see? I’m certain there are some individuals who need to bind pre-recorded Blue Voice sound samples to their mouse buttons — however most likely not so many who this warrants a complete built-in menu (particularly one that won’t even work — I needed to wipe G Hub from my PC and reinstall it, twice, earlier than half of the Blue Vo!ce software program choices even labored in G Hub).
My larger problem with G Hub, nevertheless, is that your {hardware} is in some way totally depending on it. There’s no warning, in fact — Logitech graciously permits you to uncover this by yourself, when G Hub all of the sudden shuts down and cripples all your peripherals.
Simply the opposite day, as I used to be casually enjoying Elder Scrolls On-line utilizing a Logitech G keyboard, G Hub abruptly stop and all of the sudden not one of the assignable keys registered something. And I don’t imply that my carefully-configured customized keybinds stopped working. I imply the assignable keys on this keyboard — the operate keys — apparently don’t have any default keybinds with out G Hub, they’re simply…empty. G Hub shut down and took my whole operate row with it.
Whereas it’s potential to make use of Logitech G peripherals with out G Hub by saving settings to a tool’s onboard reminiscence, this solely works in the event you flip the onboard reminiscence on in G Hub — after which stop G Hub whereas it’s turned on. One would possibly assume {that a} profile saved to a tool’s onboard reminiscence would stay on mentioned gadget till overwritten. However in the event you flip off onboard reminiscence in G Hub (which you’ll have to do to regulate any settings), G Hub instantly overwrites your saved profile with the unique, default profile, e.g. one with a completely empty operate row, till you flip onboard reminiscence again on.
G Hub additionally makes another unusual design selections, reminiscent of the truth that you’ll be able to solely program a mouse’s G-Shift whereas in G-Shift mode. Let me clarify: G-Shift is Logitech’s gaming-oriented second layer performance — accessible with the G-Shift key/button (user-programmed) — constructed into Logitech G mice and keyboards. (It’s Logitech’s model of Razer’s HyperShift, SteelSeries’ SS key, Roccat’s Simple-Shift, and so forth.)
To program G-Shift, open up G Hub and click on the G-Shift toggle on the backside of the display screen. This places your gadget in G-Shift mode, which is definitely…horrible, as a result of your complete level of G-Shift mode is to have the ability to program secondary performance. For instance: Why would you want your left mouse button — some of the accessible buttons — to have major click on performance in each default mode and G-Shift mode? You wouldn’t, except an app compelled you to stay in G-Shift mode whereas programming G-shift mode. In case you unbind major click on in G-Shift you’ll not be capable to click on something, since you’re caught in G-Shift mode.
You’ll be able to attempt to repair this by unplugging the mouse, however I’ve discovered that this occurs to be the one time G Hub instantly saves all adjustments on to your {hardware}. On this case, your greatest wager is to make use of a unique mouse to rebind your major click on (you may as well use Mouse keys, a Home windows accessibility characteristic that allows you to management your mouse together with your keyboard). Or, in the event you should, you may as well uninstall and reinstall G Hub.
Razer Synapse
Razer’s Synapse — at present: Synapse 3 — is the model’s one-stop (kind of) software program suite supporting all of its merchandise: keyboards, headsets, mice, webcams, mics, mouse pads, audio system, screens, desktops, laptops, and so forth. You’ll be able to obtain Synapse from Razer’s web site — however you don’t must, as a result of Razer pioneered everybody’s favourite, not-at-all-infuriating, and beforehand exploitable follow of prompting an auto-installation of Synapse everytime you plug in a Razer peripheral. Sure, each time. Endlessly.
And don’t fear, putting in Synapse gained’t rid you of Synapse 3 pop-ups, as a result of Synapse updates roughly as soon as each quarter-hour and prompts you to do enjoyable issues like restart your PC, login to your Razer account, or set up a bunch of different Razer apps. You understand — for enjoyable!
However possibly you didn’t even notice Razer’s peripheral software program was known as Synapse, as a result of Synapse is definitely a part of Razer Central, which additionally contains an app known as Razer Cortex. And whereas Synapse kind of loosely encompasses Razer’s Chroma apps (for configuring and controlling RGB), it additionally…kind of doesn’t — Chroma Visualizer positively reveals up as a completely separate course of in Process Supervisor.
Truly, there are a number of background Razer processes operating always, together with Razer AppEngine, Razer Chroma SDK/Service, Razer Chroma Stream Service, Recreation Supervisor Service, Cortex Launcher Service, and RzUpdateEngine. On prime of this, Razer additionally provides a bunch of non-compulsory apps — not all of that are free — together with THX Spatial Audio, Razer’s Digital Ring Gentle, a Streamer Companion App, and one thing known as Razer Axon Beta, which seems to be an animated wallpaper app much like Wallpaper Engine.
Synapse is fairly strong — possibly too strong — and allows you to remap keys and buttons, calibrate efficiency (on a fairly detailed degree), and alter some lighting settings. Nonetheless, if you wish to customise your lighting past certainly one of Razer’s preset results, you’ll want to make use of one (or extra) of the Chroma apps — sorry, “modules” — inside Synapse.
That is the place it begins to get complicated (don’t fear, it solely will get extra complicated from right here), as a result of there are three modules: Chroma Join, Chroma Studio, and Chroma Visualizer. Chroma Studio is what you’ll want if you wish to create customized lighting profiles and results, and whereas it has some potential (it has lots of choices, anyway), it’s extremely irritating to make use of. Right here’s why: Chroma Studio gives a number of customizable lighting results, which you’ll layer to create a novel lighting profile.
Nonetheless, whereas Chroma Studio will save your remaining lineup of results right into a profile, it won’t, for some cause, save virtually any of the customized settings you used for the profile. This implies you’ll be able to’t alter (and even actually see) the layers within the profile, all you are able to do is recreate every layer from scratch (and, once more, you’ll be able to’t see what that layer’s settings had been, so that you simply must…guess), and alter from there. Sure, it’s weird and irritating and it’ll probably make you stop RGB fully and embrace darkness.
As for the opposite modules, Chroma Join is Razer’s try at making a unified ecosystem in which you’ll management all RGB lighting — together with lighting on non-Razer {hardware} and third-party apps. In fact, Chroma Join can solely management lighting on non-Razer {hardware} and third-party apps that assist it. I’ll provide you with one guess as as to whether Razer’s largest direct rivals assist it (no). Chroma Visualizer is an audio visualizer lighting impact — it may positively be a part of Chroma Studio, however…it’s not.
Like most peripheral software program, Synapse makes an attempt to mix years and years’ value of swiftly coded updates and facet tasks into one streamlined, central app. And, in the event you ignore the truth that it’s truly 15 completely different processes operating within the background, it succeeds (kind of).
However Synapse’s actual objective is clearly world PC domination through probably the most tenacious installer/updater ever created. Synapse has a ton of FOMO — not solely will its installer typically anxiously pop up in the course of Home windows updates, it additionally hoards all the replace recordsdata it downloads…endlessly.
The Home windows Installer folder on my laptop computer at present takes up round 10GB, 9.68GB of which belongs to Razer. Now, Synapse just isn’t the one app that’s ever completed this, and there are instruments to wash the Installer folder. I’m engaged on it, however thus far Synapse’s stockpile of installers has resisted PatchCleaner, CCleaner, and the Microsoft set up/uninstall troubleshooter.
(Oh, and one of the best factor about that is that Synapse updates so incessantly it apparently will get exhausted and quits — principally each single time I attempt to do one thing that requires Synapse to be operating, nothing occurs. So I’ll click on on Razer’s icon within the System Tray and, yup — “Synapse just isn’t operating.”)
SteelSeries GG
SteelSeries GG is a software program suite that mixes SteelSeries’ peripheral settings app (Engine) with a number of issues which can be…not peripheral settings. Right here’s a pro-tip: In case you’re a {hardware} firm attempting to design supporting software program that gained’t be thought-about bloatware, don’t throw further apps into the set up.
Along with SteelSeries Engine — which helps you to scan for firmware updates, configure and customise {hardware} settings, and contains an illumination part the place you’ll be able to alter and sync RGB (and likewise create customized results) — SteelSeries GG additionally comprises Sonar (an audio app with a gamer-oriented EQ) and Moments (a recreation seize app). SteelSeries’ Engine is a little bit clunky (like…all of those apps) — and its concentrate on particulars could make it fairly overwhelming for anybody who doesn’t need to spend so much of time attending to understand it.
Whilst you can argue that Sonar is an audio configuration app (it’s), and subsequently is smart as a part of GG…there’s nonetheless no cause to make it a obligatory obtain for somebody plugging in a keyboard or a mouse. And I truly like enjoying round with Sonar — when it really works.
However I’ve been utilizing it with each SteelSeries and non-SteelSeries merchandise for a number of months and it’ll incessantly simply…not work. It doesn’t appear to be constant in any approach — typically I’ll flip my headset on and I gained’t hear something it doesn’t matter what my settings are till I force-quit your complete GG suite; different occasions I’ll be in the course of listening to one thing and my sound will simply exit for a number of seconds earlier than resuming. Earlier at present I used to be speaking to certainly one of my colleagues earlier than our morning assembly, and he mentioned I used to be barely audible — till I switched my mic enter away from Sonar.
Sonar might be enjoyable to mess around with, nevertheless it’s simply not dependable sufficient once I want my audio to work. And it’s not tremendous intuitive when it’s working as designed — it tries to wrest management of each audio-enabled gadget I plug in, from audio system to headsets to webcams. It’s positively an app I’d favor to opt-into as an alternative of (not having the choice of) opting out. (Engine contains audio settings and an EQ for SteelSeries’ headsets and audio system, anyway, so Sonar actually needs to be purely non-compulsory.)
Learn how to Repair It
First — I didn’t point out a lot of apps, together with (however not restricted to): HyperX NGenuity, Roccat Swarm, Cooler Grasp MasterPlus+, MSI Middle, ThermalTake TT RGB Plus, and so forth. — however relaxation assured all of them have loads of points and stay aggressive within the race to the underside. Maybe I’ll revisit a few of these, in-depth, in a Half 2 down the street — however for now I’m undecided my system can take far more (I’ve a date with the Registry Editor after this; I uninstalled Synapse and it left simply sufficient on my PC that I can’t reinstall it).
I gained’t faux like I really perceive the challenges of making a bit of usable assist software program, particularly one which must be up to date each time a brand new product is launched. And whereas there are third-party apps, reminiscent of SignalRGB and OpenRGB, making an attempt to create stripped-down, manufacturer-agnostic options, it’s clearly not completely cut-and-dry. However — as somebody who assessments peripherals and subsequently all the time has not less than 17 completely different items of bloated, laggy, space-hoarding software program combating for management on my PC, I’ve some normal ideas for enchancment:
Cease auto-installing
After I plug a brand new mouse or keyboard in, I need it to work. That’s all.
I don’t need to be bombarded with prompts to put in non-compulsory software program — not to mention, non-compulsory, pointless software program that calls for laborious drive area, assets, and an web connection and an account. And I positively don’t need this to occur each time I plug it in (peripherals are, by definition, units which can be simple to plug in and take away from a PC). If I would like to vary a setting or customise one thing, I’ll obtain the software program.
…And cease auto-updating
There’s no peripheral software program replace so crucial I would like an app operating 24/7 within the background, able to replace on a dime. Truly — now that I give it some thought, peripheral software program updates aren’t simply “not crucial,” they’re virtually totally pointless except I need to manually replace a setting myself.
No rebooting, web connection, or account creation required
I shouldn’t must restart my PC, get on-line, or join an account to vary some settings. I additionally…shouldn’t must let you know this.
Don’t repair what ain’t broke
I don’t know why Logitech took a have a look at G Hub and mentioned “as an alternative of constructing remapping keys primary and boring, let’s flip it right into a enjoyable, maze-like journey!” I’m simply right here to vary some settings — I don’t thoughts if it’s a boring, primary course of (in reality, I favor it).
Of all 764 completely different Logitech webcam apps I’ve tried, there’s one I all the time come again to: Logitech Webcam Software program. It’s extraordinarily primary, dated-looking, and positively not excellent (nor has it been supported in, like, 10 years). But it surely’s the one Logitech webcam app with all the handbook sliders in a single place, and that’s all I really need. I don’t want an attractive, enjoyable settings menu, I simply want…the settings.
I don’t want an ecosystem
I’m undecided why each firm thinks they should have a full software program suite of apps and modules, full with a customizable dashboard with 7 completely different themes and the choice to add your individual background picture and a person interface that appears like a cross between Minority Report and Star Craft. I’ve by no means opened any peripheral software program pondering, “wow, I hope this appears cool and futuristic so I can depart it open on my desktop to admire.”
I have already got an working system, and methods to watch my {hardware}, and an app that animates my wallpaper — I don’t anticipate or want (or need) my mouse software program to exchange that. There’s no have to divert clearly restricted software program improvement assets towards tasks just like the Razer Digital Ring Gentle, which is an app that turns your monitor right into a “supply of illumination” (my monitor is already a supply of illumination; I can simply open up a clean Phrase doc). I might somewhat have one Razer app that might cleanly uninstall from my system as an alternative of seven random apps that don’t have anything to do with {hardware}.
I’ll acknowledge there are a lot of challenges to creating software program that helps a decade’s value of gaming peripherals, however I don’t suppose the answer is…extra software program.
Notice: As with all of our op-eds, the opinions expressed right here belong to the author alone and never Tom’s {Hardware} as a crew.
