[Fix] High CPU Usage of iCue 3.3.103!

Update: Corsair is working on the next release. There's no definite ETA yet but an early build for the beta team shows pretty significant improvement.

That's good news. I've gone back to Corsair Link and CUE. The ICUE 3.3.103 high CPU usage is resulting in my CPU NOT downclocking at idle (balanced power plan) because of the constant 15% CPU load ICUE causes. Looking forward to a build that corrects this issue.

Finally noticed that the Dark Core mouse is on the list of problem devices. Sure enough, after disabling all lighting effects for it, CPU usage of iCUE has returned to normal (<10%, rarely above 5%).

Hoping for a fix soon. Also, where are the individual DPI RGB controls of the old CUE? That was really the only way I even used lighting effects on my mice is to tell at a glance with the lights what DPI I'm using if I ever switch it. :(

same here with ram. also have the flickering problem after reboot or wake up from standby

@ Corsair

Please hurry. ur system could be by far the best on the market when its working perfectly without such annoying issues.

same here with ram. also have the flickering problem after reboot or wake up from standby

 

@ Corsair

 

Please hurry. ur system could be by far the best on the market when its working perfectly without such annoying issues.

Even with it's issues sadly it is light year beyond anything else. I tried different ones, watched videos, and read reviews. RGB is kind of a hole in the industry and Corsair made a good decision to unify its tools and software. They also have a range of products that work well with RGB, the only exception is no motherboard. They are also well engaged with the community, which helps us advocate issues and solutions like the one I posted here, with the help of other people in the community. Not to mention helps us ask for features and enhancements. The CPU issue is going to be patched soon.

Issue:

iCue Prior to updating: 1-3% CPU Usage

 

iCue After Updating: ~28% CPU Usage on a 8600k @ 5Ghz

 

Reproducible: Yes

 

Awesome job on the troubleshooting, just updated to 3.3.103 yesterday but never realized the CPU usage in the new version. I was wondering why I was getting stuttering in Destiny 2 and I found that iCue was using 20% cpu constantly. My Void Pro Wireless, even though I had the brightness set all the way off I still had a lighting effect set, but as soon as I set it to "SELECT EFFECT" per your guide, CPU usage instantly dropped to less than 3%.

In my case my Void Pro Wireless SE turned out to be the culprit out of the 5 Corsair RGB products I have connected.

K65 LUX RGB

Scimitar Pro RGB

MM800 Polaris RGB

Void Pro Wireless SE

ST100 RGB Headset Stand

Awesome job on the troubleshooting, just updated to 3.3.103 yesterday but never realized the CPU usage in the new version. I was wondering why I was getting stuttering in Destiny 2 and I found that iCue was using 20% cpu constantly. My Void Pro Wireless, even though I had the brightness set all the way off I still had a lighting effect set, but as soon as I set it to "SELECT EFFECT" per your guide, CPU usage instantly dropped to less than 3%.

 

In my case my Void Pro Wireless SE turned out to be the culprit out of the 5 Corsair RGB products I have connected.

 

K65 LUX RGB

Scimitar Pro RGB

MM800 Polaris RGB

Void Pro Wireless SE

ST100 RGB Headset Stand

Thanks for the kind words! Others such as DevBiker contributed a fair amount as well. We also had a lot of people helping with testing.

Ever since I've upgraded to iCUE v3.3.103, my Corsair Dark Core RGB will NOT remember it's LED settings. I have it set to a solid color and when I start up my PC or wake it from sleep, it keeps coming up in the random rainbow mode. How do I fix this?

You might be better creating a separate post, this post is to help address the CPU issues. I do not own a Dark Core mouse, so others who own one might assist you better in the main forum.

none of the "fixes" helped me, I was getting 15%+ CPU usage all time no matter what I've reverted back to previous version and my total CPU usage across all corsair process is less than 1% now, this needs a fix

Someone mentioned in this thread that the CPU usage problems have been resolved. They Corsair will release something soon. They still have to do tests as they want to mitigate the introduction of other bugs.

none of the "fixes" helped me, I was getting 15%+ CPU usage all time no matter what I've reverted back to previous version and my total CPU usage across all corsair process is less than 1% now, this needs a fix

Since you've reverted, this doesn't much matter, but might help someone else until it's fixed. Minimizing iCue is the only reasonable option for me due to the fact I have an 115i v2 (among other things) and multiple profiles I hadn't backed up recently enough, however just minimizing did nothing. Going to the settings page of iCue, THEN minimizing drops my 15-18% cpu down to 4-6%.

Since you've reverted, this doesn't much matter, but might help someone else until it's fixed. Minimizing iCue is the only reasonable option for me due to the fact I have an 115i v2 (among other things) and multiple profiles I hadn't backed up recently enough, however just minimizing did nothing. Going to the settings page of iCue, THEN minimizing drops my 15-18% cpu down to 4-6%.

That is interesting, I will have to give this a test.

Since you've reverted, this doesn't much matter, but might help someone else until it's fixed. Minimizing iCue is the only reasonable option for me due to the fact I have an 115i v2 (among other things) and multiple profiles I hadn't backed up recently enough, however just minimizing did nothing. Going to the settings page of iCue, THEN minimizing drops my 15-18% cpu down to 4-6%.

Tried this with my Dark Core and it didn't helped. Minimizing drop cpu load from 17% to 12-13% without any difference whathever settings opened or not.

Same high load here. See attachment.

After reading above, and minimized CUE also and it went from 100% of 1 core to like 55%.

So far it seems doesnt matter which tab you are. Home, settings, dashboard. When you minimize it, without letting it going to tray, it cuts the 100% half down.

And if you quit it (putting into tray) instead minimizing, Boom 100% again...

Would be an pain in the *** for weaker CPU's.

Edit: After some more testing, removing lighting effects on my Corsair Vegance RGB totally removes the 100% load. Vegance RGB lighting effects is on my side the culprit.

No fix from Corsair yet? Enough time is passed to fix this issue.

Really? The team has mostly been in Taipei up until Monday. Today is Thursday. The process is to identify as many issues as possible, write fixes for them, internally test said fixes, rewrite fixes when and where needed, and address any new issues created by changes made to address old issues.

And, you think 3 1/2 business days is "enough" time? How about making sure you're not still asleep and dreaming when you decide to post how someone else is doing their jobs.

BTW, if you look up many of my posts on these forums, I am very critical of Corsair, but only where it is realistic. I am definitely not a Corsair fanboi. If anything, I am considering replacing all of my Corsair equipment with other brands.

Really? The team has mostly been in Taipei up until Monday. Today is Thursday. The process is to identify as many issues as possible, write fixes for them, internally test said fixes, rewrite fixes when and where needed, and address any new issues created by changes made to address old issues.

 

And, you think 3 1/2 business days is "enough" time? How about making sure you're not still asleep and dreaming when you decide to post how someone else is doing their jobs.

 

BTW, if you look up many of my posts on these forums, I am very critical of Corsair, but only where it is realistic. I am definitely not a Corsair fanboi. If anything, I am considering replacing all of my Corsair equipment with other brands.

To be fair, they apparently didn't test this patch very much when they released it. The amount of devices that trigger this issue is kinda sad...and not just old devices, fairly new ones like my H115i can set it off. And this was the first patch of their live, non 'early access' release.

To be fair, they apparently didn't test this patch very much when they released it. The amount of devices that trigger this issue is kinda sad...and not just old devices, fairly new ones like my H115i can set it off. And this was the first patch of their live, non 'early access' release.

Well, I personally think people have been looking at it backward. Everyone is looking at the device definition XMLs. But, like you said too many devices are causing the issue to appear. So wouldn't it make more sense that the command processor that is reading the XML files is more likely at fault? Something "common" among the different device XMLs is tripping up the processor IMO.

Early on in the conversation, someone compared the XML files of the H115i cooler between this build and the previous build. They found that only 10-12 lines had any difference and changing any of those lines made no difference in the problem.

I honestly think they intended to as, if you look at the build release thread, it is still showing the previous build and not the most recent. This build only got into the wild through the "Check for Update" feature of iCue, not through site download I think.

I honestly downloaded it from the site itself, from googling iCue Download.

That said, Corsair Void Wireless, here, unplugging/SELECT EFFECT drops 20% usage to 3% or less.

Sadly, they knew what they were doing. The latest version was released just a couple of days before Computex. I believe the goal was to get some new functionality out quickly for the guys on the showroom floor. The mistake was releasing that build into the wild IMO. They should have just kept it internal. I honestly think they intended to as, if you look at the build release thread, it is still showing the previous build and not the most recent. This build only got into the wild through the "Check for Update" feature of iCue, not through site download I think.

 

If they would just post here explaining that fact to us, I think more of us would be more forgiving than we have been to date.

Yes, it might have saved a lot of complaints in the end but new RAM kits and headsets were being sold and shipped so it was necessary to have something rather than nothing.

To be fair, they apparently didn't test this patch very much when they released it. The amount of devices that trigger this issue is kinda sad...and not just old devices, fairly new ones like my H115i can set it off. And this was the first patch of their live, non 'early access' release.

We tested 3.3 before release and knew of the CPU issues. As for nonearly access marketing and the software team just weren't on the same page for this launch.

No fix from Corsair yet ? Enough time is pased to fix this issue.

A fix is being tested right now and barring any major issues it should be pushed out soon.

Not sure why you feel that the situation is a laughing matter. You stated, as a limited beta tester for Corsair, that Corsair knowingly released defective driver software. It isn't something I am making up. That fact alone should have EVERY Corsair user raging. What if a car maker sold you a car with a defective engine and the only thing they would tell you is "one day we will get it right, be patient"? That is an exact replication of what is going on here. We invest hundreds of dollars in products with the understanding that they will function as advertised. But the company decides to instead use its user base as guinea pigs for a project with little to no option to not participate. They don't tell you the "engine" is broke, or what using it will do to your system, but expect us to be placated by statements of "a fix is coming soon" and "early access, what did you expect". The early access is simply put a lie now. It was true at one point, but not any longer when iCue is the only "engine" available to users on the support pages.

 

Corsair can label the "engine" anything it wishes, but when you strip away the choice of which engine to use, you assume the liability regardless of what you call it.

Dude ... I don't know what country you live in but it's highly unlikely that you can do anything. Maybe you should talk to an attorney/barristor/counselor (someone that actually knows the law) before you start spouting off terms like "liability".

No one forced you to upgrade to iCue. If you were running CUE and Link before, you still can. If you didn't save the download of each previous version, that's on you.

The reality is that sometimes they have to make hard choices when releasing updates to the software. Sometimes it needs to be done even if it's not ideal. It's a fine balancing act ... and a difficult one.

Corsair typically does release a change log. They didn't for this release, which was quite unusual. My guess is that the folks responsible for that were swamped with Computex - which may not be the answer that you'd like but it's an honest one.

I'm on that beta team as well. We had some pretty hard (private) discussions about this. But they had to release it ... and I understand why they had to ... new product was being released for sale and wouldn't have any software support at all if it didn't get released. So there was a hard choice to make and they did what had to be done.

Dude ... I don't know what country you live in but it's highly unlikely that you can do anything. Maybe you should talk to an attorney/barristor/counselor (someone that actually knows the law) before you start spouting off terms like "liability".

 

No one forced you to upgrade to iCue. If you were running CUE and Link before, you still can. If you didn't save the download of each previous version, that's on you.

 

The reality is that sometimes they have to make hard choices when releasing updates to the software. Sometimes it needs to be done even if it's not ideal. It's a fine balancing act ... and a difficult one.

 

Corsair typically does release a change log. They didn't for this release, which was quite unusual. My guess is that the folks responsible for that were swamped with Computex - which may not be the answer that you'd like but it's an honest one.

 

I'm on that beta team as well. We had some pretty hard (private) discussions about this. But they had to release it ... and I understand why they had to ... new product was being released for sale and wouldn't have any software support at all if it didn't get released. So there was a hard choice to make and they did what had to be done.

That is not the way to approach your customer if the product was not ready then ... dont release it.

I am very disappointed after spending about 1000 dollars on my high end ram, case, psu, fans and pherifirals that you guys did this. Is unacceptable on you corsair I'm a loyal customer and a fanboy but you dont talk customer like that. Your products aren't cheap and we demand only what we paid for if you have the old beta I cue exe or just the profile for the h100i v2 please upload it somewhere even on megaupload.

Please fix this I love your brand and products but dont adress to your customers like that is not shame on us . Is shame on you for forcing an update.