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iCUE ARGB and Third Party DRAM Lighting Support


Corsair James

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  • Corsair Employee

Hi everyone,

 

I am noticing a number of posts asking about ARGB support on ASUS motherboards. The current implementation is strictly to support the lighting on a compatible ASUS motherboard only, and by extension, the RGB header since it is treated as a single zone. The design and intent was always to include the motherboard into our ecosystem with other Corsair products so we can address the demand of everything in the system lighting simultaneously in the same color. I am happy to see the overall positive feedback from this feature, and we are continuing our work to see how we can extend this feature to other products.

 

However, there will be certain limitations to what we will do. First, we have no plans to support ARGB headers. While many third party products are compatible with ARGB, we first and foremost are in the interest of only allowing iCUE to control Corsair products. ARGB also brings another layer of complexity to iCUE as we would have to take into consideration how to display the sheer number of LED configurations possible into our UI, and this is something we have no plans to accomodate at this time.

 

Second, I see some of you are asking about support for non-Corsair DRAM. This is also something we have no plans to do. We are always open to new partnerships though and if these businesses would like to approach us about implementing their products into iCUE, we would definitely explore possibilities. But unless they do so of their own initiative, we don't plan on having an open ecosystem. As this is a partnership with ASUS, users who want to maintain their lighting with Aura Sync compatible products should continue to use Aura Sync or Armoury Crate. iCUE is not meant to be a replacement software for them and we want to respect their ecosystem just like they respect ours.

 

I hope this addresses some of the concerns and questions I am seeing in this forum.

 

Thanks,

James

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Hi everyone,

 

I am noticing a number of posts asking about ARGB support on ASUS motherboards. The current implementation is strictly to support the lighting on a compatible ASUS motherboard only, and by extension, the RGB header since it is treated as a single zone. The design and intent was always to include the motherboard into our ecosystem with other Corsair products so we can address the demand of everything in the system lighting simultaneously in the same color. I am happy to see the overall positive feedback from this feature, and we are continuing our work to see how we can extend this feature to other products.

 

However, there will be certain limitations to what we will do. First, we have no plans to support ARGB headers. While many third party products are compatible with ARGB, we first and foremost are in the interest of only allowing iCUE to control Corsair products. ARGB also brings another layer of complexity to iCUE as we would have to take into consideration how to display the sheer number of LED configurations possible into our UI, and this is something we have no plans to accomodate at this time.

 

Second, I see some of you are asking about support for non-Corsair DRAM. This is also something we have no plans to do. We are always open to new partnerships though and if these businesses would like to approach us about implementing their products into iCUE, we would definitely explore possibilities. But unless they do so of their own initiative, we don't plan on having an open ecosystem. As this is a partnership with ASUS, users who want to maintain their lighting with Aura Sync compatible products should continue to use Aura Sync or Armoury Crate. iCUE is not meant to be a replacement software for them and we want to respect their ecosystem just like they respect ours.

 

I hope this addresses some of the concerns and questions I am seeing in this forum.

 

Thanks,

James

 

 

No argb is a useless integration

Horrified to read this post

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No argb is a useless integration

Horrified to read this post

 

+1 zillion other users I'm sure, at least +1 for me. I JUST built a system thinking this would be a useful "integration" finally but newp! lol

 

Asus software already allows you to define everything you need to know such as the number of added argb "strips" and the number of LEDs for each. Two parameters to figure out the zones and the size of the zones?

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There is no technical reason for this decision by Corsair, it's purely a business decision. They even acknowledge that - for the most part - in their reply. They try to blunt it a bit by throwing out some technical complications, but that's nonsense, really. It's about wanting users to buy all Corsair for their RGB builds.

 

Could they license iCue out to others? Sure, but other businesses have the same motivation to keep you in their ecosystems and using their software, so all this is unlikely.

 

What I AM surprised about is that some enterprising individual or business hasn't come along and written their own application to allow all these to work together harmoniously and built a truly usable interface. I've seen some out there that work, but the UI leaves much to be desired for the average user.

 

For the record, I do not blame Corsair for this position at all. I don't like hearing it, but I can 100% understand their perspective and decision around this.

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Well. I DID buy Corsair for everything I could. Mouse, (about to go Corsair keyboard), RAM, QL Series fans with the controller...but here's the underlying problem, the only component that offers additional headers for things like anything (I have a custom cooling loop for example), is the motherboard. Hence the problem, if you're going to integrate with the motherboard then...why just legacy RGB? I spent the money, I am a supporting patron asking for better integration and since this is the integration page, I think that's a fair ask.

 

I really like Corsair's interface, to me it has the most promise and I commend their efforts. Maybe the answer to my particular problem is to just find adapter cables for my cooling loop components so they can plug into the corsair RGB hub. I will look for this.

Edited by kcolbe
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If we talk about business at glance seems reasonable but it’s and old way thinking and strategy. Think as Microsoft, for decades they accepted that milions of users were using their OS cracked and without getting money, but this was not true they were getting market share and dominating position that’s at the end money....

There are many ways to make business, including for example offering Aura integration as a plugin to pay.

They have a strong software but the wrong strategy to make it profitable, they could make something like MS in their much smaller industry.

Edited by Ssxgaming
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This is really disapointing - co-ordinate with asus for help if needed on sorting out the lighting situation, right now running both programs is a nightmare since you have no idea which one will take priority and control the lighting

 

at least figure it out properly before releasing a half assed implementation as 'final'

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For anyone interested standard 5v WS2813 LED strips are working well in my case. Custom cut at my required length, with joins between LEDs where I need them.

 

The stock corsair LEDs are not dense enough to get nice effects, in my opinion; the LEDs are too far apart.

 

I have approximately 55 LEDs on the strip I connected on a single lighting channel, and in iCue I have simple told it I have 6 LED strips on there, and I select teh required LEDs for the effects I want, and layer the effects, all works fine from that perspective.

 

The Corsair fans are nice, I use 4 of them on my other lighting channel of my Commander Pro, I use ML RGB fans in my case; they are some of the nicest fans I've ever had; as they are super quiet, and the RGB works well. I do wish that the LEDs were a little more diffused, though.

 

Having said that, I can't recommend Corsair products whatsoever, since the iCue dashboard stops updating very frequently, and leaves my H80i V2 cooler stuck at whatever speed it was when the dashboard updates stopped. All temperature controlled lighting also stops updating, too.

 

It's also important to note that 'not supporting' doesn't mean you can't and shouldn't do something, nor does it mean it won't work; it just means we can't go running to Corsair when it goes wrong.

Edited by hearnia_2k
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  • 3 weeks later...

However, there will be certain limitations to what we will do. First, we have no plans to support ARGB headers. While many third party products are compatible with ARGB, we first and foremost are in the interest of only allowing iCUE to control Corsair products. ARGB also brings another layer of complexity to iCUE as we would have to take into consideration how to display the sheer number of LED configurations possible into our UI, and this is something we have no plans to accomodate at this time.

 

In other words we only plan on a closed ecosystem where you'll need to buy into the Corsair only products for the full aRGB experience. That we've only allowed Asus compatibility seeing they are the largest motherboard vendor out there. Everyone else, so sad too bad, you want the full Corsair aRGB experience you'll have to spend hundreds on our closed loop system and still have that mismatched non Asus aRGB motherboard. Sorry.

 

This is why we need competition in the market. If it wasn't for AMD, we'd still be getting gouged by Intel's expensive 6 & 8-core processors.

 

Nothing wrong with making money, but when you cross the edge of greed, you run customers off. And yes, I've Corsair products, including an aRGB fan/lighting system to include the Commander Pro; but this attitude will have me rethinking my lighting needs.

 

I'm sure this post will get deleted but you can't delete the sentiments out there.

 

My two cents.

Edited by sygnus21
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  • 2 weeks later...

Well, if Corsair is not going to support ARGB then please for the love of God, stop having the iCue software interfere with ARGB products on my ASUS motherboard and my previous Asus RTX 2070 graphics card that was also Aura(See my Specs). My AIO is ARGB and it freezes every time iCue starts. And what the heck is disconnecting everytime iCue starts? I have reformated 3 times already and the same thing happens. To fix the ARGB issue I have to disable plugins within the iCue software (this defeats the Aura integration). My AIO is from CoolerMaster.

 

Also, if Corsair isn't going to support ARGB then bring back the Corsair plugin for Asus Aura. I'd rather control the Vengeance Memory with Aura than to have issues the other way around.

Edited by jesseinsf
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Well, if Corsair is not going to support ARGB then please for the love of God, stop having the iCue software interfere with ARGB products on my ASUS motherboard and my previous Asus RTX 2070 graphics card that was also Aura(See my Specs). My AIO is ARGB and it freezes every time iCue starts. And what the heck is disconnecting everytime iCue starts? I have reformated 3 times already and the same thing happens. To fix the ARGB issue I have to disable plugins within the iCue software (this defeats the Aura integration). My AIO is from CoolerMaster.

 

Also, if Corsair isn't going to support ARGB then bring back the Corsair plugin for Asus Aura. I'd rather control the Vengeance Memory with Aura than to have issues the other way around.

 

See, when the Corsair Plugin to control Asus Motherboards is active, it takes control over Aura. By doing this, iCue pulls to itself the Motherboard LEDS and the standard 12v RGB headers, but shuts down the ADD_LED (Addressable 5v RGB) ones - since it can't control them. That's why your AIO freezes, and that's why disable the iCue plugins fix the issue.

 

Plus, the Aura Plugin to control the Vengeance Pro RGB still exists. Go to the "Corsair iCue" category at https://www.corsair.com/ca/en/downloads and download it. Hope it helps!

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  • 1 month later...

I don’t want to be overly critical as I appreciate the transparency of the OP regarding aiming for a closed platform. I just would like to highlight the short-sightedness of the policy.

 

iCUE is a great piece of software, it comes close to the ideal of having all your RGB and fan/temp control in one place. However, the lack of support for A-RGB, which is now a de-facto standard, is erroneous in many ways.

Having all these controls in one place, no matter how great that place is, will always be second to selecting the best components for our builds. I happen to have a bunch of Corsair products (peripherals and fans), and a commander. However not all my RGB is Corsair (GPU, CPU, etc) which means I still have to keep Armoury crate running.

 

Motherboards are already adapting to A-RGB, and their software, which is not as good, sucks less and less. If it wasn’t for the lack of RGB headers on the motherboard (and the mediocre software), I would be able to run everything with Armoury Crate.

 

And, inevitably, if not competitors, open source software will get there. Some are already out. Eventually, if we are not there already, it will get to a point where iCue alternatives become useable. That’s the point where Corsair will have to chose to either double down and close/encrypt/sue for integrating their product and keep their eco-system proprietary, or just be forced to support A-RGB. It’s a losing battle. Code, and open source especially, always finds a way. And if you manage to lock everything and force your customers to chose, a significant portion will not chose what you hope.

 

And please, although this was only partially hinted at, don’t claim some “technical” barrier. There are little or none. A hacked cable is enough to support ARGB. You could easily produce one if not update the firmware. Not supporting A-RGB is a deliberate commercial choice. Again, it's worth repeating, I am grateful the OP was transparent about this.

 

Meanwhile, with this policy, you are telegraphing to everyone that you are not confident about your products. You don’t trust that we will buy your products on their merit alone and need to create (or enforce) loyalty through an artificially closed platform. Microsoft for example (not a competitor AFAIK, I read the rules 😉 ) tried that in the past and now they let you run SQL Server on Linux. They are telling us that they are so confident that Windows Server is better that they do not need to restrict their products to it.

 

Are you confident enough of your products? Do you internally believe you have the best fans, keyboards, blocks, cases, etc? That people will buy them regardless even if they are open to other ecosystems or easily interchangeable with competitors?

 

I find it a shame, because I genuinely like Corsair products and I find this restriction unnecessary and, frankly, damaging. Speaking for me personally, and I doubt I am alone, if a Corsair product is the “best”, it will have to be a lot better than than a more universally compatible second choice.

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  • 1 month later...

OK, I had just left a post asking about this before I saw your post.

 

It's unfortunate that there are no plans to add ARGB support for motherboards. Think about it. Someone planning a PC build, and wanting RGB. They find that Corsair will support the ARGB strips they plan on purchasing, so who's product do you think they will purchase?

 

This is exactly what just happened to me, except I never came across any information stating that ARGB is not supported, so now I'm sitting here with parts that won't work with each other.

 

Really, this is crazy. I think what should happen here is that Corsair should approach motherboard companies and offer them all the specs for their RAM and other products. Those companies could then build in support for those products in their motherboard software. I mean, at the very least the RAM should be able to be controlled by the motherboard if not external accessories. We need a standard, and it's about time all these companies got together and forged one.

 

Or maybe ASUS and other motherboard companies should start making their own RAM, so when we're putting a build together we can skip 3rd party RAM, and purchase RAM we know will work/sync with all the motherboard's features. Of course, this could mean 3rd party RAM manufacturers would start losing sales, but what are we consumers supposed to do? If this information had of been more prominent somehow, I might have purchased the 12V strips (even though ARGB is vastly superior).

 

You mention how difficult it is to manage more zones and how complex the software would get, but come on, there is a lot of way more complex software out there. Plus we are paying a premium for these products. My 760T is dying for RGB, but it's not going to sync now. I realize ARGB is new on motherboards, so not having compatibility yet is understandable, but to come out and say there is no plans for this compatibility is a pure body blow to the solar plexus.

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OK, I had just left a post asking about this before I saw your post.

 

It's unfortunate that there are no plans to add ARGB support for motherboards. Think about it. Someone planning a PC build, and wanting RGB. They find that Corsair will support the ARGB strips they plan on purchasing, so who's product do you think they will purchase?

You know that Corsair makes and sells strips too, right? Why would they support other vendors devices that directly compete with their own products? So, I think the answer would be ... if you want Corsair to support the strips that you buy ... buy Corsair strips!

This is exactly what just happened to me, except I never came across any information stating that ARGB is not supported, so now I'm sitting here with parts that won't work with each other.

Right. You didn't research. You made assumptions. Your assumptions were wrong. It happens. Lesson: don't make assumptions, do research. :-)

 

Really, this is crazy. I think what should happen here is that Corsair should approach motherboard companies and offer them all the specs for their RAM and other products. Those companies could then build in support for those products in their motherboard software. I mean, at the very least the RAM should be able to be controlled by the motherboard if not external accessories. We need a standard, and it's about time all these companies got together and forged one.

Did it occur to you that maybe they've tried? Asus finally took them up on it and that's why we can control Asus motherboard lighting from iCUE? Did it ever occur to you that maybe ... just maybe ... it's the motherboard manufacturers, with their super-lousy software, that don't want to play nice (Gigabyte ... I'm talking about you here ...)?

 

Or maybe ASUS and other motherboard companies should start making their own RAM, so when we're putting a build together we can skip 3rd party RAM, and purchase RAM we know will work/sync with all the motherboard's features. Of course, this could mean 3rd party RAM manufacturers would start losing sales, but what are we consumers supposed to do? If this information had of been more prominent somehow, I might have purchased the 12V strips (even though ARGB is vastly superior).

Not Asus but certainly Gigabyte makes RAM. And Asus makes keyboards, mice and power supplies too.

 

You mention how difficult it is to manage more zones and how complex the software would get, but come on, there is a lot of way more complex software out there. Plus we are paying a premium for these products. My 760T is dying for RGB, but it's not going to sync now. I realize ARGB is new on motherboards, so not having compatibility yet is understandable, but to come out and say there is no plans for this compatibility is a pure body blow to the solar plexus.

Research and dispensing of assumptions will help your solar plexus. The information is out there. It wasn't when I (and several others here) got started on this path 3 or so years ago. Now, when things didn't go the way that you assumed that they would, you managed to find this site. Imagine, if you will, how much grief you would have saved yourself if you had invested just a wee bit of energy up front and did research before you bought? I know ... mind blowing, isn't it? ;-)

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You know that Corsair makes and sells strips too, right? Why would they support other vendors devices that directly compete with their own products? So, I think the answer would be ... if you want Corsair to support the strips that you buy ... buy Corsair strips!

 

Right. You didn't research. You made assumptions. Your assumptions were wrong. It happens. Lesson: don't make assumptions, do research. :-)

 

 

Did it occur to you that maybe they've tried? Asus finally took them up on it and that's why we can control Asus motherboard lighting from iCUE? Did it ever occur to you that maybe ... just maybe ... it's the motherboard manufacturers, with their super-lousy software, that don't want to play nice (Gigabyte ... I'm talking about you here ...)?

 

 

Not Asus but certainly Gigabyte makes RAM. And Asus makes keyboards, mice and power supplies too.

 

 

Research and dispensing of assumptions will help your solar plexus. The information is out there. It wasn't when I (and several others here) got started on this path 3 or so years ago. Now, when things didn't go the way that you assumed that they would, you managed to find this site. Imagine, if you will, how much grief you would have saved yourself if you had invested just a wee bit of energy up front and did research before you bought? I know ... mind blowing, isn't it? ;-)

 

You're right, I should have avoided all third party RGB strips, done away with my 760 case and purchased a system completely from a single manufacturer where everything will work all together, and never purchase any third party.

 

Of course, hardly anyone does that, and nor should they need to. Other standards exist to get things to function together, and I don't see why PC RGB manufacturers should be any different. Besides, corsair does not have a product that competes with ARGB since they clearly post that they have no plans to support ARGB. Also, considering they support controlling motherboard RGB with their software, it's obvious they don't mind supporting other products if it's to their advantage.

 

Did it occur to me that they tried? Of course it did, but obviously they either didn't try, or they didn't try for everything. Take note of the OP. They say they don't want to do it because of how complex the software would be with so many zones, and nothing about motherboard manufacturers not wanting to cooperate.

 

I have a lot of Corsair fans in my system, but when they are to be replaced, I am going to replace them with something that will work with ARGB. Who's losing a sale now?

 

As for research, yeah I did, just like I always do. The RGB landscape is a quagmire in the PC world, and even after several days of checking around I did not see any information that said the Corsair software would not support ARGB, but only information stating it supported ASUS Aura motherboard RGB, until I found this post. That was after everything was already ordered and half of it here. I do believe I mentioned that, if this information had of been more prominent I could have avoided this.

 

I have been doing this for a long, long time, and this RGB issue reminds me of how computers parts and cases didn't quite all fit together in the early days, and how it took them so long to get everything sorted well enough that you could be confident of compatibility and fit. If I had of gone to the Corsair RGB RAM page, and it has specifically stated compatibility with ASUS Aura motherboard RGB and "4-pin RGB headers", that simple bit of information would have avoided the entire problem. Please don't tell me I didn't do my research just because, out of the entire Internet, I didn't find this OP in this thread of this forum. There is a lot of info out there, and it's impossible to find it all.

 

Corsair should take the lead here, and forge a standard. Get other companies on-board. Come up with some new products that will make the standard highly attractive (hey, like maybe ADDRESSABLE RGB???). I mean, really, they're Corsair. It wouldn't be the first time they took the lead.

 

Instead, here I sit, a sad panda, with sore solar plexus.:[pouts:

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Besides, corsair does not have a product that competes with ARGB since they clearly post that they have no plans to support ARGB. Also, considering they support controlling motherboard RGB with their software, it's obvious they don't mind supporting other products if it's to their advantage.

 

Did it occur to me that they tried? Of course it did, but obviously they either didn't try, or they didn't try for everything. Take note of the OP. They say they don't want to do it because of how complex the software would be with so many zones, and nothing about motherboard manufacturers not wanting to cooperate.

 

Well, the entire Corsair lighting ecosystem is ARGB.. just "disguised" with different connectors and software. Same LED protocol as everyone else. There's tutorials in the forum on how to adapt and connect 3rd party ARGB strips and fans and control them with iCue. It's highly DIY but it works.

 

That also means that Corsair and Asus are in direct competition in the ARGB side. And despite what PR may say, that it's difficult bla bla bla, you can bet your bottom dollar that Asus do not allow ARGB control through iCue because that would undermine their own business.

 

Now, both Asus Armoury crate and iCue are heavy, buggy bloatwares, so, chose your poison :D:

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You know other vendors support all rgb and have there rgb effects working on everything but not corsair you think i am gonna replace my fans with corsair fans to get same effect on everything oh yeah lets buy a lian li xl case with corsair lightning oh wait it does not exist........ oh boy, hate to break it to corsair but if i cant match rgb on my ram with rest of my lightning i am not gonna buy more corsair products i will just replace corsair products with something that i can match rgb effects with something that does work with asus rgb software.

 

Reading corsair decision and some of the current post really make it easy to avoid future corsair products really wish i bought gskill rgb ram now instead of corsair vengeance rgb pro.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Is the OP still relevant? Corsair still going for a closed ecosystem and arbitrarily cutting out mobo argb control?

 

If so that's a shame as that's like them stating "bah who needs usb 3.0 we will only support usb 2.0"...lol Dunno but maybe corsair needs to stop shouting "get off my lawn!" if they want more people to join their party!

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  • 1 month later...

If you insist on not supporting argb from third party you are bassicly forcing me to lock you out and not consider your RGB again

Right now i need new fans if i got corsair rgb fans i would still have a problem with one argb led strip that is build into my case that is not supported by your software in this case, it cannot be replaced it cannot be replaced, if i wanna control all my argb via one software my only option right now is asus armoury crate which im sure you known is a mess now the other alternative is open rgb which comes with some risks

 

Incase i get corsair rgb fans i can control those my mobo and my ram but not my case argb led strip that is build inside case

If i get aura sync fans i can control bassicly everything.

 

So your choice are you guys gonna be a dick about it or are you gonna open up more options for me so i can get corsair fans ?

 

A closed eco system leaves me with no options for corsair, its totally up to you, i would prefer corsair products if i where able to but im not given that option by the looks of it.

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A quick summary and translation for anyone uncovering this thread via web search, as I did:

 

Hi everyone,

While many third party products are compatible with ARGB, we first and foremost are in the interest of only allowing iCUE to control Corsair products.

 

We have so little confidence in the quality of our products that we won't allow them to compete against their peers in an open marketplace.

 

As such, you should not buy things from us.

 

ARGB also brings another layer of complexity to iCUE as we would have to take into consideration how to display the sheer number of LED configurations possible into our UI

 

We have so little technical expertise between us that we are unable to implement simple features/solutions that many other manufacturers/bedroom tinkerers have already somehow achieved.

 

As such, you should not buy things from us.

 

I hope this addresses some of the concerns and questions I am seeing in this forum.

 

The discussion is now over and we will not read any further feedback from our customers on this issue.

 

As such, you should not buy things from us.

Edited by SunsOfSagan
Typo
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