The vast majority of gaming peripherals have their own management software, with the main brands already using unified software that allows control and monitoring of all the brand’s devices. These Apps for gaming peripherals give us greater control over the devices, but do they have an impact on PC performance? How much CPU and RAM do they consume? Let’s see it.
Imagine the situation: a gamer has a Razer headset, a Corsair keyboard and a SteelSeries mouse, so if you want maximum control over all three peripherals you will need to have Razer Synapse, Corsair iCUE and SteelSeries Engine installed at the same time, each one consuming both processor and memory resources of the computer. Will this have an impact on team performance?
How much do gaming peripheral Apps consume?
Certainly, the Apps for gaming peripherals are quite necessary to configure our peripherals, at least initially since in many cases these peripherals have internal memory, so it is always possible to configure them, save the configuration in them and then uninstall the manufacturer’s software. In any case, we are going to see what impact on performance the main applications for gaming peripherals can have.
Corsair iCUE
It is probably the most complete of all, since it not only serves to manage the brand’s gaming peripherals, but also all its compatible hardware, which is currently almost everything. In addition, it incorporates a powerful monitoring tool, something that is highly appreciated by hardware fans.
The resource consumption of iCUE increases the more devices it has to handle at the same time, and especially if the software control of the RAM memory lighting is activated. In extreme cases we have seen a consumption of 350 MB of RAM memory and up to 15% of CPU consumption (with a Core i7-8700K), that having all the monitoring activated and technologies such as the video mode for the LED bars of the monitor.
Razer Synapse
It is undoubtedly another of the most widely used Apps for gaming peripherals, since Razer is one of the top-selling manufacturers worldwide. Synapse will allow us not only to control the lighting of the peripherals, but also to manage macros, assignments and a long etcetera. However, unlike the previous one, there is no Razer hardware beyond peripherals to manage and it does not incorporate monitoring tools.
In the worst case, this App for gaming peripherals, which has several active threads when it is running (Synapse Service, Synapse 3, GameManagerService and Razer Central), consumes a total of about 300 MB of RAM memory, but in terms of consumption of We have never seen CPU exceed 2% and that with THX sound effects enabled even.
SteelSeries Engine
As with the Razer software, the SteelSeries Engine allows you to configure and control all the brand’s peripherals, but only these since it does not have its own hardware beyond that.
In this case, as a general rule, the App does not usually exceed 200 MB of RAM and we have never really seen it exceed 2% of CPU consumption under any circumstances.
Roccat SWARM
Like the previous two, Roccat software allows us to control and configure only the brand’s peripherals and nothing else.
In the worst case, which is with SWARM Connect running, this application consumed 400 MB of RAM and around 5% of CPU.
Are gaming peripherals Apps worth keeping?
From what we have seen in our experience, they do not have too high an impact on the overall performance of the computer, perhaps Corsair iCUE does when we are running some CPU intensive application because it is what consumes the most. Leaving that aside, assuming that we have at the beginning of having 3-4 applications installed, we will be “losing” around 1 GB of RAM, which for a gaming PC (if you have a whole range of gaming peripherals, we understand that you have a gaming PC, right?) is not that much, since the standard today is 16 GB.
Now, if you have a PC that has a fair bit of processor and RAM, then maybe you should do what we mentioned at the beginning: take advantage of the internal memory of the peripherals to install the software, leave them configured and then uninstall it. Keep in mind, however, that if you do this you will have to reinstall the software every time you want to make any changes, although the alternative is to leave it installed and simply make it not boot up when you turn on the PC.