[SOLVED] Can someone please explain RGB to me

[ackoman]

Hello

I read somewhere that RGB headers allow you to only have one single colour at a time, whereas ARGB is what you need for multiple.




But - my Wraith Prism cooler connects to a RGB header on my motherboard and that lights up like a Christmas Tree.

How is this possible if it's ARGB that is required for multiple colours?

Thanks,


Ackoman

 

[Lutfij]

You can read through this;
https://www.msi.com/blog/top-5-accessories-for-rgb-gaming-pc-build-guide
and this;

What is aRGB vs RGB?

boardgamestips.com

and this;
View: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/f4seed/what_is_the_difference_between_rgb_and_argb/

 

[ackoman]

Hi

Thanks for this. Although I'm afraid I'm still none the wiser - those posts reiterate what I had previously read, that is ARGB allows multiple colours and RGB only allows one. So I am still confused as to how my cooler gives multiple colours despite being plugged into a RGB header.

 

[Eximo]

Addressable RGB allows for bit wise control of the output of the 3 LED colors (or 4 if White is also a channel), for EACH LED. This allows things like waves, chasing, and other effects.

Standard RGB headers on motherboards ARE addressable, just that the whole connected string of LEDs will all change color at once. So you can make a purple or mint green, but all the LEDs will be that color.

There are also simple circuits that can be built to cycle through colors and patterns with out being addressable or changed through software, often these are a module controlled by a remote or switch.

 

[kerberos_20]

if you know how electricity works, you can make rainbow strip from any rgb strip, you just have to rewire each led (to swap colors)

 

[ackoman]

Addressable RGB allows for bit wise control of the output of the 3 LED colors (or 4 if White is also a channel), for EACH LED. This allows things like waves, chasing, and other effects.

Standard RGB headers on motherboards ARE addressable, just that the whole connected string of LEDs will all change color at once. So you can make a purple or mint green, but all the LEDs will be that color.

There are also simple circuits that can be built to cycle through colors and patterns with out being addressable or changed through software, often these are a module controlled by a remote or switch.

So is the implication that the cooler must incorporate one of these simple circuits?

 

[Eximo]

No, I imagine it is the motherboard doing that. It is just running a default pattern. Check your motherboard for RGB software, it should offer you control of the RGB.

What may be called an RGB header may be an ARGB header.

It would be nice if they could all standardize, but they are all trying to carve out markets for some reason.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Hello

I read somewhere that RGB headers allow you to only have one single colour at a time, whereas ARGB is what you need for multiple.

But - my Wraith Prism cooler connects to a RGB header on my motherboard and that lights up like a Christmas Tree.

How is this possible if it's ARGB that is required for multiple colours?

A typical RGB strip has four connections: Power for each of the there colors and ground. What they mean by "single color at a time" is the power lines affect all of the LED elements associated with that color. So if you change the red power, it changes all of the red LEDs. You can't individually control the RGB triplets.

For ARGB, there's three connections: Power, data, and ground. Each RGB triplet has a tiny CPU inside that receives the data, decodes it, and sets the color appropriately. The data sent to the strip includes basically which RGB triplet should respond to it.

Both of them use a 4-pin header, but ARGB typically has one of the pins in the middle missing to act as a key. The other problem is that RGB is typically 12V while ARGB is 5V. So you don't want to plug in an ARGB strip into an RGB one.

The Wraith Prism cooler appears to use an RGB header and a USB based one if you want more advanced control. However, it may be using the RGB header simply to power the LEDs, having some default effect going when the USB header isn't being used.

 

[Nighthawk117]

The more RGB the faster the PC, it's pretty simple.

 

[Paperdoc]

The LIGHTS part of the Wraith Prism cooler unit was designed for flexibility. To start with, your understanding is correct. the plain RGB system (uses a 4-pin connector and a 12 VDC power line) can do a huge range of colours, but at any one moment ALL of the lights will be the same colour. The more complex ARGB system uses a 3-pin connector (looks like 4 were there, but one removed) with a 5 VDC power line. Its lighting nodes all are controlled separately, so at any moment there can be MANY different colours along the strip of lights. Because the latter system has more flexibility in what it can display, it is possible to make it do the much simpler displays that a plain RGB system can do.

The Wraith Prism cooler system actually has the more complex ARGB lighting system in it, BUT it has two different input systems to allow you to use either type, depending on what your mobo has available. For this it comes with three cables and sockets. ONE cable just connects to a PSU output for power. One cable and socket are for the 4-pin plain RGB lighting system. IF you plug that into your mobo' plain RGB header, the Wraith system accepts those signals (generated by the software utility supplied by the mobo maker) and arranges to have it lights do those patterns, but not any more. Alternatively, you can NOT plug that cable in, and instead plug in a different cable with 3 wires that goes to a mobo USB2 header. Then you must download and run a software utility supplied by AMD or their partner, Cooler Master. That utility is used for control of the Wraith lights via the USB communcation port. Its instructions are used by the actual ARGB Controller inside the Wraith unit to display all the complex patterns a real ARGB system can do.

The intention is that you will connect only ONE of those systems - EITHER the 4-pin plain RGB controlled by a mobo software utility, OR the ARGB system controlled by other software that communicates its instructions via USB2. From your description, it appears that you have plugged in BOTH of those cables and are running the AMD software tool so that it displays the complex ARGB lighting patterns. But you should NOT have that other 4-pin cable connected from the Wraith unit to a mobo plain RGB (4-pin) header.

 

[ackoman]

The LIGHTS part of the Wraith Prism cooler unit was designed for flexibility. To start with, your understanding is correct. the plain RGB system (uses a 4-pin connector and a 12 VDC power line) can do a huge range of colours, but at any one moment ALL of the lights will be the same colour. The more complex ARGB system uses a 3-pin connector (looks like 4 were there, but one removed) with a 5 VDC power line. Its lighting nodes all are controlled separately, so at any moment there can be MANY different colours along the strip of lights. Because the latter system has more flexibility in what it can display, it is possible to make it do the much simpler displays that a plain RGB system can do.

The Wraith Prism cooler system actually has the more complex ARGB lighting system in it, BUT it has two different input systems to allow you to use either type, depending on what your mobo has available. For this it comes with three cables and sockets. ONE cable just connects to a PSU output for power. One cable and socket are for the 4-pin plain RGB lighting system. IF you plug that into your mobo' plain RGB header, the Wraith system accepts those signals (generated by the software utility supplied by the mobo maker) and arranges to have it lights do those patterns, but not any more. Alternatively, you can NOT plug that cable in, and instead plug in a different cable with 3 wires that goes to a mobo USB2 header. Then you must download and run a software utility supplied by AMD or their partner, Cooler Master. That utility is used for control of the Wraith lights via the USB communcation port. Its instructions are used by the actual ARGB Controller inside the Wraith unit to display all the complex patterns a real ARGB system can do.

The intention is that you will connect only ONE of those systems - EITHER the 4-pin plain RGB controlled by a mobo software utility, OR the ARGB system controlled by other software that communicates its instructions via USB2. From your description, it appears that you have plugged in BOTH of those cables and are running the AMD software tool so that it displays the complex ARGB lighting patterns. But you should NOT have that other 4-pin cable connected from the Wraith unit to a mobo plain RGB (4-pin) header.

Thanks so much - you're absolutely right, I had the USB cable plugged in - doh!

 

[Paperdoc]

Thanks for update.