Gaming Peripheral Apps, Ranked From Worst to Worst

[RodroX]

So, might be more to it as Colif was just asking me elsewhere. This was my reply.

That's weird, because almost every board since Z390 I've looked at lately have all listed ONLY Armoury crate under their driver downloads but now it looks like only SOME of them are this way. Also looks different depending on WHICH ASUS website, US, Global, AUS, etc. you visit maybe are all different.

Like this one:

ASUS TUF Gaming Motherboards｜Motherboards｜ASUS USA

ASUS TUF Gaming motherboards distill essential elements of the latest Intel® platform and combine them with game-ready features and proven durability. Engineered with military-grade components, an upgraded power solution and a comprehensive set of cooling options, each ASUS TUF Gaming...

www.asus.com

Which I discovered based on this thread and then started looking into it and basically everything I looked at was the same but now some ASUS motherboard product pages look different than others so I am wondering if this is only being implemented now, or rolled back due to backlash, or is simply a board by board model basis. IDK for sure but I do know that five different boards I looked at the other day were all like this and the only reason I looked was because of this thread.

Question - Asus Armoury Crate Tool (drivers section) not appearing

I have been having a bug in my system that causes BOS, the error code was 0x00000133 . I got in touch with Microsoft and they said to update or reinstall chipset and motherboard drivers. However, the drivers section is not showing on my software, does anyone know how to get it?

forums.tomshardware.com

And there are plenty of forum threads out there that directly address this exact thing. But looking more closely it seems that only SOME boards are REQUIRING Armoury crate or at least don't offer downloads on their product page without it. So I guess that isn't AS bad, but it's still pretty lame.

Also the fact that they are injecting what amounts to a rootkit into the OS install if you don't disable it in the BIOS, should be a civil lawsuit liability.

I have build like... a lot of Intel and AMD PCs the last years with Asus mobos, and I always download drivers from Global site and from Intel, AMD, etc. (I live in Argentina). I have never need it to install that piece of crap (Amoury... ). But as you wrote it could be very well something that chnage from "location" to "location".

As for the article, most Gaming apps are crap. A week or so ago, G-HUB told me there was an update, it was a long time since the last time I did one. After the new update was installed my Logitech G29 wheel was bsaically broken. No matter what I did on ETS2, ATS, Snowrunner (and other games) the wheel felt like I was trying to turn a planet.
I was able to mitigate the issue by disabling an option (which turn Off the re-centering, not great but better than the "new" default). Two days later I found reinstalling G-HUB fixed the issue.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Seems all of these companies have been taking a page out of NZXT's playbook. I'd be interested in seeing just how much these "apps" are actually phoning home and exactly what data they are really mining, because they certainly aren't doing this just because they want to make anything simpler for the user. CAM was the virus app that first went down that rabbit hole.

 

[Sarah Jacobsson Purewal]

Yessss. Logitech webcam software was always the easiest to operate. I kept coming back to it for years

yesssss...glad to see i'm not the only one who loves logitech webcam software i don't understand why logitech can't just give me those sliders back

 

[gg83]

I really like razer products and design. The software is absolutely ridiculous. I have to use it if I want razer stuff though.

 

[Colif]

You'll note that Sarah says, "I can spare the 3.54GB

i wonder why its so large on hers as I have it installed and its only 1.18gb, not 3.5gb.

 

[JarredWaltonGPU]

i wonder why its so large on hers as I have it installed and its only 1.18gb, not 3.5gb.

Read the article. There’s another 2GB or more in ProgramData.

 

[Colif]

okay, I see what you mean.

the biggest folder in the Icue install is all color schemes for various games.
So blame it being able to change colors based on what game you are playing for using 2.4gb in Programdata.
I don't know what would happen if you deleted any of them from the gamesdkeffects folder, If you changed Icue settings to not use sdk it might not break it too much.

 

[alceryes]

There are other reasons as well, but the chances of me ever buying any ASUS motherboards in the future were obliterated by the nail in the coffin of ASUS requiring Armoury crate in order to install ANY drivers on any system running newer ASUS boards...

Wai...what?! They now REQUIRE that pile-of-dung software, to install ANY motherboard drivers...?


[alceryes marks ASUS off the list of potential motherboard mfgs. for the new build this fall]

 

[Colif]

Wai...what?! They now REQUIRE that pile-of-dung software, to install ANY motherboard drivers...?


[alceryes marks ASUS off the list of potential motherboard mfgs. for the new build this fall]

No, that was a misunderstanding.

Asus updated Armory Crate (AC) for all of its hardware, and may have added a Win 11 section at same time. Boards that only had win 10 drivers before that only have AC in the Win 11 section now.
They didn't put win 10 drivers into the win 11 section so it can appear the only way to get drivers is to download it, but thats not right.
It would be just as misleading for Asus to put win 10 drivers in a Win 11 area.
The only right answer is a note saying to use win 10 drivers if there isn't one in category for win 11.

 

[alceryes]

No, that was a misunderstanding.

Asus updated Armory Crate (AC) for all of its hardware, and may have added a Win 11 section at same time. Boards that only had win 10 drivers before that only have AC in the Win 11 section now.
They didn't put win 10 drivers into the win 11 section so it can appear the only way to get drivers is to download it, but thats not right.
It would be just as misleading for Asus to put win 10 drivers in a Win 11 area.
The only right answer is a note saying to use win 10 drivers if there isn't one in category for win 11.

Ahhh, okay.

 

[Darkbreeze]

But it doesn't change the fact that they are TRYING to mislead people into BELIEVING they have to use it to get their drivers. I've never seen any motherboard product page not list the same drivers under multiple OS versions IF the same drivers are used for both, in the past, regardless of generation or manufacturer. So this is an intentional tactic by ASUS as far as I'm concerned.

Normally they will either list one driver and put it under something like Windows 10/11, or simply use the same driver but list it under both OS versions with a different name or verifier. This is much like ASUS thinking they have to be different and swapping the locations of the A2 and B2 memory slots as compared to EVERY other manufacturer.

And keeping them crossed off the list isn't a bad idea either if you had any idea the number of people, including myself and a couple of other mods and ambassadors who've had tremendously bad experiences over the last couple of years, some of us multiple times, trying to get ASUS to honor their warranty policies via RMA. Not to mention some regular members as well. Their customer service is garbage now and when a company starts refusing to replace a board that's under warranty because they don't consider the BIOS ROM a warrantable failure, or send you a replacement with a busted I/O shield/heatsink, or things along those lines and it becomes a pattern, it's time to cross them off the list.

 

[nbcbubba]

Great article, Sarah. I agree on all counts and appreciate your focus on this (admittedly first world) problem.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Case in point. Just in case there were any doubts. LOL.

https://forums.tomshardware.com/thr...ssd-randomly-disappears.3777536/post-22815645