ASUS Crossblade Ranger (FM2+) Motherboard Review

Software Overview

AI Suite III

Any recent ASUS motherboard comes with support for the AI Suite III package: it doesn’t have much going on for gamers but it is nice to know it is there. Of note is the fact you can do overclocking from within Windows using this.

KeyBot

The KeyBot software is probably the most exciting: it allows you to create fully customised macro key options and program them to a hardware level controller. A pretty impressive option given keyboards with customisable macros start at a fairly steep premium.

ROG RAMDisk

The ROG RAMDisk application is probably a little defunct on this platform. Given the high cost of memory it’s unlikely an FM2+ user will have more than 8-16GB which doesn’t give you much scope to store any games. If you have 16GB of RAM you can probably use half of it as a RAMDisk, there are a few games out there under 8GB in size.

Sonic Radar II

If I remember correctly the ASUS Sonic Radar II software is actually prohibited by a lot of anti-cheat systems. The software calculates the distance between your in game position and sounds that occur to give you some idea of where enemies might be based on foot step noises and such.

SupremeFX Audio

In the Realtek HD Audio control panel ASUS have their SupremeFX SoundStage and Sonic Studio audio settings. SoundStage can also be done with the hardware button.

GameFirst III

The final software on the list is the GameFirst III package which was developed in-house by ASUS. This software allows you to create priority mode profiles for different applications, when you’re gaming you can give high priority to certain games and applications like Steam and when you’re watching movies you can prioritise your internet browser or media playing application. Switching between those profiles can be done with a simple click.