Software: iCUE

The software driver for the CORSAIR K95 RGB Platinum XT keyboard is called iCUE and can be downloaded from their downloads page. The latest public version at the time of testing was 3.24.41, and the installer is 367 MB in size. Installation is fairly straightforward, as seen above, although your mileage may vary on whether you need to actually do a system reboot (recommended) or not to get it operational. The final package takes up approximately 628 MB even though it asks for a whopping ~990 MB for itself, all numbers which are higher from when I last checked out iCUE, which in turn was also higher than previously. When you do open the program, it is best to have the keyboard connected, although you can still play around and get familiar with the program without any hardware connected.


Opening it for the first time with the keyboard connected, we see a homepage similar to the iCUE from the previous review, but it has been polished further, and even more devices are now supported, which is why the overall package is heavier on your storage drive. When not in full-screen mode, some of the menu options under the Community tab are in the lower-right corner instead. Clicking on a device thumbnail takes you to the device-specific controls, which is as before. iCUE is not the lightest driver I have used in terms of system resources, but given the extent of control and support involved, it still feels justified. The keyboard was recognized immediately in the driver, and there were no firmware updates available at the time.

The dashboard tab allows one to customize previews for devices, which is useful for a quick look at your system's current status. Instant lighting allows for unified lighting across all connected devices, and then we get to the global settings tab that is laid out better than before, especially on a high DPI display. Given this is a review of the keyboard and not the driver, we will focus on the settings available for the K95 RGB Platinum XT, which include the polling rate, LED brightness, and language layout to match your actual version, in addition to the ability to check for and update the firmware if an update is available. Instant Lighting is at the top, allowing for all compatible, connected devices to be on the same color of your choosing in one go.

One thing the K95 RGB Platinum XT has over less expensive keyboards from CORSAIR is the inclusion of hardware playback, meaning that up to five profiles can be saved on to the device for the profile switch button we saw before. There are some limitations to this given iCUE allows layers of programming to exist simultaneously, so more complex profiles will still be software-based and need the driver to be running. For most people, however, being able to save onboard key assignment and a lighting effect is plenty enough, which also means you can also take the keyboard over to another PC without needing the driver. There is one limitation here, however, as we no longer have the profile import function built-in as of this driver version. CORSAIR says they are working on it, and this remains a work in progress even though it was present before. The Performance tab is very self-explanatory and also has a small set of options, so I added it here for a common discussion.

Actions is the first device-specific menu for customizing the functionality of the keyboard past its global settings, and note the useful pop-ups for most menu items to tell you what each item does. By default, the keyboard does what the keycap legends denote, but do not let that stop you. As the video illustrates, you can record a macro, edit it completely, and assign it to a key; make a key stroke input a pre-configured text, re-assign keys in case QWERTY is not your cup of tea, etc. All these software controls make this a fully programmable keyboard within the limits of what is allowed for the device, and changing the language in the settings page opens up more options, too.

As before, we have everything lighting bundled together in an organized three-column approach under the lighting tab. The driver shows a preview of the active lighting scheme, which can include a single layer or multiples as one. The options here are rich, going from preset static and dynamic effects to custom versions taking full advantage of the 16.8 M RGB per-key backlighting and the light bar up top with more zones to individually control. As it stands, this is one of the better user experiences to be had, and iCUE—at least in the current version and pertaining to this keyboard—is easier to use than most of the competition despite being one of the most powerful in terms of customization options. Also, it is a unified driver for the CORSAIR ecosystem, which is mostly why it takes up so much room on your storage drive.