ARGB Vs RGB – What’s the Difference?

If you’re trying to figure out what’s the difference between ARGB Vs RGB – there’s no doubt it can look confusing at first.

As it pretty much looks the same, but there’s a subtle difference when comparing ARGB Vs RGB:

ARGB (Addressable Red, Blue and Greens) allows you to control each individual LED light as opposed to standard RGB which maintains the single colour. This allows you to be more creative with ARGB lights by syncing to game play, sounds and more.

So where you see an LED strip that RGB it will be all one color, whereas an ARGB LED strip could have multiple different colors within that strip itself.

Think of it like ARGB can achieve the look of a rainbow whereas standard RGB can only offer you one color within that rainbow. You can get really granular with it too – so if you want to change each individual color you can – of course the ARGB system can also do the job of the RGB and all stay one color as well.

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ARGB and RBG Side By Side Comparison

Here we can visualise the differences between ARGB and RGB with computer fans. Below we have Corsair ARGB fans.

Notice that they basically have the different colors as well as shades this is what ARGB can support and gives a really clean and colorful overall look to your set.

Corsair are considered one of the leaders when it comes to general RGB and computer performance – it is all controlled via their Corsair iCue software – if you’re venturing down the RGB route that’s personally the one I have taken and would advise anyone new to take that too.

On the other hand here we have RGBB fans, you can see they are all the same color (granted they might have the ability to be ARGB) but what it shows is what an RGB set up would look like. Essentially, the LEDs on the fans are all one color and can be changed individually like the above.

You might be able to change each individual fan color with software but you can’t change the individual fan itself to showcase multiple colors like in the example that we can see above.

I recommend going down a bit of a rabbit hole and checking out a series of ARGB demos to show you what’s possible with ARGB and how users have modified to create some stunning displays:

Is ARGB Better than RGB?

Essentially yes.

It’s the ‘A’ ‘Addressable’ factor that makes it better as you can control each and every individual LED light that is featured within the lighting set up.

That doesn’t sound super great win the surface but it allows you to do some pretty funky things in terms of lighting effects and so on:

Fading
Blending
Color Wheels

And so on, you will see a lot of the different types of effects you can make in the demos as well as the accompanying software for the lighting.

It makes for a more immersive gaming experience especially when you sync it up to the game itself to give you visual feedback.

Corsair recently have done this with one of the latest FarCry games:

t pretty much gives you feedback on the game itself – whether that ‘actually’ gives you an edge – I’m not sure on that one. However, definitely makes the game more enjoyable.

Does ARGB Impact Computer Performance More Than RGB?

Generally speaking no, they gain their power source independently from a module controller that they need to fire up the certain LEDs

The only aspect that might be impacting is the software that’s tied into the gaming lighting set up – even than though it will be not that impactful.

You can measure the change in difference by monitoring the overall level of computer usage and see if there’s a significant increase when you switch on the ARGB – then play a game – and then turn it on – and play the same game.

Do you firstly actually notice any difference in the game play and you might see a slight increase in the overall usage but it will likely be very marginal.

What Accessories Offer ARGB?

I think it would be easier to identify the gaming accessories that don’t offer it to be honest. Essentially, all the usual types of gaming accessories tend to offer ARGB these days as the overall lighting has advanced a lot:

Gaming Accessories: Mouse, Keyboard and Headsets.
Furniture: Desks, Chairs and Mouse Pads.
Lighting: Lighting set towers and strips.
Gaming Rig: Fans and Accent Panels

These can all be synced into one system that gives you instant feedback and all work together to create a full on gaming experience.

The only questions is – can you have too much RGB? And if that’s the case – silly questions do indeed exist.

What Costs More?

There actually isn’t that much variance in costs – from an objective view – you would expect the ARGB to start costing more because it is more advanced.

However, they are actually about on price parity – and what I have seen is that ARGB has just become more of the industry standard rather than there being a comparison of one versus the other.

I think in very rare circumstances would you get a case of a ARGB version of an accessory being vastly more expensive than the RGB equivalent purely due to the lighting factor.

Chances are that it will be some other aspect that is causing the price difference. On the whole though, the difference in price when it comes to ARGB and RGB is pretty much minimal.

Eventually, I see a case where all you can get is ARGB rather than RGB due to the advanced nature of being able to get more out of it.

Should You Get ARGB Vs RGB?

Personally, I think this question is a bit of a no-brainer.

If you like RGB to begin with (not everyone does) chances are you’re going to love the options that ARGB offers you to light up your gaming desk and overall room.

However, if you like just one color setting always – and only change it to straight up colors then just RGB might be the way to go – as they are generally less expensive as well versus the ARGB equivalent.

However, I think you’ve got to go ARGB if you’re into ARGB – it will just offer you way more options to do exactly what you want with the game and the fact you’re now starting to be able to sync into the gaming experience itself as we saw with the above example – it starts to make a lot more sense.