Host controllers and other drivers

[Mad_Scientist56]

I deleted AI Suite III from my system. The Asus software was using resources that I didnt deem necessary. (such as the Aura package sending and receving network data for 0 reason)


That leads me to a couple of questions. is it a requirement to use the AsMedia USB 3.0 and 3,1 host controllers? I am not familiar with how these work, but isnt there already an intel driver availible? (or is it not intel chipset)
again, not really sure how these work.


The main reason I ask is because i would like to use Intels driver update utitility, and not the the Asus EZ Updater (which requires AI Suite)

[Korth]

Software like AI Suite and DIP5 and GPU Tweak are not required, they are provided to offer system control and overclocking features for people who don't want to get stuck in the details. These sorts of software - also available from plenty of non-Asus sources - often promise best possible performance, they are "smart" enough to simplify and automate a lot of stuff under the hood, they typically give the user an out-of-the-box fancy dashboard with a lot of impressive information about their hardware and a few simple "one click" controls. AI Suite is a lot simpler for most people than the pages and pages of advanced (and obscure, and perhaps intimidating) overclocking tweaks and settings you'll find in typical enthusiast motherboard BIOS.

AI Suite has been developed by Asus engineers very interested in the feedback of many leading "professional" overclockers over many hardware platforms, it does indeed configure most systems for better-than-spec performance. But what's generally best for most hardware is not necessarily the very best possible for your particular hardware - avoiding such softwares and directly configuring your hardware through firmware (BIOS) settings is vastly preferable if you really want to free up maximum performance resources and push highest performance thresholds.

All the drivers you need for your core chipset can be downloaded from the Intel or AMD sites. Drivers for extra chipset hardware can be downloaded from manufacturer's sites (like Realtek and ASMedia). Firmware (UEFI/BIOS) revisions are only available from the motherboard manufacturer (ASUS), unless unofficial and unsupported modded/hacked versions become available elsewhere. ASUS-specific hardware and firmware functions (like the "ROG Chip" motherboard ASIC) sometimes require OS-level drivers or runtimes which can be downloaded from ASUS sites.

What kind of ASUS motherboard (and processor, memory, GPU cards, etc) do you have? There are detailed guides for them all on these forums, and expert users (like Chino) who can answer any questions you might have about them.