PSA: Logitech G Hub CPU bug

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1

Picked up a Logitech G604 Lightspeed on sale for 50% off a few days ago, and it’s a solid mouse so far, but it has a bit of a caveat…

As it turns out, the Logitech G Hub software used to configure the mouse stays open in the background and can randomly start consuming ~120% CPU (1¼ cores) for absolutely no reason, which can cause stuttering in demanding software like WoW, especially on dual or quad core machines, and on laptops will burn through battery much faster than necessary even on 6 and 8 core machines where the impact of CPU consumption is more limited.

The fix for this is to load the mouse’s configurations into its onboard memory and disable “launch at startup” in G Hub’s settings. After you do this, most of the mouse’s features will still work but the buggy software won’t stay open in the background and eat your CPU.

So if you’re using a Logitech gaming mouse with G Hub and have been having performance issues, this might be worth a look.

EDIT: I’m running macOS Big Sur, but I doubt that has an impact… this bug likely occurs across all macOS versions.

2 Likes
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Curious, but what features don’t work in this mode? I’m on the OS behind the one you’re on, and when I turn on on board memory mode, I lose accelleration…do you have to use the OS to accellerate the mouse at that point?

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Typically you’ll need a driver to enable acceleration. Turning off the Logitech software disables the driver, so you’ll need something along the lines of SteerMouse, USB Overdrive, or another mouse acceleration app/driver in order to regain your acceleration. I speak from experience as just the onboard DPI and button assignments alone on my Logitech G9x are available without a driver present. As there is no Logitech software that supports the G9x in macOS, I use USB Overdrive to fine tune my curves as it also handles the controller I use for playing WoW.

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It sucks that the driver is so closely tied with the crappy config app. I wish vendors would open source the communication protocols on their input devices so the community could more easily make bloat-free replacements.