Saturday, September 28th 2024

Razer Synapse 4 Brings a New User Interface and Up to 30% Performance Boost

Since its inception, Razer Synapse has been designed with the goal of empowering gamers and elevating their experience; with core functions like key remapping and macro creation, Synapse enables users to create personally tailored setups to make Razer peripherals truly their own. For years, Synapse has been constantly innovating to meet evolving user needs. And now, as the Vice President of Software at Razer, it is with great pleasure and excitement that I am able to announce the official full rollout of Razer Synapse 4.

What's new with Synapse 4
In this latest evolution, after nearly a year of intensive beta testing, Synapse 4 has redefined performance and usability, ensuring that all users will be able to enjoy a more reliable and intuitive experience on the platform.
Our new multi-threaded architecture in Synapse 4 boasts a 30% performance boost, granting users greater efficiency when performing popular tasks like macro creation, settings configuration, and driver installations. This new architecture also enhances system stability by compartmentalizing each device, so installing or updating one device will not disrupt other devices in use.

We have also taken significant strides in improving the experience: the user interface (UI) of Synapse 4 is completely rewritten and further refined with tons of beta testing and feedback. I am happy to say that Synapse 4 is easier to navigate and more user-friendly; in addition to the new modernized look, we added more floating tips and tools to provide more context to menu options. With fewer clicks and more on-screen information, Synapse 4's new UI will help users get their tasks done more efficiently.

The advanced features for mice customization that users love from Synapse 3 is also carried over to Synapse 4. Some of these options include:
  • 1 DPI Steps Adjustments: Achieve pixel-perfect sensitivity with single DPI step increments.
  • Sensitivity Matcher Calibration: Accurately port over DPI settings across Razer mice.
  • Enhanced Asymmetric Cut-Off: Adjust mice lift-off and landing distances with greater accuracy.
Going forward, we'll be constantly adding new innovations into Synapse 4, like allowing users to enable Razer Snap Tap, a Razer-pioneered feature that enhances keyboard responsiveness by prioritizing the latest input between two selected keys without requiring the release of the previous key. Previously, Snap Tap was only available on the Razer Huntsman V3 Pro line of analog gaming keyboards. Now, as announced earlier this week, Synapse 4 allows users to enable Snap Tap on more Razer keyboards—and even Razer Blade gaming laptops as well.

Backwards compatibility
To provide continuity, we have ensured that Synapse 4 is backwards compatible with Synapse 3 in both features and device support. Today, Synapse 4 supports over 230 Synapse 3 devices and their features.
  • Highly popular features from Synapse 3 are still available on Synapse 4, such as:
  • Razer Hypershift: Allow a single button to temporarily unlock an additional set of functions on top of existing button assignments.
  • Rapid Trigger: Perform rapid keystrokes with less effort.
  • Advanced Macros: Execute complex button presses with a single click.
Razer will continue to support Synapse 3 with bug fixes to accommodate our users who want to remain on the older version. However, going forward, future updates and new device features will be built around Synapse 4.

Thank You Beta-Testers!
Synapse 4 represents a leap forward in providing gamers with unparalleled control and customization, delivering exceptional breakthrough experiences by listening to our community. At Razer, we are constantly pushing the boundaries of what's possible in gaming technology—but this could not have been possible without our 1.2 million beta testers. Your contributions have been instrumental in helping us to optimize Synapse 4 across a myriad of hardware and software environments. I would like to extend a heartfelt "thank you" to everyone involved in making this release a reality.

As always, we'll continue to improve Synapse 4 even more going forward. Users can continue providing suggestions using the "feedback" button inside the Synapse app. Your invaluable input guides our team in continually improving, innovating, and delivering the best possible experience for all gamers.

Synapse 4 is truly a testament to what we can achieve together. On behalf of the entire Razer team, thank you for being part of this, and we look forward to continuing this journey with our dedicated community. GG and play hard!
Source: Razer
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38 Comments on Razer Synapse 4 Brings a New User Interface and Up to 30% Performance Boost

#26
Chaitanya
Prince ValiantGood of them to admit it's bloated. Now for Corsair and the rest to follow along. Then they can reduce their SW footprint to something reasonable and we'll be back to where we were years ago :roll:.
Corsair already admitted iCue is bloated and they did try to reduce bloat. Have you tried CM Masterplus+? Extremly slow and bloated for the functionality it offers.
Posted on Reply
#27
Onasi
Razer, guys, just do the non-stupid thing and move to a web-based UI for customization with on-board memory. It’s clearly the best possible solution.
I mean, you won’t, cause Synapse is obviously a data-mining thing for you, but it would be nice.
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#28
Legacy-ZA
I used this, it has removed one big annoyance from my end, the User Interface that didn't play well with VRR/G-Sync Enabled. As a result, it also at times caused issues in-game. The fact that it took this long to fix, is what will also make me never buy one of their products again.

Now, Corsair... OH CORSAIR! I am looking at your LOW-IQUE software too, fix that crap.

Overpriced crap.
Posted on Reply
#29
Jermelescu
1. Bought Razer stuff
2. Installed Synapse to do some configs and update the firmware, this took around 30 minutes.
3. Uninstalled Synapse.
4. Enjoyed the gear without any issues on multiple computers.

It’s pretty simple tbh if you do not want to change the lightings and macros all the time.

edit: as long as there are no issues I probably reinstall the driver once a year or so to check for firmware updates and delete it again.
Posted on Reply
#30
Chrispy_
HisDivineOrderI'm old enough to remember when peripheral drivers just made your peripheral work and didn't need optimizations to improve performance by 30% because they didn't use enough performance to actually impact the system in any meaningful way. That Razer is bragging about dragging down your system a little less than before is a very strange brag.
Many of my modern peripherals still adhere to this driver model.

It's only the massive nonsense suites from Razer/Logi/Corsair/NZXT etc that are really guilty of being 99% bloat. Most of them include all the running services and libraries for every product in their entire past and present product stack, layered with a bunch of feature-creep and heavy on 'notifications' which are thinly-veiled marketing and unwanted user-engagement requests.
dgianstefaniSo the soft touch surfaces of your devices started to peel after... six years?

This seems fairly normal wear and tear.
Maybe (and this is just my opinion) manufacturers should stop using coatings that degrade when in contact with skin oils or common alcohol-based cleaning wipes.

The soft-coating is yet more pointless built-in-obsolescence and many of my peripherals outlast their coatings. I'll then go to the hassle of dismantling the item down to the plastic shell and using petrol to dissolve what's left of the sticky, patchy mess before reassembling the now-clean, perfectly working keyboard/mouse/gamepad/laptop.

Many mice and gamepads have hard plastics with a rough texture. These are vastly preferable to the nasty soft-touch nonsense and the worst that will happen is that they'll get worn smooth over time without getting all sticky, flaky, or both.
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#31
dgianstefani
TPU Proofreader
Chrispy_Maybe (and this is just my opinion) manufacturers should stop using coatings that degrade when in contact with skin oils or common alcohol-based cleaning wipes.

The soft-coating is yet more pointless built-in-obsolescence and many of my peripherals outlast their coatings. I'll then go to the hassle of dismantling the item down to the plastic shell and using petrol to dissolve what's left of the sticky, patchy mess before reassembling the now-clean, perfectly working keyboard/mouse/gamepad/laptop.

Many mice and gamepads have hard plastics with a rough texture. These are vastly preferable to the nasty soft-touch nonsense and the worst that will happen is that they'll get worn smooth over time without getting all sticky, flaky, or both.
My Viper V2 Pro came with grip tape you install over a hard plastic shell, the previous Viper Ultimate used inbuilt rubber pads.

The reality is that most protein leather, foam or soft touch human interface surfaces can be replaced, but people don't bother. Same thing with couches and beds, you are supposed to replace the mattress every x years.

The understanding is that the comfort of materials comes with a durability constraint, thankfully things like ear pads, head bands and grip tape have many first party and third party replacement options for cheap.
Posted on Reply
#32
Chrispy_
dgianstefaniMy Viper V2 Pro came with grip tape you install over a hard plastic shell, the previous Viper Ultimate used inbuilt rubber pads.

The reality is that most protein leather, foam or soft touch human interface surfaces can be replaced, but people don't bother. Same thing with couches and beds, you are supposed to replace the mattress every x years.

The understanding is that the comfort of materials comes with a durability constraint, thankfully things like ear pads, head bands and grip tape have many first party and third party replacement options for cheap.
Ear pads on heaphones, yes.
Rubber caps on gamepad thumbsticks, yes.

I'm talking about the paint-like rubber finish applied to laptop top decks, gamepads, keyboard decks, mice shells etc. That stuff is disgusting after a while, depending on how much you use it and how much UV light it gets exposed to.

The fact that your V2 Pro came with tape AND a hard shell is telling - The grip tape wouldn't stick to most of these coatings in the first place.
Posted on Reply
#34
Vayra86
DLAVpzogel did all razer mice reviews on TPA. On the software page, he always has this:



After each boot, just run any updater and it will kill any razer stuff from memory. You have to open the .exe and hit next then close it. It's a 3 seconds thing. This way you can keep synapse installed and quickly launch it if needed.
Oh only after each boot... WTF!
That's just horrible
Posted on Reply
#35
Prince Valiant
ChaitanyaCorsair already admitted iCue is bloated and they did try to reduce bloat. Have you tried CM Masterplus+? Extremly slow and bloated for the functionality it offers.
I've used it and I'd agree. The UI is also quite poor, can't resize it, wasted space everywhere, and the "advanced" mode is worse than "simple" because the same functions are more annoying to get at. I haven't bothered trying the most recent versions though.
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