Roccat Ryos MK FX Keyboard Review

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Macro-lovers rejoice.

By Matt Clark

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Peripheral maker Roccat has a pretty extensive lineup of keyboards, and the Ryos MK FX (See it on Amazon) is the company's full-sized RGB model with Cherry MX Brown-switches. And while it may not win any awards for style or comfort, the MK FX has serious appeal for macro-loving gamers.

Design and Features

The MK FX is a big keyboard. In terms of overall size, it's comparable to most other full-size mechanical gaming keyboards, but its wrist rest is permanently attached—and it's huge, too. Nearly everything on the MK FX is made of glossy plastic. The whole device has a nice weight but it still looks a little cheap. The wrist rest, in particular, is just a hard piece of plastic.

This is a common criticism for keyboards these days, but at $150, the MK FX looks and feels a bit flimsier than it should. They keycaps themselves are UV coated, which is great for keeping the letters in tact over the years, but to my hands they felt small and caused me to tap the wrong key from time to time.

The ubiquitous RGB lighting is well contained in the clear Cherry MX switch housing, so the lightshow on the MK FX is nice and bright. You'll find the usual assortment of lighting presets, including color wave, breathing, and ripple effects. It's also possible to customize the per-key lighting on the MK FX to an impressive degree.

The left side of the MK FX offers five macro buttons, and while that's a standard number of assignable keys, macros and key-binding is really where things come into focus. Sitting above the shift button is the Roccat “Shift +” button which essentially allows you to double the functionality of nearly every key on the board. Hold the Shift + down, and the M1 key now has a second assignable function, meaning there's basically 10 macro keys. Moreover, the MK FX's software allows you to assign Shift + functions to other keys, so it's truly a bit like macro heaven. There's unfortunately no dedicated media buttons, but with Shift + you can set those to just about any key you can comfortably reach. There's also three assignable thumb buttons living below the spacebar, which I found handy, but for folks with small hands it could be a bit of a stretch.

The upper-left edge of the MK FX features two passthroughs: one 3.5mm jack for a headset, and one 3.5mm jack for a microphone. This is a handy feature for anyone using a headset with 3.5mm connectors, but unfortunately thered's no USB passthrough despite the USB cable having two connectors on it. When we reached out to Roccat it explained the dual connectors are necessary, "...to fulfill the power consumption of the keyboard with 330 LEDs and two MCUs."

Software

The Ryos MK FX uses Roccat's Swarm software to set up the keyboard, assign lighting effects, and let you sort through its extensive macro settings. Working through the various lighting settings is easy enough by picking through the presets and trying them out. The list of presets isn't quite as extensive or impressive as some mechanical RGB keyboards in this price range, but you can create a custom light show fairly easily.

In addition to being able to make a custom lightshow, the Ryos MK FX is AlienFX compatible. Alienware has been offering the AlienFX system for years on its own hardware, allowing for syncing of games to peripheral lighting. For example, you can match the on-screen colors in Hotline Miami, tinting your keyboard to match those neon in-game themes. It's a pretty cool setup and a nice bonus to get an Alienware feature on a piece of non-Alienware hardware.

As mentioned previously, assigning functions to the Shift + setup is pretty great. The Swarm software offers an extensive—almost exhaustive—list of bindings and system functions you can assign to nearly any key by simply clicking and dragging the function to the respective key. Each key is represented with a default function (you can change those too, if you want) and an alternate Shift + function. It's all surprisingly easy and works incredibly well.

That said, I felt like those Shift + options worked better for productivity as opposed to gaming. Opening my email client and the calculator without moving my hands more than a keystroke is cool, but I just don't need that many key bindings for day-to-day gaming. MMO fanatics may get more use out of the super extensive macro functions, of course.

Gaming

Under the keycaps are Cherry MX Brown switches. The general rule of thumb with Cherry switches is Blues are clicky and best for typing; Reds are linear and fast, and best for gaming; and Browns are sort of a middle ground between the two. The switches on the MK FX work as expected, offering a slight tactile feedback but remaining quick enough to feel responsive while playing a shooter. Still, it would be nice if Roccat offered an option for Red switches for speedier key presses. Most keyboard manufacturers offer both red and brown switches usually, so the fact that Roccat only offers brown switches is a bit out of the ordinary.

Playing through first-person shooters like Overwatch and Battlefield 1, the MK FX didn't feel inadequate but it didn't feel all that great, either. As I mentioned earlier, the keycaps feel a bit narrow and too closely spaced, which is especially odd given the mondo size of this keyboard. Again, in this price range, the setup for gaming could be better. There are some lighting presets for generic video game genres, like highlighted WASD buttons for first-person shooters, but that's about it. And that's kind of lackluster when other keyboards in this market, like the Razer Blackwidow Chroma, are now syncing with games thematically in real-time.

Purchasing Guide

The Roccat Ryos MK FX has an MSRP of $179.99, but it is very rarely sold for that price. It can most commonly be found for $149.99:

• See the Roccat Ryos MK FX on Amazon

The Verdict

The Roccat Ryos MK FX is mediocre in every way beyond its extensive macro settings, which are genuinely impressive. Mediocrity can be acceptable if you're paying for a budget mechanical keyboard. But in this same price range you can pick up an amazing mechanical gaming keyboard that does more, looks better, and is more comfortable.

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