A wireless mouse has always been a compelling gadget for anyone interested in decluttering their desktop. But what if you’re a competitive gamer, and lag means certain death? Do you have to sacrifice performance for the perks that come with a cordless experience? Are wireless mice worth the premium price tag for casual gaming?
If you’re a gamer considering a wireless mouse, input lag is probably your greatest concern. Input lag, or latency, is how long it takes between you moving or clicking the mouse, and that action registering on your screen.
All mice, including wired mice, lag a little bit even if it’s only a few milliseconds. An inexpensive wired office mouse for example, might have a report rate of 8-10 milliseconds, whereas a high performance wireless gaming mouse that has a report rate of 1 millisecond or less.
Wireless mice require an extra step of encoding and decoding to transmit over the radio frequency they use to communicate which can add a few milliseconds to the process. Most modern wireless gaming mice give you the ability to connect using either Bluetooth or 2.4 gigahertz wireless frequency, which tends to be the faster option.
You can find wireless gaming mice from top manufacturers Logitech, Corsair, and Razer advertising sub-1 millisecond latencies in the product description.
If you’re experiencing lag, there are a bunch of other factors might affect the feel and performance of a mouse, apart from whether or not it has a wire.
Polling rate is number of times your computer checks on your mouse for positioning and button clicking. A mouse with a 500-megahertz polling rate means your computer is checking your mouse for input information 500 times per second. This can help your mouse feel more responsive but gaming at a higher polling rate adds load to your CPU, and if your CPU in not up to the task, you may experience skips and stutters when moving your cursor.
The way you experience your mouse is also tied to what you see on your monitor. The more frames per second (FPS) that your graphics can deliver to your monitor, the smoother your gameplay will be and this directly affects mouse performance.
All in all, the mechanics involved in FPS (your GPU and the refresh rate on your monitor) are likelier culprits behind any input lag you may experience, provided your mouse is in good working order.
Another potential suspect for mouse latency issues would be traffic on the 2.4G signal that many wireless devices use to communicate.
Batteries are another consideration for wireless mice. Wireless mice get from around 60 all the way up to 250 hours or more of battery life. A number of wireless mice come with rechargeable batteries, docking stations, and even Qi support for wireless charging.
The weight of the battery is a factor especially for ultra-lightweight mice preferred by players of first-person shooters. A battery can give the mouse a back-heavy feel, but you can always shave off a few grams by using a lithium ion battery, which are typically lighter than alkaline batteries.
Price can range from $1 – $10,000+ and there are many solid choices between those extremes.
So, should you go wired or wireless? If your setup or gaming style means you’re constantly held back by your mouse wire, then a wireless mouse might be right for you.
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