If you are looking to up your game when you play your favorite first-person shooter title, you might be looking for the perfect gaming mouse, but can a gaming mouse improve your headshot accuracy?

Well, probably not—but it can reduce the time data is transmitted from your mouse to the computer. This reduction in timing may lead to better tracking of your movements, improving your gameplay.

But how do you decide which mouse transmits data faster when compared to others? Well, you look at the polling rate it offers.

Understanding Mice and How They Work

The mouse you use can be connected to your device using a wired connection, a radio frequency dongle, or Bluetooth. Although these mice use different technologies to connect to your computer, most use the same technologies to track your hand movements.

Three mice side by side

Back in the day, mice used a ball connected to multiple axles to register users' movements. These axles were connected to perforated disks, which were further connected to light sensors helping the mouse detect motion.

That said, due to the advancement in electronic technologies, mice started using lasers and image sensors to detect user inputs—bringing up the question of how does an optical mouse work?

To put it simply, an optical mouse is nothing but a camera designed to track your every move on the mouse pad. Below is a brief explanation of the parts that enable mice to track your movements.

Image Accusation System

As the name suggests, the Image Accusation System (IAS) is responsible for getting the image data of the surface below the mouse. To get this data, the IAC uses two main parts, a light source, and a photosensitive pixel array, also known as an image sensor.

The light source of the IAC uses photons of high wavelengths and directs them to the surface at a shallow angle. Due to the use of a high wavelength and a shallow angle, this light can capture the texture of the surface.

Although invisible to the naked eye, no surface around us is entirely smooth. This surface unevenness causes the high wavelength to be reflected at different intensities.

After interacting with the surface below the mouse, the light makes its way to the image sensor, which creates a map of the variation in reflected light.

This variation in intensities helps the mouse understand the changes in its location. That said, unlike a camera, the mouse does not store these images but clicks images of the surface at a high frequency. To put things into perspective, a mouse clicks over 1,700 images in a second.

These images are then sent to the Digital Signal Processor (DSP), where computational algorithms are used to calculate your movement.

Digital Signal Processor

The DSP is nothing but a CPU on steroids, but unlike a CPU, it can only perform a single task with excellent efficiency. In the case of a mouse, the DSP can process image data at exceptionally high speeds enabling the mouse to detect your movements in milliseconds.

The DSP compares the images captured by the IAS to detect user movements. To do this, the DSP uses a cross-correlation algorithm that compares the differences in the images captured every 600 microseconds helping the mouse understand your movements.

Understanding Polling Rates

If you use a wired or wireless mouse, you might be under the impression that data is transmitted to the computer continuously, but that's not true.

You see, any peripheral connected to your computer cannot continuously transfer data to the CPU. If that were the case, a lot of computing power would be used to manage a mouse or the keyboard. Therefore, to solve this problem, the mouse sends data to the computer at defined intervals, and this rate of transmitting data is known as the polling rate.

In the case of normal mice, the data transfer rate is 125 Hz. This means that data is transmitted 125 times a second to your CPU. Therefore, your CPU gets an update about your movements every eight (1/125) milliseconds when the polling rate is 125 Hz.

But is this polling rate good enough? Well, let's find out with a quick example.

Imagine using a mouse with a polling rate of 125 Hz with a high refresh rate panel that runs at 360 frames per second. Due to the high refresh rate, images on your screen are updated every 2.8 milliseconds enabling you to see targets faster.

That said, with a polling rate of 125 Hz, pointer information is sent to the CPU every eight milliseconds, causing a delay of 5.2 milliseconds between every screen refresh and mouse information update.

To solve this problem, gaming mice offer a polling rate of up to 8000 Hz, updating pointer locations to the CPU every 0.125 milliseconds.

Does a High Polling Rate Matter?

As explained earlier, faster polling rates on your mouse send data to your system at a faster frequency. However, are these improvements even worth it?

Well, if you are using a regular non-gaming mouse, it will take eight milliseconds for your data to reach the CPU. On the contrary, if you have a gaming mouse that offers a polling rate of 1000 Hz, your data will reach the CPU every one millisecond offering an improvement of 7 milliseconds.

Laptop with a monitor and a mouse

If you were to increase the polling rate further to 8000 Hz, it would reduce the delay to 0.125 milliseconds, offering an improvement of 0.825 milliseconds compared to a 1000 Hz polling rate.

Given below is a table showing the various polling rates offered by gaming mice and the delay they offer.

Polling rate (Hz)

Time to reach CPU (milliseconds)

125

8

250

4

500

2

1000

1

4000

0.25

8000

0.125

Looking at the data given above, it's clear that once the polling rate goes above 1000 Hz, we reach a point of diminishing returns.

In addition, using a mouse with a high polling rate would use more computational power, and using an older system could cause frame drops.

Can a Mouse With a Higher Polling Rate Improve Your Gameplay?

If you like playing games that rely on mouse movements extensively, getting a mouse with a high polling rate will probably improve your gameplay. In addition, if you are using a high refresh rate panel, getting a mouse with a high polling rate is quintessential.

That said, not every game is designed to handle a polling rate of 8000 Hz; therefore, before splurging a lot of money on a high-end gaming mouse, it's important to understand if the titles you play are capable of handling such high polling rates.