The polling rate is a less heard word as compared to the DPI when it comes to the mouse acceleration or selection. It is as important as the DPI. We will know about both of these parameters and compare them properly.
But, before proceeding further, keep a thing in mind that doing these changes may damage your computer or make it misbehaving in certain ways.
However, if you are using the precautions we are going to discuss, you can definitely have great results.
Because the mouse is one of the main computer accessories, you should definitely want to customize it in a certain way after one point.
Especially if you are a gamer, graphic designer, developer, or video editor, you may need a mouse with different offerings. But, the polling rate has nothing to do with the sensitivity.
It is much more connected to the preciseness. So, if your mouse has a high polling rate, it will be able to be more connected with your computer.
Not all of us care much about the configurations before purchasing them. But, when you are a gamer or want a mouse for a special purpose, you should consider checking its features.
The two most common things to check for are the polling rate and DPI. In this article, we are going to focus more on the mouse frequency.
We will know what it is actually and how to overclock the USB mouse? With all this information, you will be able to not only buy a good mouse but see how you can easily change the mouse polling rate for better control and user-experience on your computer.
We will discuss this thing below in this article and let you know how to adjust this rate pretty easily. So, without any further discussions, let’s just directly into it.
Table of Contents
What is the polling rate in the mouse?
In simple terms, the polling rate is the number of times your mouse communicates its position to your computer. If your mouse has a mouse frequency of 500hz, it is simply sending its communication 500 times within a second to the computer.
The Mouse has a higher polling rate that means it is connecting much more frequently with your system. Now you might have a question in mind: why do we need to overclock the mouse? Well, the answer is to use your mouse just at the fraction you want.
It is basically a thing that determines how fast your computer responds to any movement you do to your mouse.
So, if your mouse is having a very low mouse frequency, the cursor on your screen may take a long time to respond to your movement.
It’s an important phenomenon when you are playing games or doing any other important thing on your system. This thing may not impact the usability a lot but you can see a difference whenever you use a mouse with a high mouse frequency.
With that said, we hope you have now got an idea of what the mouse frequency is. This rate will basically impact the overall accuracy of your mouse.
So, if you are using your mouse for gaming, drawing, or other fine tasks, you should definitely go for a higher polling rate.
What is the mouse DPI?
Lots of people have confusion between the polling rate and the mouse DPI. But, both things are completely different. The polling rate is the frequency of your mouse sending its signals to the computer.
However, DPI or Dots per inch is the unit for measuring the sensitivity of your mouse. So, if DPI is high on your mouse, the cursor will move farther on your mouse’s movement.
If DPI is low, the cursor will move comparatively less on the screen. Now, you can see both of these things look identical but they are not the same in any way. DPI is a completely different phenomenon.
However, before purchasing your mouse, you should keep both these things in mind. DPI is going to impact a lot whenever you are playing games or doing any other thing on your computer.
If you tend to use a higher DPI, a lower DPI mouse will feel slower or painful for you. Most of the gaming and modern mouse comes along with the separate DPI switches to increase or decrease DPI on the go.
You can adjust it using your computer settings or third-party software. But, the point is, DPI is a completely different thing from the polling rate and people often misunderstood the mouse frequency to be the DPI.
How to check the mouse polling rate?
The most branded mouse will show you their polling rate on their packaging boxes. Also, you can visit their official website to check what frequency they are offering.
But, there is another impressive tool you can use to do the same job. This online tool is developed by BenQ and it will help you to check what is the current frequency of your mouse.
You can use any mouse and even the touch-pads for testing their mouse frequency. You just have to click and move your mouse on the screen and it will start to show you the reading in real-time.
Also, you will see a detailed overview of your previously tested rates. You can visit this link to check your mouse polling rate pretty easily online without using any external tool.
Is higher Mouse Polling Rate Good? (500Hz vs 1000Hz)
It is very tough to determine the difference between these high polling rates. But, the difference is different. But, if you play games on your computer and do other stuff that requires a low reflex time, you should definitely go with the 1000Hz mouse frequency.
However, 500 Hz will also be enough for the same thing. But, this is a way of measurement. So, if you are going for a higher frequency, you are always on the right side.
If we look at the difference, it is less than 1ms. So, you can think about how less this time is and how it is going to impact your gaming performance negatively.
There is nothing to be very curious about when it comes to the polling rate. However, you should be curious about the DPI for sure.
How to increase the Polling Rate of a mouse?
So, now when you are aware of the polling rate and how to test your mouse frequency, it is time to see how you can increase this rate on your mouse.
There are various ways to do this thing. You can download external software and scripts to make this happen. However, the best way is what we are going to discuss below.
This is a simple shortcut you can easily use anytime you want to increase or decrease your mouse frequency. However, keep a thing in mind that this trick will work only with some mouse types.
So, if it is not working for you, you will have to try some other things for sure. Let’s see how to do it.
- Unplug your mouse and press 4+5 keys on your keyboard. Now, plug your mouse again and once it’s turned On, its polling rate will be set to 125Hz.
- If you repeat this process by pressing the 5 number key, it will change the mouse frequency to 500Hz.
- Now, if you are doing the same thing with the 4 number key, the mouse frequency will be increased to 1000Hz.
This is a pretty simple task anyone can follow. Again, these steps will not work for you if your mouse doesn’t support this high level of polling rate.
The mouse can get damaged if you are pushing its limits and it is not able to handle that load. So, do this process only on your own responsibility.
Is higher DPI better for FPS Games?
Definitely. For gaming, it is always better to switch to high DPI pointing devices. High DPI allows you to easily move your cursor far away with little movement.
So, it is good if you have good control over your hand with high DPI levels. But, it could become a hassle if you are doing it for the first time and don’t have full control over your mouse.
Various things will also depend on the type of mouse you are using for gaming. But, if we look at the professional’s perspective, it is good to have a higher DPI for FPS gaming.
Now, when you are aware of how to change the polling rate, changing DPI using mouse settings or software will be easier for you.
Along with the fast movements, you will have to keep your preciseness in mind. For example, if you are using a very high DPI on your mouse for FPS games, you are surely going to move your character more impressively.
However, this will make it harder for you to make precise shots on smaller objects. So, if you tend to use a low DPI mouse for FPS games, using a high DPI setting will never help you to do those head-shots and complex shooting steps easily.
So, make sure to keep your DPI levels moderate and within the range, you can easily handle and tolerate.
How 125Hz polling rate mouse good for gaming?
It will totally depend on your experience and the type of game you are playing. Also, if you know how to control high DPI, the polling rate may not be a big thing for you.
For some games where high precision is required, definitely you will need a good mouse frequency. For those games, your 125Hz mouse polling rate is not going to work.
If we talk about the shooting games, you can’t rely on a 125Hz mouse if you are really looking to play professionally and make tough shots.
For that, it is required to have good control on your hands, mouse backed by a good DPI and mouse frequency. A proper combination of all these things will be important to have the best results.
For gaming, we suggest you go for a good quality mouse with a great DPI, polling rate, and other required configurations.
This will help you to play games much more smoothly and effectively. However, if we talk about the polling rate, a very low value is going to impact your performance but if you have a 500 Hz rate, it is good enough for most of the low-end and high-end games.
Is it required to have a high mouse polling rate for drawing and graphic design?
As we all are aware not, the polling rate is the way to measure how frequent your system is getting the inputs from your mouse about its position.
So, when you use your mouse for drawing or graphic design, it is required to have high precision. This can only be achieved with a good mouse with a good polling rate.
Support if you have a mouse with a 125Hz mouse frequency. If so, you will never be able to draw in the way you will do using a mouse with 500Hz or more than this polling rate.
This all can be pretty helpful for you when you are learning to draw graphics and draw using your mouse as a beginner. When your computer is getting thousands of inputs within a second, it will be able to draw more impressively.
Especially when you are working on a bigger monitor, this kind of polling rate will definitely help you draw lines more effectively and create graphics more precisely.
So, yes, if you are doing any kind of creative work on your PC, you should definitely look for a mouse with a high polling rate.
However, you should keep the DPI within a moderate rate for better results. This will help you to do complex works much more precisely by keeping your cursor in full control.
Final Verdict
We hope you have now got a fair idea of what is mouse mouse frequency and how to increase or decrease it. However, we would suggest not to push your device’s limits way too much.
It can impact its performance negatively or even damage its internal circuitry. The polling rate is not something you should be very curious about if you are a normal computer user.
However, if you are into a creative field or a professional gamer, it will be good for you if you have a mouse with a decent polling rate.
But, instead of increasing this rate manually by pushing your mouse’s actual limits, you should try to purchase a mouse with an inbuilt higher mouse frequency.
We hope you are now aware of how to change the mouse mouse frequency and check its existing values. If yes, make sure to share this article with others who may need this information.
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