🖱️ Mice & Keyboards
Polling Rate (Hz)
Polling rate is how often the mouse reports its position to the PC. 1000Hz means once per millisecond and is the competitive standard.
At 1000Hz the mouse sends an update every millisecond. At 125Hz — the old USB default — updates arrive every 8ms, which is long enough to feel like lag during fast tracking.
Some mice now offer 4000Hz or 8000Hz. The theoretical gain is a fraction of a millisecond, and realising any of it requires a CPU with headroom to process that many more reports per second.
Polling rate is separate from sensor quality and from wireless latency. A high polling rate does not compensate for an inconsistent sensor.