Windows xp, being pretty trashy as it is, by default sets the windows usb polling rate at 125MHz thats an 8ms response time to me and you. What does this mean, well, this equates to LAG!! the bane of all counterstrike and alike players, and generally all good fps games. Now, what can we do about this,
well, interestingly enough we can, depending on the quality of your USB mouse you can increase the responsiveness significantly.
The basics are, the polling rate determins the time it takes for an action performed on the mouse to be transmitted to your computer and thusly to the game/software your using, so this incorporates a slight delay (lag) into your responses within the game. This becomes more prenounced while playing online games where pings/latencies and rates also effect your lag or responsivness. This can mean the difference between a shotty between the eyes and getting that "God-like" voice sounding off in the background
Is I stated earlier the default polling rate is 125Mhz (8ms) and so naturally we get quite used to this when playing games, but wouldnt it be far greater to eliminate as best as possible this delay in sending mouse commands to your games to give a more fluid and responsive control over your gaming? id say hell yeah!
Right, there are a few different ranges you can use, and all are totally dependant upon your mouse's abilities, but none should harm your mouse (best have a ps2 mouse at hand incase yours aint up for the higher rate so u can change back to default)
Firstly: we have
125Mhz @8ms response time (default)
250Mhz @4ms response time
500Mhz @2ms response time
and the highest so far:
1000Mhz @**1ms** response time!!!
Right, I currently use a mx310 usb mouse, and have the polling rate set for 500Mhz, the actual polling rate is often fractionally lower than stated but pretty damn good. I have personally noticed improvements in the sensitivity and responsivness in my mouse, especially when playing online fps games. But there is an improvement to be had when playing singleplayer fps games and other games alike.
I am providing a link to the software I used to patch my USB polling rate, and included is also a mouse polling rate detector to tell you your current response time. See the screenies. Just a note though. Once you change your polling rate you must restart windows for the changes to take affect. This can make games more enjoyable especially the online games, but it could also be that you just dont notice the difference, as in the case that your mouse only supports a marginally higher response time.
But anything which reduces the amount of lag gamers suffer can only be a good thing. I will amend the post if i have missed something, but I think i got everything on here.
Here is a link to both the current mouse polling rate detector and the USB polling rate patch, neither created by me so I claim no glory here, other than I zipped them together in one handy package
Get the download here http://www.filefacto...om/file/388c1b/
I took this from another forum but it works so there ya go!! Just extract after download should be 2 files use the mose timer see whats it at default then run patch restart then look again! Mine is at 2ms @500..
Edited by vet.mad hatter, 23 August 2006 - 08:11 AM.
