The 4 Best Monitors For Programming - Spring 2025

Nov 08, 2024 01:08 PM By RtingsUser1479957

1

How long does a mouse have to sit in one spot for the “start of movement” delay to factor in?

Hello! Great question.

There’s actually a difference between the “start of movement” delay and the delay caused by a mouse entering a sleep or low-power state. The “start of movement” delay is the short latency that occurs when the sensor first detects movement from a stationary position. For most modern gaming mice, this delay is usually very brief (a fraction of a millisecond), so it’s generally not noticeable in typical use.

In contrast, a delay from sleep or low-power mode is due to the mouse conserving energy after a longer period of inactivity. This delay can be more noticeable as the mouse “wakes up.” To make sure our sensor latency results aren’t affected by these energy-saving modes, we collect 11 consecutive runs of data and discard the first run. This ensures that if the mouse happened to be in a low-power state, it doesn’t impact our results, and we’re measuring active sensor latency accurately.

Hope this clears things up! Let me know if you have more questions about our testing process.

Aug 20, 2024 04:29 PM By  Olivier Martin

Hello, Good follow up question! The delay at the start of movement is mainly due to the mouse sensor and firmware, and while registry tweaks might help slightly by affecting the polling interval, they likely won’t have a significant impact on the sensor delay itself. The polling interval can become more consistent with certain tweaks, but the inherent delay caused by the sensor waking up and starting to process movement is mostly a hardware issue. Given that the improvement from such tweaks would be marginal, it’s not something we typically recommend focusing on. If the initial delay is bothersome, looking into a mouse with a lower inherent latency or better firmware might be a more effective solution. Let us know if you have any other questions or need recommendations!

How long does a mouse have to sit in one spot for the “start of movement” delay to factor in?

Aug 17, 2024 11:37 PM By lizardpeter

18

Do you think it’s possible to affect this at all through Windows registry tweaks or using other operating systems, or is it 100% a property of the mice? You know how the polling rate will be reported in test software typically as a low value when the mouse is stationary but will go up to its maximum during intense movement? I have seen people reporting registry changes leading to the software reporting a fairly consistent max polling rate even when the mouse isn’t moving. Perhaps this would force more frequent updates. Given that most of us at home don’t have the hardware to measure this sensor latency, I was wondering if the RTINGS team had any thoughts on this or if it was something you would be interesting in testing.

Hello, Good follow up question! The delay at the start of movement is mainly due to the mouse sensor and firmware, and while registry tweaks might help slightly by affecting the polling interval, they likely won’t have a significant impact on the sensor delay itself. The polling interval can become more consistent with certain tweaks, but the inherent delay caused by the sensor waking up and starting to process movement is mostly a hardware issue. Given that the improvement from such tweaks would be marginal, it’s not something we typically recommend focusing on. If the initial delay is bothersome, looking into a mouse with a lower inherent latency or better firmware might be a more effective solution. Let us know if you have any other questions or need recommendations!

Jun 18, 2024 11:52 AM By  Olivier Martin

Hello, Great question! The delay at the start of movement being higher compared to the rest of the latency results can be attributed to several factors inherent to the mouse sensor’s operation rather than the testing methodology. When a mouse begins to move, the sensor needs to wake up from a lower-power state, initialize its calculations, and start data transmission, which introduces a brief delay. Additionally, sensors often use algorithms for data smoothing and movement prediction. These algorithms require initial adjustments to sudden changes in direction or speed, contributing to the higher delay at the start. Furthermore, the mouse firmware may perform extra processes during the initial movement, such as noise reduction and surface calibration, which also add to the initial delay. These factors combined can result in the observed 10+ ms delay before the sensor settles into a steady state for ongoing movements. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Do you think it’s possible to affect this at all through Windows registry tweaks or using other operating systems, or is it 100% a property of the mice? You know how the polling rate will be reported in test software typically as a low value when the mouse is stationary but will go up to its maximum during intense movement? I have seen people reporting registry changes leading to the software reporting a fairly consistent max polling rate even when the mouse isn’t moving. Perhaps this would force more frequent updates. Given that most of us at home don’t have the hardware to measure this sensor latency, I was wondering if the RTINGS team had any thoughts on this or if it was something you would be interesting in testing.

Jun 18, 2024 11:52 AM By  Olivier Martin

Hello, Great question! The delay at the start of movement being higher compared to the rest of the latency results can be attributed to several factors inherent to the mouse sensor’s operation rather than the testing methodology. When a mouse begins to move, the sensor needs to wake up from a lower-power state, initialize its calculations, and start data transmission, which introduces a brief delay. Additionally, sensors often use algorithms for data smoothing and movement prediction. These algorithms require initial adjustments to sudden changes in direction or speed, contributing to the higher delay at the start. Furthermore, the mouse firmware may perform extra processes during the initial movement, such as noise reduction and surface calibration, which also add to the initial delay. These factors combined can result in the observed 10+ ms delay before the sensor settles into a steady state for ongoing movements. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Thanks for the information! Especially in regard to the mice waking up from a low-power state, I’m shocked at least one or two companies haven’t designed mice that never enter these power-saving states to maximize performance. I don’t think any competitive gamer would care if the mouse used a fraction of a watt more power or if that kind of option could be manually enabled.

Jun 15, 2024 08:29 PM By lizardpeter

18

Why is the delay to the start of movement horrible compared to the rest of the latency results? Is this a product of the testing methodology, or do the mice really take 10+ ms at the best case to send a simple update over USB following a movement?

Hello, Great question! The delay at the start of movement being higher compared to the rest of the latency results can be attributed to several factors inherent to the mouse sensor’s operation rather than the testing methodology. When a mouse begins to move, the sensor needs to wake up from a lower-power state, initialize its calculations, and start data transmission, which introduces a brief delay. Additionally, sensors often use algorithms for data smoothing and movement prediction. These algorithms require initial adjustments to sudden changes in direction or speed, contributing to the higher delay at the start. Furthermore, the mouse firmware may perform extra processes during the initial movement, such as noise reduction and surface calibration, which also add to the initial delay. These factors combined can result in the observed 10+ ms delay before the sensor settles into a steady state for ongoing movements. Please let us know if you have any other questions.

Why is the delay to the start of movement horrible compared to the rest of the latency results? Is this a product of the testing methodology, or do the mice really take 10+ ms at the best case to send a simple update over USB following a movement?