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Input Devices Entertainment Games

Gaming Mice Get Benchmarked 45

Posted by Zonk from the fun-toys dept.
Via Joystiq, an article at the ES Reality site where they do their level best to benchmark mice in a logical fashion. Post author Sujoy explains: "In this environment where performance is king, it's ludicrous to think that mouse performance has never been measured for reviewing the products. Imagine reviewing the latest graphics card in the same way. Without benchmarks, reviewers would have to resort to loading up their favourite game and commenting on how their frag count improved. You would have no way to compare NVIDIA and ATI cards apart from the quality of the packaging. Without benchmarking, graphics card reviews would be almost entirely useless. So why do we put up with mouse reviews that are just as useless?" They have scales based on control, speed, and DPI to determine how good, really, that mouse is.
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Gaming Mice Get Benchmarked More

Gaming Mice Get Benchmarked

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  • Did this article REALLY need to be split into 22 impres err I mean pages?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by DeQuincey ( 221531 )
      Yeah, I agree. The first thing I did was look for a link to the printable version. Then, I noticed that they provided a table of contents for the entire article on the right hand side.

      Who's really going to read the whole article anyway?
    • Actually the article is very well done and each page is about 2 pages typed. It really is in depth and interesting.

  • Surely... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Jaruzel ( 804522 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2006 @05:43AM (#17220632) Homepage Journal
    Surely mouse preference is subjective ?

    Graphics cards have a small defined set of criteria that they are judged against. If a graphics card is faster than any other, with higher refreshes, and higher resolution, then for 99.9% of users it is percieved the best.

    Mice however, require the user to be comfortable holding them, with the correct mousepad, with or without a wrist rest, and then there's wireless vs wired, bluetooth vs infra-red, trackball or optical. Some users swear by a simple 3 button scroll wheeled mouse, some users can't function without all those extra buttons on the sides. A high DPI is one thing, but for some that just makes the mouse TOO twitchy. Gaming is not ALL about twitch speeds, and frag counts. There are many games out there, where a slower moving mouse with higher accuracy is actually benificial (most of the God Sims, spring to mind).

    At the end of the day, there are different mouses for different houses. What works for you, probably doesn't work for your neighbour. As such most mouse reviews have limited value, with or without benchmarks.

    -Jar.
    [Logitech MX510, on a kidney shaped plastic grooved mousepad - both at work and at home]

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by DavidV ( 167283 )
      'A high DPI is one thing, but for some that just makes the mouse TOO twitchy. '

      I agree that's why I love the MX518 I bought. It has sensitivity buttons above and below the wheel to get the twitch when you need it or precision when that's appropriate, like using a sniper rifle at a distance .

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Barny ( 103770 )
        Same for my copperhead, right side buttons adjust DPI, pinpoint accurate when needed, able to swing a tank turret around and pop a round in an apc when required :)

        As for OP, yes, mice are extremely subjective, buy some extra snacks for your next lan party, and trade them to people to try their mice.

        A 7 button mouse for me, with lots of programmable buttons and variable DPI will not suit someone who wants just an accurate mouse with 3 buttons :)

        It is interesting to know how many m/s their max is though ^_^
      • If they made a MX518 in a wireless version I would be all over it. Until then I just cant seem to find a mouse I like as much as my MX700.

    • Re:Surely... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by kinglink ( 195330 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2006 @11:34AM (#17224246)
      Of course it's subjective. How you hold the mouse, how you move it, that's all up to you.

      What this is doing though is it's taking the non subjective parts of the mouse. the DPI, the sensativity, the "malfunction speed". Basically the important information that can be measured and analysis that.

      Now if you want a cordless or a corded mouse you'll knock a bunch of the top 10 off right there, but on the other hand out of those remaining you'll have an idea what to look for. Who cares if a mouse feels right if the mouse next to it feels a little worse but has a better sensativitiy and won't crap out on you.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Rd5 ( 1039558 )
      At the end of the day, there are different mouses for different houses. What works for you, probably doesn't work for your neighbour. As such most mouse reviews have limited value, with or without benchmarks. The best solarium - www.mediaprofit.ru

  • Razor Diamondback (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Das Modell ( 969371 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2006 @05:44AM (#17220644)
    Not long ago, I bought one. I don't care what the benchmarks say, I thought it was an utterly terrible mouse. It had a really bad feel to it (probably because it's ambidextrous), the mousewheel was hard to use when your hands were sweaty, and for some mysterious reason the mouse started to malfunction when I used it on the right side of my mousepad, but worked properly on the left. Pretty interesting considering that the entire surface is perfectly uniform! I also recall that the mouse had about three separate sensitivity settings for it, not to mention whatever sensitivity settings you have in your game. I eventually uninstalled the mouse software because it was just making things more difficult.

    A total waste of money. I resumed using my old Logitech MX510.
    • I don't know about the Diamondback but I felt the same way about the Boomslang (this was a long time ago; ball mouse). The feel was just all wrong. The ball was under your palm instead of in the middle or under your fingers which was completely opposite of what I wanted in a game mouse. And I play the fast-twitch games that thing was suppose to be designed for. In the end I thought it was a waste of money and went back to my trusty Intellimouse.

      Back then optical mice were too slow to be used for seriou

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Scooter ( 8281 )
      I have a Razer Viper, and while its an OK mouse, it's fairly useless for gaming (by which I mean no better than AN other mouse you might pick). I agree the software is utterly useless - I use the standard XP driver. There is no way to turn off acceleration completely in the Razer driver, and I can't play when my mouse movements don't have a consistent effect on the game - how on earth can you gain any accuracy when it takes it upon itself to speed up half way through a turn?!?

      The other thing that, for me,
      • I have a cheap ass optical mouse from some Chinese company and it completely suits my needs, even as a gamer.
        It's ambidextrous (I hate assymetric mice, they don't feel right) with 2 buttons and a WIDE wheel. The wheel is wide enough so that my finger lays comfy on it and very easy to middle click while keeping steady and not moving the wheel by mistake.
        About wheels, I usually use it as a simply 2 more buttons (up for rocket launcher, down for railgun) or when there's use for analog input (zoom-in/out).

        Maybe

  • Logitech G5 (Score:3, Funny)

    by KiWiKiD ( 859892 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2006 @07:07AM (#17221120) Journal
    I like to think I do an extensive amount of research prior to any hardware purchase, and have always had an issue with mice reviews as it is described in the article as it all seems to be arbitrary. Therefore I tend to option for reviews from Neweggers to determine what a good mouse is. In the drafting of the Christmas wish list I chose the Logitech G5 as the choice mouse this holiday season. Apparently 677 Neweggers can be wrong.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by aidbo ( 797690 )
      I have one of these myself, and have been wholly satisfied with it. I've had it for 6 months now, and suprisingly the thing I like most about it is the cord. I would add my voice to those 677 neweggers. I would only say it probably wouldn't work very well for you if you were using it with your left hand. -A
  • Interesting article even tho mouse preference is highly subjective (you have to be comfortable using the mouse...).

    One thing I learned from all this : Laser mice aren't better than optical ones.

  • I am so disappointed... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Odiumjunkie ( 926074 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2006 @09:36AM (#17222512) Journal
    I genuinely thought that the headline read "benchmarking gaming dice". I was really looking forward to geeking out on twenty-two pages of twenty-four-sided goodness.
  • These [amazon.com] are, by far, the best performing mice out there.
  • Did anyone else think they were talking about actual animal mice? Grading their performance in, I don't know, tests or something?

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by silentounce ( 1004459 )
      For the sake of slashdot I hope that that thought of yours did not extend beyond your reading of the subject.

  • Emphasis on perfect control is wrong. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Jagasian ( 129329 ) on Wednesday December 13, 2006 @01:42PM (#17226152)
    The emphasis on "perfect control" is silly. Users should not need to move their mouse fast enough to the point where these perfect control numbers matter. The more important measurements are sample rate and DPI. The higher, the better for both, as it makes mouse movement smoother since the mouse updates come in faster and they don't need to be enlarged as much, which reduces "laggy" and "jaggy" mouse movement. This means that the Fatal1ty 2020 [creative.com] mouse is the current best, assuming the ergonomic aspects are to your liking.
    • Perfect Control actually comes into play drastically when you look at a large portion of professional gamers - this test was done by an FPS-centric pro gaming site, after all. Conventional wisdom for gamers - High Sens players want a higher DPI, Low-Sens players want control at high speeds.

      A good number of fps gamers will opt for a low mouse speed with no acceleration and a large mousing surface - this allows for a good deal of movement precision since the turning rate is fixed no matter how fast you go, an
      • Such large movements are not accurate at all, because they require the gamer to move the mouse with elbow and shoulder movements, as opposed to just using their fingertips. I guess with FPS games getting slower and slower, it may be becoming very popular to use a very low sensitivity, but for faster games like the original Quake, high sensitivity will always be king.
  • Accuracy, and not just at high speeds, but just regular, slow tracking, because almost every optical/laser mouse I've used had a problem. Track is slowly across the screen and watch the cursor jitter up and down, sometimes hopping backward a little. It seems all of the ubercool mice do this, so I'd like to know of one that doesn't, because I'd buy it right off.

  • And No Trackballs? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by DeFKnoL ( 1036636 )
    True, Trackballs are not mice. But when you take into the acount the benefits of a trackball (NOT Thumbballs) you see that they are far superior. Trackballs are safer and more accurate. I hate it when I have the mouse in the right position and it moves when I click the button. That problem does not occur with a trackball. Also, you never get to the edge of a mouse pad or out of range of your arm. There's nothing more archaic about the mouse than having to pick up the entire pointing device to replace
  • I would love to see benchmark like these for cell phone handset reception. Now days there is no way to tell if your cell phone is crapy or just your network.
  • It would have been nice if he actually played FPS's with them over the period of weeks and months and tabulated changes in his frags vs. deaths... I believe UT2004 would have been excellent game for this due to built in statistical tracking.

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