Key Takeaways
- Razer has rolled out a free update for certain wireless mice, allowing them to run at an impressive 8,000Hz polling rate, which means they can transmit data to your PC eight times faster than before.
- This update is great news for gamers as it improves mouse responsiveness and accuracy, resulting in better in-game performance and reaction time.
- To install the update, simply ensure you have the latest version of Razer’s Synapse software, download the firmware updater, and update your mouse’s firmware. Then, you can choose a polling rate between 125Hz and 8,000Hz in the software’s settings.
If you own a Razer mouse, you might be in luck. Razer has just started rolling out an update that buffs some of its wireless mice already on the market. These mice, once updated, should be able to run at a whopping 8,000MHz polling rate.
Razer says that once the mice in question have been updated, they should be able to “transmit up to 8 times more data every second from the mouse to your PC.” This is great news for those of you who already own, or are considering buying one of these Razer mice.
It’s particularly good news for gamers because better polling rates can improve mouse responsiveness and accuracy. Let’s look into what this update does, and how you can install it to buff your own Razer gaming mouse.
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Which Razer mice can benefit from the update?
Razer’s 8,000Hz HyperPolling tech first rolled out to a wireless mouse (using its HyperSpeed Wireless technology) in April 2023, with the Viper Mini Signature Edition. Now, Razer is rolling this free update out for a few more of its wireless mice. You can see the full list below:
- Viper V2 Pro
- DeathAdder V3 Pro
- Cobra Pro
- Basilisk V3 Pro
- Viper V3 HyperSpeed
All these wireless gaming mice should now have the opportunity to update their firmware and attain polling rates of up to 8,000Hz.
What is polling rate?
Polling rate refers to the rate at which your computer checks for changes in mouse position every second.
Some mice – usually older ones that use a PS/2 rather than a USB connection – send signals to your CPU and interrupt whatever the CPU is doing to make it receive that info. Most modern mice, however, do things differently.
Most mice today connect via USB. USB mice wait to be polled by the CPU, and when they are, they send a signal to the CPU to let it know where to place the mouse cursor on the screen – they send signals when signals are requested.
A USB mouse’s polling rate is the rate at which these signals are requested and given. And, crucially, the more signals requested and given, the less latency there will be between any mouse movements and the cursor moving on-screen.
To give a concrete example: A mouse with a 500Hz polling rate will have a 2ms delay between moving the mouse and the cursor moving on-screen, while a mouse with a 1,000Hz polling rate will only have a 1ms delay. A mouse with an 8,000Hz polling rate should be eight times quicker than that.
How will this update improve my gaming experience?
Razer’s latest update gives a few more of its wireless mice the option to increase their polling rates to up to 8,000Hz. This gives these mice incredibly low latency, which means less time between your finger pressing the mouse button and a corresponding in-game action taking place, such as your character’s gun firing.
One thing that separates a gaming mouse from a bog-standard office mouse is its polling rate. Most non-gaming mice have very low polling rates of 125Hz or 250Hz. For gaming, however, this often isn’t good enough, because low polling rates and high latency can hamper your in-game reaction time.
Just a few years ago, the best we could hope for even with most gaming mice was 1,000Hz. Even today, some of the best gaming mice around still have a polling rate of just 1,000Hz. Not too long ago, some mice started supporting up to 2,000Hz. And today, a few exceptionally fast mice support up to 8,000Hz polling. Razer’s update brings a few of their mice that are already on the market up to this impressive spec.
To be clear about just how quick an 8,000Hz polling rate is, a mouse this quick should have a latency of about 0.0125ms, which is roughly eight times faster than many of the best gaming mice on the market today.
Such low latency is particularly great if you’re into competitive gaming, because it means your in-game character should react just as quickly as you do, performing in-game actions almost the instant you move the mouse or press the mouse button. 0.0125ms isn’t instant, but it’s close enough.
In other words, if you own a Razer mouse that can benefit from this update, it might help you react quicker in-game, perhaps making the difference between landing and whiffing that headshot. At the very least, it will help remove mouse lag from the equation.
How to update your Razer mouse to buff its polling rate
If you’re lucky enough to own one of the Razer mice that can receive this update, all you have to do is ensure you have the latest version of Razer’s Synapse software and follow the steps below to update it.
Here’s how to update your Razer mouse:
- If you don’t have the latest version already, download Razer Synapse 3
- Click the Firmware update available link in the Synapse software
- Download and run the firmware updater
Once you’ve updated your mouse’s firmware, you should be able to choose a polling rate between 125Hz and 8,000Hz in Razer’s Synapse software. To change your polling rate in Synapse, click on your mouse and then click “Performance.” You should then see an option to select the polling rate you’d like for your mouse.
You don’t have to select 8,000Hz, of course, but there’s little reason not to if the option is there. A higher polling rate will technically tax your CPU a little more, but even on low-end modern computer hardware, it will hardly make a dent.
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