TestDock

Mouse polling rate test

Move the mouse quickly in circles inside the box. The page counts how many movement events per second reach the browser and shows the current and highest rate. That is an estimate of your mouse polling rate — useful to check that a setting such as 500 or 1000 Hz has taken effect.

Ready.

Current rate
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Highest rate
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Event source
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Move the mouse quickly in circles inside this box

Polling rate is how often the mouse reports to the computer (e.g. 125, 500, 1000 Hz or more). The browser can only show events it receives, so the value is an estimate and may be capped by the browser or by display-synchronised event delivery. Wireless mice may report lower rates in power-saving modes.

How to measure

  1. Move the pointer into the box and move the mouse quickly and continuously in circles for a few seconds. The rate appears once enough events have arrived.
  2. Watch Current rate settle while you keep moving, and note Highest rate.
  3. Press Reset and repeat two or three times. After changing the polling rate in your mouse software, reset and measure again.

Reading the result

  • Typical polling rates are 125, 250, 500 and 1000 Hz, and some gaming mice offer higher rates. A steady value close to one of these is a good sign that setting is active.
  • Use the steady value during fast movement rather than a single peak. The rate is averaged over the last half second, ignoring pauses.
  • Event source shows how the page reads movement. pointerrawupdate and getCoalescedEvents can report every movement event; plain pointermove is often limited to the display's refresh rate, so the result will be much lower than the real polling rate.
  • Slow movement gives low values: a mouse only reports when it moves.

Why the result can be lower than the setting

  • The browser can only count the events it receives. It may combine or delay events, especially when the page or the computer is busy, so very high rates such as 4000 or 8000 Hz are often under-reported.
  • Background tabs, unfocused windows and power-saving modes reduce event delivery; keep this tab in front.
  • Wireless mice may lower their rate to save power, and USB hubs or receivers far from the mouse can affect it.
  • This is not a USB measurement and does not measure click latency or input lag.

To check buttons and the wheel, use the mouse test; to estimate your sensor's DPI, use the mouse DPI test.

Questions

What polling rate should my mouse have?

There is no single right value. 1000 Hz is common for gaming mice, while office mice often use lower rates. Higher rates send position updates more often but use more CPU and, on wireless mice, more battery.

Why does the test show about 60 or 144 Hz?

The browser is probably delivering movement events once per screen frame. Look at Event source: if it shows pointermove, try a browser that supports raw or coalesced pointer events.

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