What is the best optical mouse?

[spacemanjupiter]

I know this isn't going to be easy since good optical mice are hard to come by anymore. I have a couple of games (MOH:AA, Warface) that absolutely refuse to work properly with a laser mouse. I've been building and repairing computers for ten years, and PC gaming for 15 years. I've been through hell for years trying to get MOH to work with laser, and a few months for Warface. I get very erratic mouse movements in both games. I've tried with and without vender drivers, always disable acceleration in control panel and in Windows completely, blah blah blah.

The thing is, as soon as I hook up an optical mouse, abra kadabra... Everything works perfectly fine. Nice, smooth and consistent mouse movement. I have an old MS Comfort Mouse 3000 optical to test with, and a Logitech M305 optical. Both work perfectly fine, but both have drawbacks for gaming. The MS mouse is great overall except that it's too light. Need something a bit heavier. Logitech mouse is too small for serious gaming. I've had various Razer mice in the past, and now a Logitech G700. None of which have worked with MOH:AA, ever. I see the same issue right now with Warface. Plug in either of my old opticals, all good.

Looking for the best optical mouse I can find out there with at least 500hz polling.

On a side note, why do professional gamers prefer 500hz over 1000hz poll rate? Just curious.

 

[ssddx]

the major issue with laser mice is that you cannot lift them off the mousepad. if you do it will continue to track and cause erratic movement. they can also be a bit tempermental when it comes to surfaces like glass, wood, rough textures, etcetera.

i've used laser mice for years in the past without issue. honestly once you get used to how they work its not bad at all and i suppose they might even have some perks but optical mice in general are easier to use.

the first thing i'd like to suggest is a nice big plain mousepad. some mice can become jittery when on very busy or highly contrasting mousepads. for instance if you look at my signature photos the b&w mousepad i hav at times can become jittery around the text on the left hand side but its fine everywhere else. of course its only jittery at certain resolutions (dpi) which is odd.

as far as optical mice i'm a pretty big fan of the deathadder. while mine is getting a bit old and the clickers are starting to get a bit soft its still been the best mouse i've had thus far. its big, simple to use and has a nice scrollwheel. its not weighted like the logitech mice though.

an honorable mention would be either the corsair mice or some of the older logitech mice. the newer logitechs are pretty bad since they use the whole hyperscrolling scroll wheel assembly from their office lineup it seems. there are no tactile clicks in most of the wheels which is bad for gaming.

i've heard roccat is pretty popular nowdays as well.

no idea why pro gamers use 500hz. perhaps it reduces jitter from the small movements your hand makes (all hands jitter a bit). this can be fixed with some dpi/speed adjustments though as well as not drinking monster energy drinks when gaming

most of what pro gamers do is utter nonsense. $80 gaming mats, specialized gaming controllers which arent all that great, running on 120hz monitors, etcetera. use what fits your budget and what you find to work best instead of worrying about what they use.

i was a top player in a few FPS games when i played more often... (UT2K4 mainly) and at that time i used a wireless laser mouse, cheap $5 mousepad and a ibm model m keyboard from 1989 on a 60hz 16ms response 1600x1200 display. so i know firsthand that most of the claims from "gamers" are a bunch of BS which while there is a hint of truth... its often a huge overstatement of a small improvement.

anyways you might want to say what kind of pad you use and how you play (if you lift the mouse up at all) if you still get issues. is it confined to that one game or does this happen in any game? that sort of thing.

 

[lemon07r]

Well the topic here isn't "laser or optical" however I would like to point out in terms of tracking precision and accuracy optical is a lot better then laser due to acceleration issues with laser. While lase mice generally have higher dpi then optical mice, that just means laser mice are more sensitive, and that isn't exactly useful for most people (though it sounds like you probably already know this stuff, just putting this in for other readers). Lasers aren't bad (I'm using one), but optical is better for gaming (imho). How I tested the difference between laser and optical was by playing a bit of osu (music game point and click game) and I found that optical mice (used a cheap microsoft one and then a cheap thermal take one) worked a lot better for me then the laser mouse I have had for so many years at home.

To answer your question which is the best optical mouse, as of today that would most likely be the Logitech G502 Proteus Core. The G502 came out recently and is probably the only optical mouse that has been released recently, but it does offer "the most accurate sensor in the market" (according to Logitech, but it is optical and it has 0 acceleration so I don't see any reason not to believe them) and loads of other features, it can be picked up for $70-$80.

If you want a cheaper a cheaper optical mouse the best ones would be either the g400s or the deathadder, the two tried and true classics ($30-$50).

http://gaming.logitech.com/en-ca/product/g502-proteus-core-tunable-gaming-mouse