Polling rate settings

[bc5]

My mouse (ASUS ROG GX850) has three options for polling rate - 125Hz, 500Hz and 1000Hz and for some reason the default is 125Hz. So I'm wondering if there's ever any reason that a lower polling rate would be preferable? Why give a choice and not just always run at 1000Hz?

Also, and this may answer my own question (though I doubt it), I've noticed that at 1000Hz I get coil whine from my mobo / CPU (not sure where it comes from?) when I'm moving the mouse. At 500Hz it's less noticeable and at 125Hz I don't hear any coil whine.

 

[thor220]

It's possible that your usb is creating the noise that you call "coil whine" although that would be quite rare.

The reason the mouse defaults to 125 Hz is most likely for compatibility reasons. Not every USB port is able to accommodate a 1000 Hz polling rate.

Increasing the polling rate also increase resource usage. 500 Hz is more than enough for everyone but the most serious games and avoids many USB issues. I would recommend that you set it to 500 Hz. This should solve the noise issue you are having and give you good performance.

 

[bc5]

Thanks for a helpful response. When you say that some USB ports can't handle 1000Hz, are we talking about something like a laptop or Raspberry Pi or is it conceivable that a high-end desktop motherboard might not be able to handle it?

 

[thor220]

It really depends on from motherboard to motherboard. Every USB 2.0 and 3.0 port should have full support for 1000 Hz but not every chipset is made the same. It could be a defect or that they just cheaped out on components.

I think that if you are getting this issue on your motherboard, it's an indicator of bad quality. Pretty much every device shouldn't not have an issue with a 1000 Hz polling rate unless it's older.

 

[bc5]

Well I should clarify that this whine isn't something that only happens with this mouse - I've always had intermittent whining with this computer (especially often after it's been idle a while) so it's not necessarily USB-specific. I don't doubt that the quality of the motherboard is poor because during stress testing with very mild clock and voltage increases it will instantly shut down the system (no freeze or blue screen - just off). But at stock clocks and voltages it's fine so I'll stick with it a while longer 🙂 Anyway thanks for the advice for this!