How to do Mouse Latency Test to Measure Lag?

While playing a video game or maybe while generally using your computer mouse, you might have noticed some delay in mouse reaction time. Technically, this delay is called Latency.

Latency is the amount of time between when you initiate a command, and when that command finally happens.

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Therefore a high latency means the mouse is reacting late to your command, while low latency means you are getting a quick reaction from the mouse.

In simple words, we can conclude that latency is the time delay between when you expect a thing to happen and when it finally happens. It is more generally known by the term lagging.

Latency and lagging are more used to describe network-related problems.

What is Mouse Latency?

As already mentioned, the latency also occurs in mice while using them on the computer system.

A Mouse Latency is calculated by how long it takes for the mouse’s input to be recorded by the computer once the mouse click switch is pressed down.

The frequency of this problem occurring is more in wireless mouse than the wired one. For example, while you are playing a shooting game, you click to shoot a bullet, but on your screen, the shot is fired with a delay. It clearly means your mouse is lagging. 

There might be several reasons for it. Like an outdated driver, any hardware problem, or even an operating system error. However, there are multiple ways to fix a mouse lag

What is the Mouse Latency Test?

The Mouse Latency Test or the Mouse Input Performance Test is the method to check how much the mouse that you are using is lagging with the actual movement or action. 

If you feel your mouse lags, it is essential to perform this test before jumping for a fixing method. It will help you to decide on which fixing method you should go for.

How to Perform a Mouse Latency Test?

Here we will discuss two methods to measure the mouse lag.

1. HTML JavaScript Mouse Input Performance Tests

Mouse Input Performance Test

There is a webpage by the name- HTML/JavaScript mouse input performance tests. It provides the most accurate results for a mouse latency. 

It works by comparing the difference between hardware cursor movement with the last recorded mouse position.

After visiting the website, move your mouse around the blank box provided, in constant motion.

Latency Detection

In the above image, the hardware position of the mouse cursor is in black, while the red box displays the actual mouse position. The difference between them is the lag. The red circle represents ‘two frames’ of input lag. 

You don’t have to go for many details in the graph, just look for the Average Small Delta. That is the lag duration. 

Mouse Performance Example

The Average Small Deta is calculated by time per mouse events.  

That is, if it takes 996ms to complete 126 mouse events, then average small delta or the latency would be 7.90ms. 

The best latency rate of a mouse in Windows should be around 8ms. While for the trackpad, it should be approximately 10ms to 12ms.

2. Humanbenchmark Test

It is another method to check the mouse reaction time. However, since it is a human benchmarking, it is not efficient enough.

Just visit this site and follow the steps. 

Reaction Time Test

The test is simple: it shows you a red box for a random period, following which it glows green. You are supposed to click the mouse as fast as you can when it switches to green color, and the test will record your reaction time.

You should perform this test for at least two to three times. The more times you do it, the more accurate an aggregate you’ll get.

For a more accurate result, you could also perform the test on two different mice. If the result shows a significant difference, then there is a problem with one of the mice.

The test is simple: it shows you a red box for a random period, after which it flashes green. You are supposed to click the mouse as quickly as you can when it changes color, and the test will record your reaction time. 

You should perform this test for at least two to three times. The more times you do it, the more accurate an average you’ll get. 

For a more accurate result, you could also perform the test on two different mice. If the result shows a significant difference, then there is a problem with one of the mice.

The website says that based on the data they have collected, the average human reaction time is 215ms. So if your reaction time is above 215ms, the extra time is due to mouse lag. 

For example, consider your average reaction time is 229ms in the test. If we believe 215ms as the average reaction time of humans, then extra 14ms is your mouse lag.

Conclusion

These are the two ways to measure the mouse stuttering. They can be a great help when you want to check whether your mouse reaction time is slow in actual, or it is just your imagination.

The best practice will be performing the test on more than one mouse. If the lag is up to 30ms, then it is considered as usual.

However, the best range is between 8ms to 16ms.

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