Benefits of Optical Switches for Gaming Mice

When it comes to gaming mice, speed is of the utmost importance. High polling rates and lightning-fast switches work together to register your inputs as fast as possible.

With the new M65 RGB ULTRA, we’re bringing optical switches to gaming mice. As you might recall, the K100 RGB introduced OPX optical-mechanical switches to our lineup of gaming keyboards, but now you may be asking, “what is an optical switch?” and “how would an optical switch benefit me?” Don’t worry! Hopefully by the end of this, you’ll not only understand what an optical switch is, but how they can also improve your game!

Typical mechanical switches and buttons rely on the physical contact of a metal plate to close a circuit that is then reported as a key or button press.

Mechanical switches have been refined greatly over time and are great choices to this day for gaming, however they still rely on mechanical contacts that wear out over time and vibrate or “bounce” once released, causing unintentional secondary inputs which need to be accounted for in firmware in the form of a “debounce delay” adding to overall click latency.

An optical switch swaps out the physical contact for a beam of infrared light that registers a keypress or mouse button click once the beam is broken.

Since an optical switch works with a beam of light rather than the coming together of metal contacts, we’re able to eliminate switch bounce entirely.

With switch bounce out of the equation, additional click latency in the form of a debounce delay isn’t needed so the mouse or keyboard is able to instantly register another input once the button has reset.

Another benefit of optical switches is improved durability as the lack of metal contacts substantially simplifies the design of the switch, removing the metal contacts that will wear out over time.

Whether you’re using a mouse or keyboard, optical switches provide a competitive edge, ensuring that your inputs are registered as fast as possible and with the added durability, you can game with confidence knowing that your hardware will stand up to the test of time.