On your mouse, there are different polling rates. Based on that, the movement of your mouse will have some delay. A mouse with a lower polling rate will have highly inaccurate mouse cursor movement as its data record latency is high.
To avoid this, the computer predicts the next mouse movement according to your previous mouse position. This creates an illusion of smooth mouse movements, which we call mouse smoothing.
Whether mouse smoothing is good or bad for gaming highly depends on several factors, which we have discussed in detail further below in the article.
What is Mouse Smoothing, And How Does It Work?
Depending on your mouse, it can have 125 Hz, 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1000Hz, or more polling rates. A mouse with a polling rate of 125 Hz has a latency of eight milliseconds. This means that the mouse records data about its position and button presses every eight milliseconds.
The mouse will not record any movement if you move the mouse physically between this eight-millisecond interval. This is why a cursor on a mouse with a lower polling rate can feel much choppier than a mouse with a higher polling rate.
This is where Mouse smoothing comes in.Mouse smoothing compares multiple position data from themouse sensorand predicts the next mouse position data using a pre-set algorithm.This will create an illusion of a smooth mouse cursor movement.
Nowadays, most mice come with a polling rate of 125 Hz. This number is fairly high to notice choppier mouse movements. Usually, older mechanical mice suffer from lower polling rates. This mouse mostly has a polling rate of 60 Hz and, therefore, uses mouse smoothing.
Benefits to Mouse Smoothing
In the gaming community, enabling mouse smoothing is frowned upon. However, there are some advantages to it as well.
Demerits to Mouse Smoothing
Here is why most gamers disable mouse smoothing.
Should You Turn Mouse Smoothing Off or On While Gaming?
Both mouse smoothing and mouse acceleration are bad for you if you play competitive games. For gaming, you require precise and accurate mouse movements. Mouse smoothing does the opposite of that.
Mouse smoothing may make the mouse cursor move even if you have physically stopped the mouse. This is especially bad for competitive gameplay. As for single-player games, it is a kind of personal preference. Some users may like the feel when the smoothing is enabled.
