Is there any benefit in buying 1ms latency keyboards?

Provided you have a 60hz panel for competetive gaming

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You should first try out a 144hz panel and then maybe go with such a keyboard. IMO the panel would make the bigger difference for gaming than the keyboard but idk, it's the first time I'm hearing of 1ms latencty on a keyboard or even considering the latency from the keyboard input.

That's basically 1Mhz polling rate over USB, some manufacturers just word it differently to appease a "certain crowd". Polling rate isn't everything regarding latency though.

Or you could get a PS/2 keyboard like real men and don't care about polling rate :stuck_out_tongue:

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That, and a CRT monitor while you're at it.

PS/2 is way more common these days then most people realise...

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PS/2 is still around (as far as I'm aware) because while USB sends a signal that joins a queue for instructions and patiently waits its turn, PS/2 sends an interrupt signal to the machine to execute what was typed. This is supposed to make for lower latency input, at least for keyboards. It is also useful for diagnosing USB issues on your motherboard because it will work as an input for the motherboard if a USB controller doesn't initialize or otherwise has problems. None of us may have any issues that require this, but PS/2 is still around for a reason.

An added perk is that people like me and wendell who love Model M keyboards still get to use ours without having to use an adapter.

/tangent


On the subject of latency, I don't know how much a 1ms latency is going to help - it may help a little bit but most decent peripherals have a 1kHz polling rate anyway iirc. And that's not even counting the latencies associated with the rest of the computer, your internet connection and in your own body - your brain takes around 80ms to process something you see and then another hundred or so to instruct a response. It seems to me that training yourself to be more reactive and having a better internet connection would yield better benefits than using a keyboard with an advertised 1ms latency.

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Anything with a 1000hz poling rate is the same thing as stated above.

Pretty much any "gaming" peripheral you plug in will be using 1000hz poling rate. So in that regard you all ready probably have experienced what it is like.

Pointing it out is just marketing gimmicks. And as above. Free up a USB port, use PS/2. That is as fast as you can press the button and will never lag when the PC gets bogged down

Not 100% since technically there could be a latency introduced in the internals of the keyboard, before it is sent to the PC. But assuming there are no issues there yes, it's pretty much the same.
Also I don't think anyone has ever really experienced an input lag form a keyboard if the system itself doesn't hang...

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Hang is the only place it comes in for sure. You will never expirernce input lag as a result of slow USB, it is just a technical possibility.

Not just that, there are tons being released still, especially in the low-end and Mechanical Keyboard market:
released in 2016+
released in 2017

This is obviously not even a comprehensive list. Point still stands, PS/2 is very much far from dead, except for Mice maybe.

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So those 1ms latencys are bullcrap and just buying a ps2 adapter will provide me with significantly less latency for way cheaper

I would use a native PS/2 keyboard simply because I'm pretty sure that going from USB to PS/2 isn't exactly plug-and-play. USB is a much more complicated, packet-based protocol. Adapting might add latency, although I don't know for sure.

I'm not saying the 1ms latencies are crap, though - the polling rate can definitely be 1000Hz... All I'm saying is that there are a lot more factors to input lag than just the bus between your keyboard and PC. You even have to factor in things like debouncing time, which for Cherry MX keyboards is about 5ms. That by itself renders anything above a 200Hz polling rate useless on a Cherry MX keyboard. High polling rates should only really be considered for mice, but that's another story for another day.

If you can just go PS/2 it is better in every possible way.
Pros:
- Less input lag, it actually interupts the cpu if you press a button (in other words it waits for you to press something)
- keyloggers don't work
- 100% bios UEFI compatible
- cheap and the cable can be run over 10M in lenght tested myself
Cons:
- If disconnected and back connected while the system is running, it is very slow needs a system reboot
- if not connected before boot it won't recognize

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There is a very good example of PS/2 being a staple of the consumer PC market that often gets overlooked, and that is that almost every laptop keyboard and trackpad in existence uses the PS/2 bus rather than USB. That isn't going away for all the reasons we've just discussed. Can you imagine your laptop keyboard sharing a USB controller with all the other peripherals connected to your laptop? That would keep me up at night.

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Hm, is that always the case or Motherboard/OS specific? I know this was true in the Win98 and XP days and whatever, but is it still? Is it a limitation of the connector/controller?

it's a limitation on the controller. When i disconneced and then back connected the backspace if held down was removing text with like one character every 0.5 sec speed. That's what i meant with slow.

Some other things to note alot of keyboards support PS/2 adapter the firmware has it literaly writen when it detects it switches to that protocol to work. Mine doesn't so yea check before buying.

Edit: Final thought the latency between a 1000hz usb and PS/2 is measurable PS/2 is faster but a human is not capable to notice the difference.

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^This. And even if you could physically notice the difference with your eyes, you wouldn't be able to do anything about it because your brain just simply can't send nerve signals to your muscles fast enough for it to ever matter.

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