Gaming Keyboards, Are They Really Worth It?

[Mcgeezaks]

Isn't "Gaming Keyboard" an oxymoron in the same vein as "Gaming Mouse"?
That's like saying "Typing fightstick".
PC games accept USB controllers, so there's literally no reason to ever use a mouse and keyboard for games that aren't Typing of the Dead.

Are you serious?

 

[Bad Jim]

Isn't "Gaming Keyboard" an oxymoron in the same vein as "Gaming Mouse"?
That's like saying "Typing fightstick".
PC games accept USB controllers, so there's literally no reason to ever use a mouse and keyboard for games that aren't Typing of the Dead.

Are you serious?

Given that the old Serious Sam games don't accept controllers, I'd say that this poster was definitely suffering a Seriousness deficiency.

 

[Fieldy409_v1legacy]

The only thing I need in a computer keyboard is a backlight so I can see what Im doing with the rooms light off. Macro keys can be pretty amazing though but that depends on the game.

 

[Strazdas]

In a word, no. When it comes to "Gaming" its usually just extra cost for the name. Get a regular well made keyboard or if you can afford it a mechanica keyboard. Youll get more for same money and usually better features too.

Isn't "Gaming Keyboard" an oxymoron in the same vein as "Gaming Mouse"?
That's like saying "Typing fightstick".
PC games accept USB controllers, so there's literally no reason to ever use a mouse and keyboard for games that aren't Typing of the Dead.

No, controllers is an oxymoron given that it is the worst device to control things with.

Regular mice generally have limited resolution. If your mouse sensitivity is low enough that you can aim precisely, you'll probably need to move it a couple of feet if you want to be able to turn around. Or you can suffer mouse acceleration, where your mouse sensitivity depends on how fast you move the mouse, which allows you to do both but it's much harder to do twitch shots because you cannot move the mouse a specific distance and have your crosshair move by a specific amount.

Gaming mice have much better resolution and can also increase the polling rate, which has the interesting side effect of almost nullifying the two-speed mouse acceleration that Windows uses, as it becomes hard to move the mouse fast enough to trigger the higher mouse speed. Another thing that gaming mice usually have is extra buttons, which are nice.

I'm much less convinced about the merits of gaming keyboards, but I haven't tried them. But if you have a laptop you game on I would recommend getting a proper keyboard for that.

All pro players keep scan resolution low for precise aiming. People should really learn how to move their wrist for more than 1 CM at a time if they want to turn around.

Polling rate on the other hand, yes, thats a big benefit for good mice (note, good, not gaming mice, most "Gaming" ones are trash).

 

[Bombiz]

Isn't "Gaming Keyboard" an oxymoron in the same vein as "Gaming Mouse"?
That's like saying "Typing fightstick".
PC games accept USB controllers, so there's literally no reason to ever use a mouse and keyboard for games that aren't Typing of the Dead.

@Souplex how about RTS though? how about MMO though? how about RPG though? how about grand strategy though? how about FPS though?

 

[Disco Biscuit]

I think a good keyboard is worth it, but not for gaming as much as general computer use. A good, ergonomic (for you) keyboard will save your hands, arms, and shoulders over years of your hobby.

 

[EvilRoy]

I'd say it depends on the keyboard! - I don't see the point in many gaming keyboards, but I did buy this one from Steelseries, and I <3 it! -

That left hand set-up is just awesome for gaming )

If you are considering a gaming keyboard, then I suggest one like this as well. You'll notice the way the left handed gaming portion has a smooth raised wrist-rest, and that its also tilted about 20-30 degrees off from the rest of the keyboard. This is to keep pressure off your ulnar nerve; if you ever find that your pinky and ring finger specifically get tired or lose feeling it is because you are pinching your ulnar nerve. It is very easy to do accidentally without noticing at first, but soft tissue damage can take weeks to months to heal and it makes twisting your wrist certain ways painful.

 

[Bad Jim]

All pro players keep scan resolution low for precise aiming. People should really learn how to move their wrist for more than 1 CM at a time if they want to turn around.

No. The DPI on your mouse is not the same as mouse sensitivity. It is true that the most noticeable effect of increasing DPI is increased mouse sensitivity, but the real benefit is greater precision. Throw out your 400 DPI mouse, get a 4,000 DPI mouse, then use in-game settings to reduce your mouse sensitivity by a factor of ten. Overall, your mouse speed will be the same, but you can be ten times more precise with small movements. And this is true even if your mouse mat is a metre wide. As long as in-game settings allow you to lower your mouse sensitivity far enough, you are always better off with higher DPI. It's like framerate.

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

'Gaming' Keyboards, no.

Mechanical Keyboards? Depends. I absolutely love mechanical keys. Can't stand when I have to use a 'regular' keyboard, or worse, one of those flat keyed monstrosities they made for laptops, but now infest desktop keyboards as well. But it's all a 'feel' sort of thing, less about the performance, more about the experience.

If you've never used a mechanical keyboard, I suggest you find a store that has a display model or a friend with one and try it out. You may never go back.

For reference, this is what I use:

Spoiler

K70 Master Race

Ot: Don't fall for the 11 BAJILLION MACRO KEYZ 4GMRZ crap. If it's in your budget find a basic, mechanical keyboard that has standard backlighting (if you want it) and enjoy a lovely gaming and typing experience.

MX Blues: Loud and clicky with a tactile *bump* on actuation
MX Browns: No loud click but with the *bump*
MX Reds: no loud click, no bump. Smooth key-press
MX Blacks : similar to reds. One of these requires more force, I don't remember which.

 

[Weaver]

The most important thing is a keyboard your comfortable with. I wouldn't pay much attention to "gaming" branding. I use a KB with cherry browns and o-rings installed and I love the feeling of it. But I'm also a programmer who is typing on it 8+ hours a day.

 

[Yuuki]

MX Blues: Loud and clicky with a tactile *bump* on actuation
MX Browns: No loud click but with the *bump*
MX Reds: no loud click, no bump. Smooth key-press
MX Blacks : similar to reds. One of these requires more force, I don't remember which.

Blacks require the most force out of all of those.

I've used both reds (Corsair K90) and browns (CM Storm keyboard) extensively.

Reds are excellent for typing. Light, smooth action, easy to bottom-out, and not noisy/clicky like Blue switches. For gaming it took a little getting used to because sometimes I accidentally found myself pushing down a key (WASD movement) without even realizing it.

Browns are better suited for gaming (IMO) due to the tactile bump and slightly heavier force. Also decent for typing, but not as good as reds.

 

[renegade7]

Don't buy a "gaming" keyboard, buy a good keyboard. It's true that a lot of good keyboards happen to be labelled as "gaming" keyboards, but there's also a lot of crap floating around that's been stuck with the "gaming" branding.

For me, the $100 I spent on my Corsair K65 (which has the Cherry MX Red mechanical keys) was absolutely worth it. It's much more comfortable and way easier on my hands during extended use, which is especially important to me because I do data entry and transcription work on Mechanical Turk as a side job. The K65 is a good keyboard that happens to be marketed to gamers.

What I'd be careful of is keyboards that are loaded up with bells and whistles that you probably will never use. Built-in LCD displays (which you will never look at because you already have a display, ie, your monitor, possibly several monitors), dozens of little programmable hotkeys (for which you will never be able to find the software), LEDs (they look cool but the novelty will wear off), and whatever the hell the Razer Tartarus is supposed to be. And of course, anyone telling you that you'll become better at competitive games just by buying a new keyboard is bullshitting you.

So on the one hand, it's definitely important to invest in a good keyboard, and many good keyboards happen to be labelled as "gaming" keyboards, because if you're going to spend the money on a gaming computer you shouldn't cheap out on the tools you're going to be using to actually operate said computer, but on the other hand don't get sucked into paying extra for things you don't need.

 

[Strazdas]

All pro players keep scan resolution low for precise aiming. People should really learn how to move their wrist for more than 1 CM at a time if they want to turn around.

No. The DPI on your mouse is not the same as mouse sensitivity. It is true that the most noticeable effect of increasing DPI is increased mouse sensitivity, but the real benefit is greater precision. Throw out your 400 DPI mouse, get a 4,000 DPI mouse, then use in-game settings to reduce your mouse sensitivity by a factor of ten. Overall, your mouse speed will be the same, but you can be ten times more precise with small movements. And this is true even if your mouse mat is a metre wide. As long as in-game settings allow you to lower your mouse sensitivity far enough, you are always better off with higher DPI. It's like framerate.

The thing is most games wont let you reduce it at a factor of 10. Im currently playing on a 1200 DPI setting with lower sensitivity but theres only so much you can lower the sensitivity to. Though yes, you do have a point with this that i forgot about.

 

[The Enquirer]

For competitive gamers - yes.
For noncompetitive gamers - no. But owning one might make you feel special.

Gaming equipment is more of a marketing trick than something useful. For PC gamers, and especially for people building a new PC it's always a better idea to invest more money into their actual rig than "gaming" peripherals. I'd rather get more RAM even if I don't need it, or another SSD or HDD for storage than buy a ridiculously overpriced gimmick that I don't need.

I do like keyboards with multimedia keys and backlight though. Those things are useful. But most of the so called "gaming equipment" is insanely overpriced.

As for the mouse, just get a mouse that has 2 extra buttons on the side. They're incredibly useful. I always use Mouse 5 button to access inventory in games and Mouse 4 for one of the most used actions that is usually bound to a keyboard key. For example in The Witcher 3 I use Mouse 5 for inventory and mouse 4 for heavy attack.

It is worth noting though that, even if you aren't a competitive gamer, a good mechanical keyboard will last much longer, and generally feel much nicer to type on, so if you're at your computer a lot, they can be worth looking into. That said, it is much better to pick one up at a later time if there's a better part for your rig you can get and instead opt to pick one up at a later time if you still feel you want one.

If you do decide to get one, I'd just look for a good mechanical keyboard rather than a gaming keyboard if you aren't really going to be doing a lot of online gaming where having all these different macro's, bells and whistles will do anything.

As per a gaming mouse, unless you're going to get your use out of the extra buttons, or DPI switch, just find what feels nice in your hand and has a good build quality.

 

[Death Carr]

For competitive gamers - No
For noncompetitive gamers - Still no

IMO all you ever get from a gaming keyboard are macro keys that are never placed conveniently for me and fancy lights
I'd rather buy a really good quality mechanical keyboard and get a better build quality and longer life than spend the same amount on a gaming keyboard that'll be made of cheap plastic and likely break within a year

 

[Addendum_Forthcoming]

I have really long fingers. Small palms and long, spindly fingers. Apart from being particularly good with string instruments, not terribly proficient with devices requiring a more normal degree of finger articulation. What I do find with gaming keyboards is that they tend to be somewhat better spaced and have more intuitive, easier contact feedback .... reducing accidental key stroke touches during some pretty hectic moments.

I think for the average gamer however, the spacing and more strategic button placement might not be such a useful commodity.

If you have longer fingers than usual then I might suggest one. To give you an example, on your average mechanical keyboard, the average person only really needs to crook the first joint on their fingers. I have to crook both to accurately type. Basically like I'm clawing at the keyboard.

If you're like me then a gaming keyboard might give you a greater margin for error. If you don't have freak fingers, then I'm not sure you need it to be honest.

 

[Smooth Operator]

A gaming mouse is certainly advisable, specifically one with high DPI and adjustable at that (because some games are just awful with their settings). I do not however advise the button clusterfuck mice, people naturally squeeze their mouse when tense so you will more then likely start pressing numerous buttons without knowing it.

Gaming keyboards(mechanical specifically) on the other hand are a minor upgrade, if you are already familiar with a regular keyboard then it will do all you need. The mechanical switches are far better for feedback, you really will never doubt if and when a button is pressed, but they can be extremely loud.
I have a mechanical keyboard and I stopped using it because that thing sounds like you are mashing it against pavement the moment you start fast typing, obviously gaming and typing aren't the same but at some point you will type and you will wish for a plain quiet keyboard.
A more sensible keyboard upgrade is a hand rest, and do try those out because one size sure as hell does not fit all.

 

[KraQ]

The only place where a gaming mouse becomes a functional neccessity is if you're planning on playing a competitive shooter with a high precision requirement, such as Counter-Strike, Team fortress, or Quake. Most mice that don't have "perfect" sensors make it really hard to develop muscle memory due to "hardware acceleration" and will malfunction when moved too fast. You can find a good list of acceptable mice here. [https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=56240.0] If you want something slightly cheaper, you can find the Logitech G100s for around $20. It's not the most durable thing in the world and it suffers from a low perfect control speed, but it's the cheapest mouse still in production widely availible that doesn't suffer from hardware acceleration.


Aside from that, high quality gaming peripherals are nice, but definitely luxury products. A couple hundred dollars towards peripherals really does make the user experience better, but a couple hundred dollars could also be spent on a better CPU. Extra buttons, macros, n-keyroll over, and all that are nice, but most games are designed to work with $10 peripherals.

I wouldn't really recommend buying any ~$30 christmas trees.

Spoiler

Regular mice generally have limited resolution. If your mouse sensitivity is low enough that you can aim precisely, you'll probably need to move it a couple of feet if you want to be able to turn around. Or you can suffer mouse acceleration, where your mouse sensitivity depends on how fast you move the mouse, which allows you to do both but it's much harder to do twitch shots because you cannot move the mouse a specific distance and have your crosshair move by a specific amount.

Higher sensor accuracy is an advantage of gaming mice, but it has nothing to do with the dpi of the sensor. Laser mice generally have much higher DPI than most optical mice, but all Laser mice have a degree of acceleration. What's more, the Intellimouse optical only runs at 400/450DPI, but is very highly regarded for it's performance.

Gaming mice have much better resolution and can also increase the polling rate, which has the interesting side effect of almost nullifying the two-speed mouse acceleration that Windows uses,

Polling rate has no effect on windows cursor acceleration. It simply refers to the number of times per second that a mouse sends information to the computer. The only two ways of nullifying windows cursor acceleration are by using a third party fix, such as the MarkC mouse fix, or if a game supports raw input, which bypasses windows mouse settings.

as it becomes hard to move the mouse fast enough to trigger the higher mouse speed.

While the Wheelmouse Optical and Intellimouse explorer did gain a higher max-perfect control speeds when raising their polling rate, most mice have such flawed sensors that raising the polling rate has no real positive effect on performance.

No. The DPI on your mouse is not the same as mouse sensitivity. It is true that the most noticeable effect of increasing DPI is increased mouse sensitivity, but the real benefit is greater precision. Throw out your 400 DPI mouse, get a 4,000 DPI mouse, then use in-game settings to reduce your mouse sensitivity by a factor of ten. Overall, your mouse speed will be the same, but you can be ten times more precise with small movements. And this is true even if your mouse mat is a metre wide. As long as in-game settings allow you to lower your mouse sensitivity far enough, you are always better off with higher DPI. It's like framerate.

Wrong.


tl;dw
All mice, including gaming mice, achieve a higher DPI by multiplying the number of pixels moved for every inch of movement that the sensor moves. This makes the mouse less accurate, not more.

At very (read: stupidly) high sensitivities, some games will start skipping whole pixels, but this has less to do with the mouse and more to do with how games handle turning. Any perceived gain of accuracy is purely a placebo.

 

[Lightspeaker]

I wrote quite a long post the other day about mice correcting a bunch of misinformation in here but the forum ate it so I'm glad some people have corrected it. High DPI is not a necessity. However a good quality mouse IS, and they tend to advertise themselves as having super high DPI as a marketing gimmick. Which is totally unnecessary.

If you want to set up your mouse properly for a game (I'm just going to use CSGO as an example here because that's primarily why I started looking into appropriate mouse settings) then the most common suggestion I've seen is set your DPI to 400 or 800 and then bring the sensitivity down as low as you can manage in terms of space on your desk and your arm movement. You CAN get away with higher than this depending on your mouse and its setup but you are definitely going to have to play around with it. Also, always turn off mouse acceleration. Then you tweak it from there, whilst making sure you retain accuracy and (ideally) individual pixel movement with each mouse input.

For example: For years and years I used a G9 and later a G9x. With that I would have a DPI of 800 and a sensitivity of about 2.5-3. Recently I've bought a G502 after I trashed my good old G9x by accidentally dropping it and wrecking the internal microgears (you have no idea how much I mourned that mouse...) and my current settings are a lower sensitivity, but 1600 DPI which is unusually high, but that's comfortable for me and it lets me get beautiful long-range taps (I think the improved sensor helps).

Here's a bunch of stuff you might want to read on mouse settings:
http://www.tobyscs.com/optimal-mouse-settings-csgo/
http://www.csgosetup.com/
http://www.overclock.net/t/173255/cs-s-mouse-optimization-guide



As far as keyboards go you don't want a "gaming" keyboard. You want a good, solid mechanical keyboard (though it may still be advertised as "gaming", that's fine). Personally I'm using a Razer Black Widow after my old Saitek Eclipse 3 fell apart and I wanted a mechanical. Its got a wonderful feel to it and is extremely robust. Albeit incredibly loud to type on.

Although in fair warning: some people just don't like mechanical keyboards. Couple of members of my family who have borrowed my computer from time to time just really dislike using it.

 

[RedDeadFred]

No and no. Just get an MMO mouse for all the extra programmable stuff. Those are actually worth it IMO since it's just adding a bunch more easy to reach buttons and you can program macros into them just like any gaming keyboard.

A nice mechanical keyboard is always good, but honestly, if it's something you've never experienced, then it's not exactly something you'd be missing out on. In most cases, you're probably just better off buying some 20 dollar thing from Best Buy. That's what I use and I haven't found it to be a hindrance at all. Plus, you won't piss of your friends when your mic picks up the significantly louder clicks your keys are making.