Which has more CPU overhead, usb mouse or ps2 w/ ps2rate 200hz?

[erikiksaz]

question is up there ^.

 

[Hanpan]

With 800+ mhz cpu's common today this shouldn't be a concern by my guess would be the ps/2 with ps2 rate.

 

[TunaBoo]

I cant believe you said that. USB has an overhead at LEAST 10 times as great as PS/2. Just because USB is newer NOT make it better.

Ever play a game with a USB mouse and notice how jerky the mouse preforms? Black and white was horrible for me. When I switched to PS/2, all was good. (system is @1.2 GHz right now, it is not a slow system)

 

[erikiksaz]

hmm, so that means ps2rate with a 200hz setting runs better than usb?

 

[rodent]

that'd be pretty much what he said.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Silly question: What's the use of using a refresh rate any higher than your monitor refresh rate? You won't notice any difference, other than higher CPU utilization.

Unless of course your monitor can refresh at 200hz at any decent resolution, in which case I retract my comment.

 

[Rand]

USB definitely has a sinificantly larger processor overhead then a PS/2 mouse.
Having said that I STILL prefer a nice optical USB mouse anyday. I find it much cleaner and smoother then a PS/2 mouse even using PS2Rate.

Even at 100% processor utilization for me the USB mouse VERY rately becomes choppy at all, and I've never once had any issues with the mouse being jerky in games.
I can play Black & White perfectly fine with a USB mouse.. and this on a mere Celeron, even when clocked back to its default clock speed of 433MHz I still don't experience any jerkiness from the mouse at all.
So if TunaBoo is having problems with it w/a 1.2GHz Athlon I'd say there are some very definite issues there.

 

[NFS4]

Where do you get PS2rate?

 

[TunaBoo]

<< USB definitely has a sinificantly larger processor overhead then a PS/2 mouse.
Having said that I STILL prefer a nice optical USB mouse anyday. I find it much cleaner and smoother then a PS/2 mouse even using PS2Rate.

Even at 100% processor utilization for me the USB mouse VERY rately becomes choppy at all, and I've never once had any issues with the mouse being jerky in games.
I can play Black &amp; White perfectly fine with a USB mouse.. and this on a mere Celeron, even when clocked back to its default clock speed of 433MHz I still don't experience any jerkiness from the mouse at all.
So if TunaBoo is having problems with it w/a 1.2GHz Athlon I'd say there are some very definite issues there. >>



Maybe jerky to me isnt jerky to you?

Anyways, I notice jerkage with USB.

And who ever said a mosue refresh rate higher than your monitor's is worthless needs to be shot.

 

[SPAnDAU]

You can get PS2Rate from Here

 

[erikiksaz]

yeah, i never used to have the laggy mouse problem with my intellimouse. i only switched from usb ---> ps2 because my movements began to lag in USB. i don't know why, it never used to do it before, but it just started up. i'm currently at 200hz with ps2rate right now.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

<< And who ever said a mosue refresh rate higher than your monitor's is worthless needs to be shot. >>


That person is me. And why should I be shot? Am I wrong? Please explain.

 

[Mem]

This is a interesting topic,anyway I`ve switched from PS2 to USB on both my keyboard &amp; mouse &amp; have had no problems with it being jerky in gaming both online or offline,I`m not saying USB is better, but far as I`m concerned it`s not noticeable.

 

[CTho9305]

well, windows default is like 40Hz. which is slower than my monitor refresh (and hopefully yours!). but... even 80 doesn't cut it. If you run paint, and use the pen and move your mouse in large circles really fast, you'll see its made up of choppy lines. When you up the rate, it becomes smooth. In games, if you swing around shooting, you get finer control, and things move by more smoothly. It also looks better on the desktop in windows to me (moves more smoothly).

 

[TunaBoo]

How fast your screen refreshes has nothing to do with how smoother or jerky a mouse will be.

 

[Pabster]

You guys crack me up. Load up Win2K and hit CTRL-ALT-DEL. Go in and watch the processes. Put that in the corner of your screen. Now, take your mouse (PS2 or USB) and run it all over hell. Watch your processor utilization. With an Intellimouse Explorer, I'm fluctuating between 0 and 1%. I find it hard to believe a PS2 mouse at any rate would be less. I've used several PS2 mice, but after going Optical, there's no going back.

 

[BreakApart]

This is AN OLD topic...

There was testing done by MOST all the gaming sites(1-2 years ago). USB has LOWER over head than PS2 when it is clocked higher than normal. However, even those that tested said the over-head from over-clocking the PS2 port had little effect on a 400-450 CPU. So with todays 1G and higher, i doubt you'll even notice the over-head.


USB refreshes at 100-120 (depending on the source)
PS2 refreshes at 40 can be over-clocked to 200

Personally i have been happy with USB...

 

[nortexoid]

my usb cpu utilization can get as high as 10%

that's kinda high for moving a mouse around...however, i don't notice anything choppy ever...

i suppose it really depends on the mouse's driver, non?...my mouse is a cheap generic usb mouse - i'm sure if i wetn
optical (i.e. logitech) the utilization would drop...

check the utilization of a ps/2 mouse w/ the rate at 100 and 200... i wanna know how high it is.

 

[Packet]

Keep in mind that PS2 running at 200hz doesn't run at a stead 200hz refreshing. There is a program out there that lets you test, and it ranges from 20 - 200hz with no real stability to it.

USB on the other hand runs at a constant 100hz.

For the guy that had problems with something being jerky because of USB - I seriously doubt it was the actual USB mouse that was the problem. On a 1.2ghz system, there is no way USB is going to have enough overhead to cause any jerkieness, and the 100hz refresh isn't going to either.

Even going from a PS2 (normal) to PS2 (ps2rate) doesn't make a huge difference as far as jerkieness goes. It smooths out mouse polling, but its not going to make tribes2 run any better. If your getting jerkiness it sounds like something else (harddrive paging, video card, etc)

*edited to take out the &quot;m&quot; 's - hehe whoops, been talking about CPUs to much today :\ *

 

[Special K]

How accurate is the system monitor in Win98 for measuring CPU util%? If I am just on the desktop with no programs open, sysmon reports the CPU usage to hover around 30-40%. (BTW, this is a P133 I am talking about here) If I move my PS2 mouse around real fast, sysmon actually says that the CPU util drops to 0%. As soon as I stop moving the mouse, it jumps back up to 30-40. Taskinfo says that my CPU util is 3-4% with nothing running, and about 7-8% when I move the mouse. It seems odd to me that CPU util would be lower if the mouse was moving. Anyone know why sysmon is reporting it that way?

 

[BreakApart]

I have used Rambooster in Win98, the CPU util% meter was very accurate. Small program give it a shot, used it on laptops also while testing PCMCIA cards for CPU util%...

 

[Noriaki]

LOL 100Mhz, that's 100 million refreshes per second.
A little high
Mice are in regular Hz, just 100 refreshes per second

TunaBoo: You are so very helpful.
Why don't you explain why it's not useless to have a mouse refresh higher than how many times your screen can draw? Telling him he needs to be shot is oh so helpful to the situation.

If your screen can only draw the mouse in 85 positions on the screen, nevermind that your gaming framerate is even lower...why does your gaming benefit from having 200 mouse refreshes per second....
The screen never draws them, thus you never see them....why do they help?

Why don't you answer that instead of telling him he needs to be shot?

 

[Soccerman]

Noriaki, have you at least TRIED PS2RATE?

why does your gaming benefit from having 200 mouse refreshes per second....

trust me on this, whenever you use your mouse to change your point of view in an FPS game, you'll have LESS visible jerkiness. plus, when using windows, it looks soooo much nicer then the default 40 hz (shudder)..

When I had some compaq PS2 mouse, I immediately put PS2RATE on (set to 200hz), and it was BEAUTIFUL! everything was perfectly smooth!

I then bought my Microsoft Optical mouse (ambidextrous 4 button + wheel), and used it with PS2RATE, it wasn't quite as good as my other mouse, but it was still acceptable.. I think it sits at a refresh rate of 80hz (no matter what I try, it won't let me hit anything higher). I'd like to buy one of the updated Microsoft Optical mice.. see if they work any better.

 

[Pabster]

Ok, I'm seeing a lot of inaccuracies here. Let me point out a few.

First, a USB device (mouse) isn't running at a &quot;constant 100MHz&quot;. The USB bus runs much slower than that.

Second, mice refresh rates are in HERTZ (Hz) not MHz.

Third, increasing the polling frequency (PS2RATE, etc) uses MORE CPU. You are increasing how many clock cycles pass before the PS/2 port is polled again. Increasing that figure increases your CPU usage.

 

[CTho9305]

the system monitor is VERY inaccurate. get taskinfo2000 or wintop (part of win95 kernel toys - it works in 98 &amp; ME). those provide a breakdown and are more accureat