Can a $30 dongle make you a better player?Image: Razer

Razer continues to stretch the limits of what gamers are willing to buy to get the edge on their opponents. Starting today, fans of the Razer Viper V2 Pro wireless gaming mouse can obtain the luxury of having a higher polling rate than the other guy with the $30 Razer HyperPolling dongle. Currently, this dongle is only compatible with the Viper V2 Pro and exists for the sole purpose of giving you an almost imperceptible edge against your competition by providing the wireless mouse with a 4000Hz polling rate.

The Razer Viper V2 Pro.

The polling rate of a device refers to the number of times a mouse or other peripheral relays its information to your desktop. The typical polling rate for wired or wireless peripherals is about 1000Hz, meaning that your desktop is getting updates from your mouse once every millisecond. Not to be outdone, manufacturers like Razer have started making peripherals that offer polling rates of up to 8000Hz. While maintaining a 4000Hz polling rate over a wireless connection is definitely impressive, it’s difficult to say how much this will impact a player’s performance given that current cutting-edge gaming monitors top out at 500Hz.

Similar to how peripheral manufacturers were racing to equip their mice with more powerful sensors, it would seem that polling rate has become the new metric that's being used to measure the effectiveness of mice in the gaming landscape. While there is empirical data backing up the claims that a higher polling rate results in less latency with your inputs, it's still debatable as to whether this makes you a better player. Razer seems to think so and believes you’ll pay for the privilege.