The sample rate or polling rate of a mouse is the number of time the cursor’s position is updated per second. By default, the sample rate for a USB device is 125 Hz or the cursor is updated every 8 ms by default in Windows. Some gamers advocate that a higher sample rate correlates with the higher overall responsiveness of a mouse. Sample rate becomes apparent in certain games such as Unreal Tournament, dubbed a twitch game where fast movements are a must.

For our testing purposes, Mouse Rate Checker is used to verify the polling rate. (Download Mouse Rate Checker: Softpedia)

Fortunately, the Azurues works at 500 Hz by default instead of 125 Hz, which should be good enough for most gamers.