In the PC gaming world there are so many products targeted to gamers, claiming improvements in games. A lot of the time it seems like the term  ‘gaming’ is slapped on the product just to warrant a higher cost or encourage purchases without any proof or evidence of improved gaming performance.

Gaming Keyboards

The term ‘gaming’ can be placed on any type of keyboard but there are certain features that are common among the best gaming keyboards. The most common type of keyboard targeted to gamers is mechanical keyboards. The main benefits of mechanical keyboards are their high response time and high key rollover, both of which do have an impact on gaming performance..

Faster response times allow for quicker button presses to react fast to in-game actions while the high key rollover capabilities prevents key presses not being registered due to too many keys being pressed in rapid succession.

Another common feature of gaming keyboards is LED backlighting, which has no technical effect on gaming, but does allow for customisation and can be used to highlight specific keys depending on the game being played.

Most gaming keyboards also allow for key mapping and macros meaning all the keys on the keyboard can be changed to have different inputs or can have sequences of events assigned to a single key. This makes accessing shortcuts easier and faster.

So is it worthwhile to have a gaming keyboard? It depends on your usage, but generally gaming keyboards do make a difference in faster response times, macro capabilities and key rollover all helping to improve reaction speed and can result in a different outcome of the game.

In professional environments gaming keyboards can also help efficiency by allowing employees to work more efficiently and using macros to complete complex tasks at the push of a button.

Gaming keyboards do definitely make a difference, however there are non-gaming targeted keyboards that have most or all of these features which can be more affordable whilst providing similar benefits..