HACKER Q&A
📣 bentt

Mac Bluetooth mouse polling rate fix?


Macs cannot seem to poll the mouse cursor on BT Mice at a fast enough frame rate to keep up with the display when it is running at higher refresh rates. This is especially noticeable if you use a BT mouse or trackpad with a newer MacBook Pro with Promotion display (120hz). Just move the cursor with the mouse and then notice the difference.

Move your BT mouse over the window and see it do 60-70hz. Then use the trackpad and see it's 130hz.

The prevailing Internet wisdom says that this is a result of Apple's poor choice of BT hardware and to just use a USB mouse or dongle - but this is crazy.

Windows laptops do not have this problem. I have a hard time believing that my midrange Lenovo laptop has such substantially better BT hardware than a MacBook twice the price.

It's got to be software. Has anyone figured out a fix or a hack?

  👤 aurareturn Accepted Answer ✓
I used to have severe mouse latency issues on my M1 Pro and any wireless mouse. This even happened when my Logitech mouse was connected wirelessly through the supplied dongle. It was unusable even for basic things like web browsing.

However, I don't know which update, but the latency has been much better. Not perfect yet. But usable.

I wonder if this issue is what you're describing.

👤 bentt
Test pointer polling rate here (use Chrome/Brave/etc - Safari is NOT accurate)

https://www.clickspeedtester.com/mouse-polling-rate-checker/

Using an M1 Max with Promotion (120hz) display:

- Logitech BT mouse - 60-70hz

- Logitech USB mouse - 125hz

- Trackpad - 130hz