How to Optimize Your Keyboard for almost Zero Input Delay

1. Physical Setup and Software Tweaks

• USB Port Selection: Determine your motherboard model (using msinfo32 in the Run dialog) and consult its manual. Plug your keyboard into a USB 3.0 port or higher for the best potential latency.

• Update Firmware: Ensure your keyboard's firmware is running the latest version, as updates often include latency fixes.

• Polling Rate: Set your keyboard's polling rate to the highest optimal value. The recommended maximum is 2,000 Hz for most setups. While higher rates (4,000 Hz or 8,000 Hz) exist, they can cause unnecessary strain on the CPU for a minimal latency gain unless you have a high-end processor.

• Actuation Point: If your keyboard allows it (common on analog keyboards like Wooting), set the actuation point to the lowest possible distance (e.g., 0.1 mm) for the fastest input registration.

• Rapid Trigger: Adjust the Rapid Trigger setting (if available). The video suggests 0.4 mm as a highly responsive setting.

• "Gaming" or "Tachyon" Modes: Enable any specific low-latency or "Tachyon" modes in your keyboard software, which usually reduce latency by disabling features like RGB.

• Disable RGB: Turning off the RGB lighting on your keyboard can lead to a slight decrease in input latency.

2. System and Driver Optimizations

The video instructs users to download a folder of resources from an external source to perform these system-level tweaks:

• General Keyboard Optimizations (Registry Tweaks): Run a provided batch file as administrator to apply general keyboard-related registry changes designed to improve performance.

• Keyboard Data Queue Size: Run a provided tool to set the proper keyboard data queue size based on your specific CPU type (low-end, mid-range, or high-end).

• Disable USB Power Savings: Run a provided file as administrator to disable USB power-saving features that can introduce input delay.

• Set Keyboard/Mouse Drivers to High Priority: Run a provided file as administrator to elevate the priority of your keyboard and mouse drivers, ensuring they get sufficient resources from the CPU.

• Install a High-Performance Power Plan: The guide recommends activating a high-performance power plan (like the "EXM free plan V7" mentioned in the video) as it is the easiest way to disable specific USB power-saving features.

• Use HID-Compliant Filter Driver (hid-bf): This advanced tweak allows you to properly set the polling rate.

  • Run the batch file corresponding to your desired polling rate (e.g., 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, etc.).

  • Run setup.exe as admin, find your HID Keyboard Device, set the rate to your desired frequency (matching the batch file you ran), select Filter on Device, and press Install Service.

Note on hid-bf Errors: If your keyboard stops working after this tweak, unplug it, plug it into a different USB port, and then plug it back into the original port to reset the driver and revert this specific change.

3. Final Step

After applying all the software and driver changes, restart your PC for all the tweaks to take full effect.