Sensor and Performance

The Dark Core RGB Pro is equipped with the PAW3392, which is a custom sensor. From what I can tell it's based either on the PMW3360 or PMW3389 (16-pin, internal illumination). It's definitely not a variant of the PAW3335. According to specifications, the 3392 is capable of up to 18,000 CPI, as well as a maximum tracking speed of 450 IPS, which equals 11.43 m/s. Out of the box, three pre-defined CPI steps are available: 800, 1500, and 3000.

CPI Accuracy

"CPI" (short for counts per inch) describes the number of counts registered by the mouse if it is moved exactly one inch. There are several factors (firmware, mounting height of the sensor not meeting specifications, mouse feet thickness, mousing surface, among others) which may contribute to nominal CPI not matching actual CPI. It is impossible to always achieve a perfect match, but ideally, nominal and actual CPI should differ as little as possible. In this test I'm determining whether this is the case or not. However, please keep in mind that said variance will still vary from unit to unit, so your mileage may vary as well.


I've restricted my testing to the four most common CPI steps, which are 400, 800, 1600, and 3200. As you can see, the deviation is moderate but consistent, which is a decent result. In order to account for the measured deviation, I've set steps of 400, 800, 1500, and 3050 for my testing.

Motion Delay

"Motion delay" encompasses all kinds of sensor lag. Any further sources of input delay will not be recorded in this test. The main thing I'll be looking for in this test is sensor smoothing, which describes an averaging of motion data across several capture frames in order to reduce jitter at higher CPI values, increasing motion delay along with it. The goal here is to have as little smoothing as possible. As there is no way to accurately measure motion delay absolutely, it can only be done by comparison with a control subject that has been determined to have the lowest possible motion delay. In this case the control subject is a G403, whose 3366 has no visible smoothing across the entire CPI range.

All wireless testing was done using the regular 2.4 GHz wireless mode as I'm unable to test the Bluetooth mode due to the lack of a Bluetooth enabled device. That having been said, the lowered polling rate as well as the properties of the transfer protocol make Bluetooth mode unsuitable for anything that isn't office usage anyway. Both wired and wireless testing was done using the default polling rate of 1000 Hz.

Wired testing

The 1600 CPI plot presents a picture of remarkably clean tracking with no relevant SPI timing jitter to speak of. This doesn't change one bit at the maximum 18,000 CPI, which is impressive.


Here, I'm looking at xSum plots generated at 1600 and 18,000 CPI. The line further to the left denotes the sensor with less motion delay. Motion delay is identical at both 1600 and 18,000 CPI. To put it simply, the 3392 in the Dark Core RGB Pro has no visible smoothing across the entire CPI range.

Wireless testing

Aside from a few polling outliers the plot is identical to the wired one, both at 1600 and 18,000 CPI.


Yet again, I'm looking at xSum plots generated at 1600 and 18,000 CPI. Not only is there no added smoothing, there is also only very little wireless delay. Keeping the results from the wired tests above in mind, I'm able to measure a wireless delay of roughly 1 ms, which is excellent. It's all the more impressive when taking the distance between the mouse and wireless USB dongle into account, which was more than 50 cm at all times.

Speed-Related Accuracy Variance (SRAV)

What people typically mean when they talk about "acceleration" is speed-related accuracy variance (or SRAV for short). It's not about the mouse having a set amount of inherent positive or negative acceleration, but about the cursor not traveling the same distance if the mouse is moved the same physical distance at different speeds. The easiest way to test this is by comparison with a control subject that is known to have very low SRAV, which in this case is the G403. As you can see from the plot, no displacement between the two cursor paths can be observed, which confirms that SRAV is very low.

Perfect Control Speed

Perfect Control Speed (or PCS for short) is the maximum speed up to which the mouse and its sensor can be moved without the sensor malfunctioning in any way. I've only managed to hit a measly 4 m/s (which is within the proclaimed PCS range), at which speed no sign of the sensor malfunctioning can be observed.

Polling Rate Stability

For wired mice, polling rate stability merely concerns the wired connection between the mouse (SPI communication) and the USB. For wireless mice, another device that needs to be kept in sync between the first two is added to the mix: the wireless dongle/wireless receiver. I'm unable to measure all stages of the entire end-to-end signal chain individually, so testing polling rate stability at the endpoint (the USB) has to suffice here.


First, I'm testing whether SPI, wireless, and USB communication are synchronized. Any of these not being in sync would be indicated by at least one 2 ms report being visible, which would be the result of any desynchronization drift accumulated over time. As you can see, several 2 ms reports are visible, which confirms that the polling of the entire signal chain is not in sync. That having been said, the desynchronization drift is rather small, so synchronization is above average overall.


Second, I'm testing general polling-rate stability of the individual polling rates in wireless mode. Running the Dark Core RGB Pro at a lower polling rate can have the benefit of extending battery life. Although both 500 and 1000 Hz show increased variance, polling rate stability is impressively high for a wireless device, and rivals some wired mice.


Finally, I'm taking a look at the optional 2000 Hz mode. By default, the Dark Core RGB Pro runs at a polling rate of 1000 Hz, but it can be set to run at 2000 Hz within iCUE. As you can see, polling gets absolutely wrecked. I've also measured several other ill effects pertaining to CPI accuracy and overall tracking. To sum it up, the 2000 Hz mode is barely usable and should be avoided.

Paint Test

This test is used to expose any potential issues with angle snapping (non-native straightening of linear motion) and jitter, along with any sensor lens rattle. I'm testing 1600, 9000, and 18,000 CPI. No issues with angle snapping can be observed at any CPI step. At 1600 CPI, no jitter is visible. At 9000 CPI, jitter is increased but still manageable. Finally, jitter reaches excessive levels at 18,000 CPI. This is in line with what to expect from a smoothing-free sensor. Lastly, there is no sensor lens rattle.

Lift-off Distance

By default, the sensor does track at a height of 2 DVDs, but not at a height of 3 DVDs. After performing a surface calibration within iCUE, the sensor was no longer tracking at even a height of 1 DVD. Keep in mind that LOD may vary slightly depending on the mousing surface (pad) it is being used on.

Click Latency

Since mechanical switches are being used for the buttons in most computer mice, debouncing is required in order to avoid unintended double clicks. Debouncing typically adds a delay (along with any potential processing delay), which shall be referred to as click latency. As there is no way to measure said delay directly, it has to be done by comparing it to a control subject, which in this case is the Logitech G203. Testing could only be done in wired mode because the main PCB has to be in contact with the bottom shell for wireless mode to be properly set. Click latency has been measured to be roughly +0.0 ms when compared to the SteelSeries Ikari, which is considered as the baseline with 0 ms. Please keep in mind that the measured value is not the absolute click latency. Comparison data comes from this thread as well as my own testing, using qsxcv's program.