Sensor and Performance

The SteelSeries Rival 3 Wireless is equipped with the TrueMove Air sensor, which I believe to be based on the PixArt PAW3335 (custom SROM). According to specifications, the TrueMove Air is capable of up to 18,000 CPI, as well as a maximum tracking speed of 400 IPS, which equals 10.16 m/s. Out of the box, five pre-defined CPI steps are available: 400, 800, 1200, 1600, and 2000.

All testing was done on the latest firmware. As such, results obtained on earlier firmware versions may differ from those presented hereafter.

CPI Accuracy

"CPI" (short for counts per inch) describes the number of counts registered by the mouse if it is moved exactly an 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.


I've restricted my testing to the four most common CPI steps, which are 400, 800, 1600, and 3200. As you can see, deviation is massive across the board and exclusively positive. A poor result overall. In order to account for the measured deviation, adjusted steps of 400, 800, 1500, and 3000 CPI have been used for 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. Note that the G403 is moved first and thus receives a slight head start.

Since the Rival 3 Wireless lacks wired connectivity, establishing wired performance and thus determining the isolated wireless delay is not possible. Additionally, testing is restricted to 2.4 GHz mode as Bluetooth is not suitable for non-casual gaming applications.


First, I'm looking at two xCounts plots—generated at 1600 and 18,000 CPI—to quickly gauge whether there is any smoothing, which would be indicated by any visible "kinks." As you can see, such kinks are plainly on display in the second plot, which indicates that there is indeed smoothing. In order to determine the exact amount, we'll have to take a look at xSum plots.


In order to determine motion delay, I'm looking at xSum plots generated at 1600, 6200, and 18,000 CPI. The line further to the left denotes the sensor with less motion delay. At 1600 CPI, the overall motion delay is roughly 2.5 ms. At and above 6200 CPI, the first level of smoothing is applied, resulting in an overall motion delay of roughly 5 ms. Finally, at and above 11,700 CPI, the second level of smoothing is applied, which results in an overall motion delay of roughly 9 ms, all the way up to 18,000 CPI.

Speed-related Accuracy Variance (SRAV)

What people typically mean when they talk about "acceleration" is speed-related accuracy variance (or short SRAV). 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 4.0 m/s (which is within the proclaimed PCS range), at which no sign of the sensor malfunctioning can be observed.

Polling Rate Stability

Polling behavior is rather curious on the Rival 3 Wireless. If everything goes well, polling looks perfectly fine and stable. I also didn't observe anything indicative of a desynchronization drift, which occurs when SPI, wireless, and USB communication are out of sync. Additionally, polling stability is unaffected by any of the available RGB lighting effects.

However, occasionally, severe outliers occur seemingly at random. 250 Hz appears to be affected the most, but none of the available polling rates seem to be entirely safe. I do not know what could be causing these outliers or whether they are indicative of some sort of desynchronization drift.

Paint Test

This test is used to indicate any potential issues with angle snapping (non-native straightening of linear motion) and jitter, along with any sensor lens rattle. As you can see, no issues with angle snapping can be observed. No jitter is visible at 400 or 1600 CPI. At 6200 CPI, the first level of smoothing is applied, which keeps jitter mostly under control. 18,000 CPI has the second level of smoothing, but jitter levels are very high nonetheless. Lastly, there is no sensor lens movement.

Lift-off Distance

The Rival 3 Wireless does not offer any LOD adjustment options. This is unfortunate as the PAW3335 would be fully capable of it. At the default setting, the sensor does track at a height of 1 DVD, but not at a height of 2 DVDs (1.2<x<2.4 mm; x=LOD height). 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. For whatever reason, I cannot use my usual method with wireless-only mice. Using the less reliable and accurate "bump test," click latency has been measured to be around 9–11 ms higher than on 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.

The switches were measured to be running at 1.9 V. Since the same switches are running at 3.3 V in the regular wired Rival 3, I believe these to be running below specifications in the Rival 3 Wireless. This isn't unusual on wireless mice and typically done to prolong battery life. On the other hand, operating switches below their voltage specifications can shorten their life expectancy.