Gaming Keyboard vs. Standard Keyboard: What’s the Difference?
What makes it different, and does it matter?
Why opt for a "gaming" keyboard over a standard one? (Hint: it's not just RGB lighting). The answer is quite simple: functionality, features, and durability.
What makes a gaming keyboard different from a standard keyboard?
A gaming keyboard is built to withstand the unique needs of gamers beyond simple typing. This means making sure the keyboard is extra durable for millions and millions of keypresses, and can keep up with the lightning fast, simultaneous inputs required by competitive gaming. <a href=https://steelseries.com/gaming-keyboards>Gaming keyboards of course also have lots of additional features like RGB, unique switch types and speeds, and many more customizations to meet your needs.
Watch our CTO Tino talk about it here:
Let's dive in to a bit of what Tino touched on regarding the creation of the gaming keyboard:
N-Key Rollover (also known as "anti-ghosting")
On many standard and most membrane keyboards, pressing several keys simultaneously can cause inputs to be lost because the keyboard can't process multiple inputs at the same time. <a href=https://steelseries.com/gaming-keyboards>Gaming keyboards utilize rollover / anti-ghosting to prevent keypresses from being dropped:
_Laptop with 2-Key Rollover vs. Apex with N-Key Rollover_Durability
Most standard keyboards aren't rated for tens of millions of keypresses; the average user might not come anywhere near that number, so it's overkill for the average typer. But when you think about gaming and the sheer number of times that you press W, A, S, and D, R, etc., the need for becomes more apparent.