This isn’t unique to gaming mouse pads, as good office and productivity mouse pads also take wrist comfort into account. But a good gaming mouse pad certainly strives to keep carpal tunnel syndrome away. This is why the gaming mouse pads you’re looking for are made from ergonomically-focused materials that respond to your arms and hands and aren’t too stiff or abrasive. If they have dedicated cushioning, all the better. This is one of the main reasons good mouse pads are large, so that they cover more space and allow you to rest your wrists on the pad while still having plenty of room for mouse movement.

So why even bother with a hard surface gaming mouse pad? Well, they’re excellent when precision and control aren’t priorities but movement speed is. It’s like ice skating versus football. There’s almost no friction with a good hard surface gaming mouse pad, which means stopping the mouse is much more of a challenge. Games that require sweeping movements may benefit from this, or you may just want to challenge yourself.Plenty of professionals use a special customized version of a certain pad with a team logo or gamer tag on the surface, but those pads are essentially all the same when it comes to the overall specifications and performance, so we added those to the count of their unbranded/non-customized versions. These special colorways and personal editions usually have the logos and names added to the pad by sublimation, so the glide isn’t affected at all. Logitech G640 Also, mousepads, like the clothing items, will inevitably wear out after prolonged use. You may feel the glide change gradually over time. Ultimately, usage frequency and how intensely you play with the mousepad will determine the level and speed of deterioration.

This list is, as we mentioned before, based on what the professionals are using. What you’ll see here is that most pros are using fairly large mouse pads, at least when compared to regular office mats. That’s because the overall sensitivity/ eDPIof pro (shooter) players is way lower than that of most casual gamers. This gives them way more control over their aim and overall just makes for a more consistent and reliable aiming experience when compared to extremely high sensitivities where it’s nearly impossible to make any micro adjustments to the aiming reticle. Even if you feel like you don’t need a large mousepad we would recommend getting one if you have the space for it; it’s always better to have some spare space for your mouse movements than to have to run into the edge of your playing surface in the heat of battle. Think of it like a shirt or jersey. It tends to get a buildup of dirt from sweat and dust after a while of frequent use. The grime will cause the mousepad texture to deteriorate and possibly even affect mouse functions. So it's better to clean the mousepad on a regular basis. Here's the instructions: The ZOWIE G-SR and P-SR are great examples of soft gaming mouse pads that have just the right amount of traction. They’re excellent for precision control, with optimal stopping power and glide. The ZOWIE G-SR-SE ROUGE is a little softer, but a favorite among CS:GO players because its design is perfect for long range sniping and small movements of the mouse. As with everything related to PCs, RGB has made it to gaming mouse pads, with some of them looking a lot like a Times Square billboard when plugged in. Others limit the RGB to the edges. Again, whether you like this or not is up to you, but do remember an RGB gaming mouse pad needs a power source, aka a USB connection, so that’s more clutter on your desktop. ZOWIE mouse pads prefer to keep things neat, clean, and understated. Many brands offer this kind of look, with a simple logo being the only graphic. Others skip RGB but have elaborate artwork on the pad, like a Windows desktop wallpaper, in essence.

Pro Lists

Next, take a damp, clean piece of cloth or wet wipe that is alcohol-free to wipe down the mouse pad. There is a middle ground. Newer materials in gaming pads like the ZOWIE GTF-X and PTF-X strike a balance between hard and soft attributes, so you may want to try them out.

While seemingly an aesthetic choice, mouse pads with good stitching don’t just look good, they last longer as the stitching prevents gradual fraying. But even good stitching may prove abrasive and cause irritation to your hands. If you find that edge stitching irritates the skin on your wrists as you move your arms over it, then it’s obviously time to go with a non-stitched mouse pad. All in all, the advantages seem clear to us. If you’re even a bit serious about your gaming it’s a great idea to get yourself a nice pad to really complete your setup. The List

Professional shooter gamers might gravitate towards (more controlling) cloth pads, but there are droves of people out there who have a need for speed. If you’re one of those people then you should look at the SkyPAD 3.0. Its smooth surface is just about the fastest you can find out there, and while we certainly wouldn’t recommend this to people who are just finding their footing in the world of gaming mousepads it’s undoubtedly a pad that’s great at what it sets out to do. Obviously, where you intend to use the mouse pad matters most here. The gaming mouse pad must correlate in size to your desktop space. Only go with small mouse pads (under 300mm x 200mm) if you’re really pressed for space. In any case, there are plenty of options, from desk-covering 900mm x 300mm/400mm extra large mouse pads to sweet spot ZOWIE pads sized at up to 470mm x 390mm. That’s a good balance and not too large, offering plenty of room for even the most sweeping mouse movements. Extended or extra large pads take up lots of room and may cover a big chunk of your desktop, so plan accordingly. As a little side note: the glide of cloth pads can be affected by a number of factors, including how clean the surface is, the humidity in the air, the age of the pad, and your playing style. As such, your experience with a certain mousepad can be drastically different from what someone else is experiencing. This makes the search for a perfect pad a little bit more difficult, but it’s not as if a control pad is suddenly going to turn into a speed pad or anything like that, so hopefully this guide aids you in your choice.