The 7 Best Mechanical Switches For Gaming - Fall 2023 Reviews

The best linear option for gaming, and the best gaming switches we'd recommend overall for most people, are Cherry MX Speed Silver switches. Although many enthusiasts have moved away from some of the older Cherry MX designs, these switches are an exception that keeps people coming back. When it boils down to it, these switches are pretty simple. They don't come pre-lubed from the factory and don't match the out-of-box smoothness of some other options, but they're lightning-fast and ultra-lightweight, making them ideal for playing fast-paced, competitive titles.

If you're seriously committed to an even faster and more lightweight experience, check out the related Kailh Super Speed Silver switches as an alternative. The Super Speed Silvers deliver the same outstanding latency performance, but they're markedly smoother out of the box and have an even shorter pre-travel distance. The reason they don't take the place as our main pick is that most people find them slightly too fast and lightweight. They're quite unforgiving, and they can dramatically increase the risk of accidental keystrokes that can spell disaster in a competitive gaming scenario.

If you're looking for a more affordable linear pick for a budget build, we recommend Akko CS Silver switches. While they may not be Speed switches in name, they offer a similarly lightweight, fast-actuating experience and come close to offering the same level of latency performance as the more expensive Cherry MX Speed Silver switches above. Additionally, they have a perimeter stem design, which adds a bit of stability, and the upper housing is clear, which can better help show off any RGB lighting on your keyboard.

So why don't these switches snag our top spot? As mentioned, they don't match the same latency performance. The minor latency difference isn't dramatic enough that you're going to be able to feel in-game, so in many cases, these switches still may be a better bet for most people. However, if you're trying to optimize latency performance for high-level competitive play, even small optimizations can impact the entire chain of components that contribute to latency, including your keyboard, CPU, GPU, monitor, and internet connection.

For a tactile fan, we recommend Tecsee Neapolitan Ice Cream switches. These switches have a playful colorway with a white bottom housing, pink upper, and brown stem in reference to their name. More importantly, they deliver excellent latency performance with a good balance between press and release latency, while many linear options tend to have a much lower initial press release at the cost of release latency. This means that these switches are slightly better equalized, giving good initial speed but also good speed for follow-up inputs on the same key. That said, these switches are classified as heavier switches, with a particularly crisp and responsive-feeling tactile bump and a slightly higher-pitched sound.

Their long, two-stage springs contribute to that heavier feel and ensure a snappy rebound. Ultimately, these switches are a great pick if you're forceful with your inputs, as the multi-stage spring will help cushion the feeling of bottoming out your keypress. The downside of these switches is that they're expensive and known for being a little scratchy and wobbly out of the box, so we recommend adding films and a bit of lube yourself if you're thinking about picking these up. While these aren't typically available from major online retailers, you can find them from several keyboard switches retailers, like CannonKeys and iLumkb.

As the best budget tactile for gaming, we recommend Kailh Speed Copper switches. While these switches offer the same high-end latency performance as the Tecsee Neapolitan Ice Cream switches above, that's where the similarities end. While those switches are heavy and snappy, the Kailh Speed Copper switches are much more lightweight-feeling and have slightly shortened springs. These switches also have virtually no pre-travel, with a more subtle tactile point to overcome right at the beginning of travel.

While still lightweight by tactile standards, the Speed Coppers offer enough tactility that you can very gently rest your fingertips on your keycaps without accidentally actuating a keypress, which is something you can't do with our top linear pick, the Cherry MX Speed Silver switches. These switches also have a clear upper housing, allowing RGB lighting to shine through without interference. One final note: while these switches have pretty good factory smoothness out of the box, we suggest lubing them lightly for best results.

In the world of clicky switches, we recommend Kailh Speed Bronze switches for gaming. Admittedly, clicky switches are slightly less popular among gamers than their linear and tactile counterparts. While some clicky switches have great latency characteristics, they're much too heavy for most people, not to mention too loud for some households. Kailh Speed Bronze switches are slightly different in this respect, as they're comparatively lightweight and have a very short pre-travel distance. They make a characteristic clicking noise on both the downstroke and upstroke due to their click bar design.

While they're far from the loudest clicky options available, they're still likely to get on people's nerves if you have roommates, family members, or even pets in the same space you use them. Altogether, these switches are well-suited for fast-paced or competitive games when input speed is crucial. They provide reasonable smoothness out of the box, but you can upgrade the experience with some lubing at home. Note that these switches typically aren't available from major retailers, but you can get them directly from Kailh's website here.

If you want to prioritize your board's RGB lighting at least as much as latency performance, we recommend Gateron North Pole 2.0 Yellow switches. Note that all switches featured in this article will show off your RGB to some degree, but the more transparent parts a switch has, the more this effect is amplified. Gateron North Pole 2.0 Yellow are linear switches that use the community favorite Gateron Yellow switches as a template. However, their upper and lower housing and stems are made of clear polycarbonate, allowing your RGB lighting to bounce around and stretch out its legs rather than get obscured by darker or sometimes opaque materials used on other switches.

But these switches aren't all show, and they provide great latency performance as well. The only major downside is that polycarbonate lends slightly more scratchiness to the entire switch system. The good news is that you can dramatically improve the factory smoothness with a bit of lube.

As a final note, as their name suggests, these switches are actually a follow-up to Gateron's original North Pole 1.0 Yellow switches. The difference is that the 2.0 version adds a small silicone disk to the bottom of the stem, which helps to cushion the feeling of bottoming out a keypress. That said, this addition also dramatically changed the sound profile. Where the original 1.0 switches had a deeper, 'thockier' sound, the new 2.0 switches are significantly quieter, almost muted, sounding a bit like a silent switch. Otherwise, these switches are the same, so it's just a matter of choosing the sound profile you like best.

While many popular linear options are pretty quiet to begin with, if you're particularly sensitive to noise or you live with others who are, we recommend Kailh Box Silent Pink switches. No mechanical switch options are truly silent, but these do a great job of keeping the noise to a minimum.

Even as far as linear switches go, they have great latency characteristics, and they feel very smooth right out of the box, so they're a great pick if you'd rather avoid having to lube your switches yourself. They also have a round stem perimeter, which increases overall stability. The only aspect that may take some getting used to is that these switches have a slightly shallow total travel distance, so you may need to adjust how much force you apply if you tend to bottom out your keys. To that end, this switch also has a thin rubber dampener at the end of travel that takes a bit of the harshness of the bottoming-out experience, which can help.