BenQ ZOWIE EC2-DW  Mouse Review

Jul 27, 2025 02:41 AM By ApolloPM

52

The only game I find that does not work with >1Khz is some of the Persona games which are games designed for gamepads anyway and it is framerate capped at 120FPS because its game logic is tied to framerate and the camera controls is tied to mouse polling rate, so it’s a programming logic oversight than a hardware “bandwidth” issue. I have yet to find a modern PC shooter game that 4Khz doesn’t work with on my 13900K + RTX 4090 setup. e.g. Battlefield 3/4/1/5/2047, Call of Duty games, CSGO/CS2, Overwatch 2, Valorant, Fortnite, Helldivers 2, R6S, Ready or Not, Cyberpunk 2077, Halo MCC+Infinite, Ratchet and Clank (PC), RDR2, etc. If you bought this mouse then you probably already rocking a 7800X3D at the very least. I remember The Last of Us Part 1 on PC at launched had really stuttery camera with mouse and keyboard, increasing my polling rate from 1Khz to 4Khz actually helped a lot with smoothing out the camera rotational samples, so that’s one example where brute forcing shoddy camera programming with polling rate can actually help overcome the game’s limitations. They did eventually patched this so that it is now fine on 1Khz, but the point is that the higher polling rate actually helped than add any issues. So again I don’t see why you would stick with 2Khz for “better” battery life over 4Khz if you’re going to charge your phone, wireless earbuds, etc. every night, may as well just charge your mouse overnight at the same time, especially with a convenient charging dock like that. (And even at 4Khz it can last two days so if you forget to charge it one night it will still be fine the next day - you’re not going to forget to charge your phone two nights in a row) So you either just pick 1Khz for games that has game logic tied to framerate and mouse polling rate or 4Khz for anything else, I don’t see the point of 2Khz, it’s a weird compromise where it is can’t work on games that has game logic issues tied to framerate and polling rate (>1000Hz), then you 4Khz that is just better performance with enough battery life that can last you two days, especially when everyone charge their devices (phones, earbuds, etc) as a nightly ritual already.

You are too caught up in the hype of high hz. If you are playing slow tactical shooters like CS then you are most likely not even saturating 1khz 99.99% of the time, unless you play extremely low sense and 3200dpi where you might saturate 2khz on 180 degree flicks and 1khz on shorter fast flicks. Faster shooters where you are constantly flicking 90-180 degree turns will load the bus a lot more.

The latency advantage of 4khz over 1khz is not something you will notice if all hz settings are implemented equal. E.g. sensor, on board processor etc. are running at the same performance level. Most manufacturers run 1khz wireless and lower at lower power modes so the performance becomes lower (higher latency etc.). Let someone else set the hz for you so that you don’t know what the mouse is running and you will most likely not notice any difference in game between 1khz and 4khz unless the mouse has major difference between 1khz and higher polling rates or the game is less smooth due higher loading of the CPU.

Saturating the USB bus on 4khz and 8khz will cause much higher CPU load. You want as much CPU available for the game to create the next frames to keep the latency low. Using 2khz usually bumps up the sensor and on board CPU performance closer to wired levels, which is why using 2khz gives some advantage over 1khz.

I would prefer 1khz mode with everything set to max over higher polling rates. Battery life would be close to as bad as 4khz, but latency would be within 1ms of 4khz in all aspects and there would be no extra CPU load..

Jul 01, 2025 03:48 PM By shriramhr

77

After 2kHz it’s all dimishing returns… I think 2khz is the sweetspot for smoothest performance while giving a decent amount of battery life. I have a fast enough PC for 4khz, but Id rather use 2khz since it makes literally no diff to game performance but does provide much more battery life. Also, less number of charging cycles which means battery life span will be better in the long run.

Have a look at my other reply: https://www.rtings.com/discussions/ZyR9G_P2jB6yjAa8/review-updates-benq-zowie-ec2-dw?sort=newest#comment-187580

It only make sense to use 1Khz or 4Khz, not in-between. The game either have controls and logic tied to framerate/polling rate (then stick with 1Khz in that very specific case because the programmers were expecting every mouse to be at 1000Hz), or just leave it at 4Khz and just charge your mouse every night like you do with all you other devices anyway (phone, TWS earbuds, etc).

“Also, less number of charging cycles which means battery life span will be better in the long run.” - that’s why you don’t use the mouse until empty, 4Khz can last two days in a row, it won’t go below 45% charge if done properly, this has a convenient charging dock, there is almost no excuse for it to completely run out of battery like you do with your phone which everyone plug-in overnight as a nightly or bi-nightly ritual these days. If you charge your phone every night then what stops you from just placing your mouse on the charging dock that takes 1 second?

Jul 01, 2025 02:13 PM By erk_

68

You are dependent on the game also being able to run 4KHz. A lot of games have issues if you actually saturate the bus (high dpi with low sens and fast movements). Very few games poll higher than 1KHz, a lot of games poll at the frame rate they are running, so 4KHz is more about loading the CPU than actual advantage in game unless the mouse and sensor runs in a very different mode at 4KHz. A lot of mice run the sensor in wired mode or similar to wired mode at highest Hz, but enable power savings at 1KHz and to some degree at 2KHz. Only way to know performance at 2KHz is to actually test it.

The only game I find that does not work with >1Khz is some of the Persona games which are games designed for gamepads anyway and it is framerate capped at 120FPS because its game logic is tied to framerate and the camera controls is tied to mouse polling rate, so it’s a programming logic oversight than a hardware “bandwidth” issue.

I have yet to find a modern PC shooter game that 4Khz doesn’t work with on my 13900K + RTX 4090 setup. e.g. Battlefield 3/4/1/5/2047, Call of Duty games, CSGO/CS2, Overwatch 2, Valorant, Fortnite, Helldivers 2, R6S, Ready or Not, Cyberpunk 2077, Halo MCC+Infinite, Ratchet and Clank (PC), RDR2, etc. If you bought this mouse then you probably already rocking a 7800X3D at the very least.

I remember The Last of Us Part 1 on PC at launched had really stuttery camera with mouse and keyboard, increasing my polling rate from 1Khz to 4Khz actually helped a lot with smoothing out the camera rotational samples, so that’s one example where brute forcing shoddy camera programming with polling rate can actually help overcome the game’s limitations. They did eventually patched this so that it is now fine on 1Khz, but the point is that the higher polling rate actually helped than add any issues.

So again I don’t see why you would stick with 2Khz for “better” battery life over 4Khz if you’re going to charge your phone, wireless earbuds, etc. every night, may as well just charge your mouse overnight at the same time, especially with a convenient charging dock like that. (And even at 4Khz it can last two days so if you forget to charge it one night it will still be fine the next day - you’re not going to forget to charge your phone two nights in a row)

So you either just pick 1Khz for games that has game logic tied to framerate and mouse polling rate or 4Khz for anything else, I don’t see the point of 2Khz, it’s a weird compromise where it is can’t work on games that has game logic issues tied to framerate and polling rate (>1000Hz), then you 4Khz that is just better performance with enough battery life that can last you two days, especially when everyone charge their devices (phones, earbuds, etc) as a nightly ritual already.

Jun 25, 2025 11:41 AM By erk_

68

Kind of strange that the mid and end of motion sensor latency is so much worse at 1600 and 3200 dpi. Wonder if the 1000 and 1200 dpi is more similar to 800 dpi or 1600 dpi.

Hey erk_ ! Here are the results and I’m also adding a screenshot to help visualize it better 😄 1000 dpi:

• Delay To Start Of Movement 11.0 ms
• Delay At Half Movement 1.0 ms
• Delay To End Of Movement 2.4 ms

1200dpi:

• Delay To Start Of Movement 10.1 ms
• Delay At Half Movement 1.2 ms
• Delay To End Of Movement 3.0 ms https://i.rtings.com/assets/pages/d4BzyDdF/1000-1200-compare-large.jpg?format=auto

Thank you again and have a great week! 😄

Jun 25, 2025 11:41 AM By erk_

68

Kind of strange that the mid and end of motion sensor latency is so much worse at 1600 and 3200 dpi. Wonder if the 1000 and 1200 dpi is more similar to 800 dpi or 1600 dpi.

Hey erk_! I’ll try 1000 and 1200 dpi for you next week and give the results here! Thank you! 😄

Jun 30, 2025 10:15 PM By ApolloPM

52

Why use 2Khz if there is a convenient charging dock and the battery will last a couple of days anyway? Most people charge their phone and peripherals overnight so there is no chance that the mouse will run out of battery. Just stick with 4Khz. This mouse is expensive, so there is also a big chance you have an expensive PC too that can handle high polling rate just fine.

After 2kHz it’s all dimishing returns… I think 2khz is the sweetspot for smoothest performance while giving a decent amount of battery life. I have a fast enough PC for 4khz, but Id rather use 2khz since it makes literally no diff to game performance but does provide much more battery life. Also, less number of charging cycles which means battery life span will be better in the long run.