Are Mechanical Keyboards Good for Gaming?

Before mechanical keyboards became popular and were used by the biggest esports celebrities, it was kept alive by a few people who were used to them from the old era. For decades mechanical keyboards have only been an enthusiastic thing. People who were really in love with their keyboards would build them themselves and would use them all the time. But soon mechanical keyboards became popular among the gaming community and hence the term “Mechanical Gaming Keyboard” came into existence. The big gaming brands started making their own mechanical keyboards specifically configured for the sole purpose of gaming. So today, let's discuss if mechanical keyboards are actually worth it for gaming or not?

How Are Mechanical Keyboards Good For Gaming?

Mechanical keyboards use a mechanical switch that is made from a spring, a plastic slider, and a stem beneath each key to register a keypress and provide tactile or auditory feedback. The typing experience becomes better as it takes less effort to press the key and is more satisfying than a traditional membrane keyboard. Depending on the kind of sound you want the keys to make. There are different choices for the switches you can use based on your usage. The most widely used are Blue and Red switches.

A non-mechanical keyboard on the other hand typically uses a single plastic sheet of squishy rubber domes to give feedback, and there are two separated membrane layers underneath, which come together to recognize a keypress. Usually, membrane keyboards are not very pleasant to type on or to game on, because the response time is much more compared to a mechanical keyboard.

It's hard to figure out whether mechanical keyboards became popular due to the push by gaming companies or it’s just that people really liked using them and found real advantages over regular membrane keyboards.

The most popular keyboards among gamers are the ones with either Cherry MX Brown or MX Blue mechanical switches. I personally prefer Red switches as they provide a smoother and more satisfying experience for me. But the brown and blue switches do provide greater levels of tactile feedback.

Another advantage of mechanical keyboards is that of dependability. The rubber dome in membrane keyboards hardens over time, which in turn requires an increasing amount of force to register a keypress. Membrane keyboards are rated for about 10 million keypresses whereas mechanical keyboards are rated for more than 50 million. This is what makes mechanical keyboards a more economical choice over the long term, especially if you value consistent performance.

Mechanical keyboards also often feature a diode on each key, which meant that the rollover count of the keyboard or the number of keys that could be correctly recognized simultaneously was higher than membrane alternatives.

Finally, Mechanical keyboards are considered better for gaming because they offer better tactile and auditory feedback, last longer, and can correctly recognize a large number of key inputs at once. Nowadays, factors like RGB backlighting, key layout, and wireless connectivity are also very important components of mechanical keyboards.

So, yes. Mechanical Keyboards are indeed better for gaming.