Mouse pads: does the expensive one matter?

Third attempt at getting this right, so bear with me. I tested it across a couple of sessions and the difference was smaller than the forums made it sound.

The community consensus seems to have shifted twice since I last played. I can post logs or screenshots if that would make this easier to diagnose.

Depends on your setup, but broadly region and server load matter more than most guides acknowledge.

This comes up a lot, so: it depends heavily on your specific setup, so take any single number with a grain of salt.

Others may have a cleaner method.

Slightly different take — give it a clean reinstall before assuming the hardware is at fault.

Quick correction to the above: the community guide covers this better than I can, but the summary is to prioritise the basics first.

Had the exact same issue. temperature is the usual culprit when performance degrades over a session.

Slightly different take — it depends heavily on your specific setup, so take any single number with a grain of salt.

For what it is worth, the community guide covers this better than I can, but the summary is to prioritise the basics first.

Quick correction to the above: nine times out of ten it is a driver or a background process, not the thing you suspect.

Adding to the above: the safe move is the reversible one — you can always undo it if it makes things worse.

Report back once you have tried it.

Short version: the wiki number is theoretical; real results are always a bit lower.

Not the answer you want, but nine times out of ten it is a driver or a background process, not the thing you suspect.

Agreed on most of this, except keep a note of what you changed, otherwise you cannot undo it cleanly later.