Some games demand the best from us, and once we step into the professional arena, there are entire e-sports teams training every day to sharpen their skills and shave off that extra millisecond that could make the difference in a major tournament. If you've ever wondered what your average reaction time is and how much your current hardware influences that result, you should check out Human Benchmark.
It all started in a subreddit where users were exploring the virtues of the Vega 11 chip (integrated into the Ryzen 5 2400G) in CS:GO. Quickly, the discussion turned to the necessary number of frames per second to reduce latency and perform well in the game, and one user suggested that the final FPS value was irrelevant because the average reaction time in players never goes below 200 milliseconds.
The exchange didn't take long to become almost nuclear, with one side defending the advantages offered by certain mice and monitors combining low latency with high refresh rates, and the other saying it was pure placebo. Personally, I was more interested in those "200 milliseconds". How can they be measured? Amid all the chaos, a link appeared: Human Benchmark.
Human Benchmark: Reference Points for Your Skills
This portal has four tests in total: Reaction Time, Number Memory, Verbal Memory, and Visual Memory. Reaction time is measured very simply: click as fast as you can when the box turns from red to green. Repeat the action five times, and the portal will show your average.
The site clearly states that a fast computer, a wired mouse, and a low-latency monitor with a higher refresh rate influence (to some extent) the result, but according to the data they've collected, the overall average is 215 milliseconds. A computer can add between 10 and 50 milliseconds in some cases, and those who use a television as a monitor have seen delays of up to 150 milliseconds.
With four hours of sleep, a standard 60 Hz monitor, and a ten-euro Logitech M100 mouse, my reaction time is about 221 milliseconds, basically one more than the herd. If you have a 120 or 144 Hz panel with low latency and a professional mouse equipped with special switches, I'd love to know your result. Don't forget that on the hardware side, things are even simpler.
