@ripster
I am really getting confused and half pissed at some posts. I read some replies saying that some avago Axxx sensor on an old mouse is perfect and that its the best mouse blah blah. But then what made it different and better? I need answers to the same questions I asked earlier.
Why would manufacturers develop a newer sensor that sucks compared to the old one. I'm thinking it's like Intel creating i7 processors which perform less than a core2quad through and through. In my mind a manufacturer wont do that UNLESS they are developing off of a high end product and would like to market it to the non-enthusiast market like for example what they did to the Q6600, they developed several newer processors based on that but performed less so they can market it to mainstream. Even with that reasoning the architecture would still have an edge compared to the older version.
And it's not only on this thread. There are a lot of posts that I read from people who say bad things of a mouse BUT its obvious some of them haven't went out of their way to try a new mouse. e.g. someone saying the sensei is the same as the xai blah blah... (too obvious they havent even read the specs of the mouse).
When you say something sucks kindly explain why?
Look at AMD and Bulldozer
I'll try to explain the best I can. (I'm pretty bad at explaining tho ;p)
Back in early 2003-2004 the first "gaming grade" mice were equipped with High Performance optical sensors. While Agilent (now Avago) only rated these sensors for 40 IPS (Inches per sec= Max tracking speed), both Logitech and Razer brought out proprietary and open source versions that were able to track well above the 40 IPS rating and thus improved over time. Anyway, Logitech somehow created the first unofficial laser sensor out of a proprietary version of the Agilent ADNS-2020 (Optical sensor). The following year (2005), Agilent creates proprietary laser sensors for both Logitech and Razer to use. The problem was that these sensors weren't any better than the last generation opticals and pretty much failed at tracking anywhere close to the speed of previous sensors put forth. In fact, the laser technology was so undeveloped that it had trouble tracking on a fair range of cloth pads at the time. The only benefit? a Higher CPI range. (1600>2000) It certainty didn't stop marketing tho. 2000 CPI + Laser branding pretty much made bank for both companies.
Anyway fast forward a couple years (2007), and another laser shows up. This one while much better than the last, is still inferior to the max tracking rates of certain optical gaming mice. Only benefit was an increase of CPI. (2000>3200) The marketing continued.
Couple years past again> (2009) Avago 9500 is released. This time the sensor is boasting a whooping 5040 CPI upon release (5700 Through a custom firmware) Although unlike the previous sensors, this one went through an evolutionary change. The architecture and design was improved. It was able to run at frame rates twice that of their own opticals. It had a factory rating of "up to 150 IPS". Everything about it pretty much looked amazing on paper. Sadly, it was not without problems as there were gamers that got annoyed by the sensors tracking inconsistency.
-Sensor produces around a 5%~ positive acceleration flaw based on the rate of speed in which you move your cursor. While a lot of people don't have a problem with it, it can be annoying to those that are used to 1:1 response on the lower sensitivities.
-The sensor would hit negative acceleration and would malfunction on most cloth pads fairly early. (I'm happy to report that this isn't the case with the Sensei and it seems to be "fixed").
tl;dr The 9500 is indeed an improvement, just not for a gamer (yet.)
