New to MacOS, how to get mouse moving smooth?

juno_first · 3 Nov 2021 at 15:15

Recently got my first mac, a m1 air 8GB & very impressed how it stitches together a 200MP photo faster than a Ryzen PC & 16GB/RAM m.2 raid0. It's my intention to replace a Windows tower with Mac for work stuff, first by docking the air at the monitor during the PC-Mac migration then a mac mini in the future.

I'm used to various Linux Distros & Mac runs similar to Linux. However, the wired Razer Mamba Elite mouse does not move very well. It suffers from a stuttery mouse acceleration & scrolling is slow unless moving the wheel fast. The Razer mouse drivers don't work on the m1.
Is it a case of changing the trackpad options to be mouse friendly every time a mouse is used?
Would a magic mouse or similar solve the mouse issues?
ta

picnic · 3 Nov 2021 at 16:53

Interesting you should ask that. It's really jarring the way pages scroll using the wheel on my Logitech mouse, jumping up several pixels at a time. If I use the touch pad it's silky smooth. Somehow I still prefer to use a mouse over a pad. I'll watch this thread with interest

alex24 · 3 Nov 2021 at 17:00

No idea about your problem but the best way I've found to interact if you're not using the touchpad is to get..a touchpad. I got a Magic Trackpad second hand (as they're very expensive new) and it's been just great. I use the gestures extensively and appreciate the precision and smoothness and would find it hard to go back to a mouse.

juno_first · 3 Nov 2021 at 18:06

Ahh Apple prefer MacOS users to use a trackpad for the gestures which is why they crippled the mouse support?
I'm used to having change the mouse speed when switching between a mouse & trackpad in Windows but I can't get the mouse pointer to move or scroll smoothly at all in MacOS & the OS just feels clunky & stuttery with a mouse. This could be a Mac desktop deal breaker :eek:

Feek · 3 Nov 2021 at 19:40

I’ve used an old Logitech MX something or other on my iMac without any noticeable jumping and stuttering but I much prefer the Magic Trackpad.

juno_first · 3 Nov 2021 at 20:18

Fixed the mouse movement with the Tracking speed setting being the slowest then increased the DPI on the mouse as it has DPI buttons. The issue was letting MacOS deal with mouse acceleration, but on the slowest setting its all down to the mouse sensitivity which has a high enough DPI to not rely on an OS acceleration.

Can't fix webpage scrolling as no matter what setting is used MacOS enforces an acceleration, so it scrolls very slow if move mouse wheel slow then as fast as the settings are if move mouse wheel faster. It's a dumb global setting designed for a trackpad & a shame it's replicated on a mouse wheel.

Quite surprised Apple allows such poor user device settings, far inferior to Windows or most Linux Distros.

juno_first · 3 Nov 2021 at 20:26

Nearly fixed the scrolling by setting the speed 1 bar up from the slowest setting. Looks like the acceleration does not work right with a Razer mouse.

juno_first · 3 Nov 2021 at 20:52

Figured out the scroll wheel issue. Windows/Linux speeds up scrolling speed by increasing the number of lines scrolled per mouse wheel click but on MacOS this option does not exist as it's designed for a trackpad or Magic Mouse where there is no scroll wheel. The MacOS scroll speed can only be influenced by the acceleration of the finger stroking the err device

. Hence why moving a mouse wheel slowly does not scroll very fast as the scroll speed is only affected by how quickly the scrolling device is moved. Kind of an anti normal mouse feature.

Is the £129 trackpad a better idea? I've always seen a trackpad as a downgrade in functionality but am impressed by the MacBook Air trackpad, even not knowing all the gestures yet.

Feek · 3 Nov 2021 at 21:08

juno_first said:
Is the £129 trackpad a better idea? I've always seen a trackpad as a downgrade in functionality but am impressed by the MacBook Air trackpad, even not knowing all the gestures yet.

Personally I absolutely love my trackpad. I had the original apple trackpad and then bought the Magic Trackpad 2 the day it was released. I used to plug a mouse in (the old MX something I referred to above) occasionally when I ran a specific app but I don't even do that now. When I bought this iMac, I got it with the current version of the apple mouse but I think that's absolute garbage, apple don't know how to make a mouse. It's sitting on the desk behind my iMac and it's only been charged twice since 2017. It works, it's just rubbish.

If it failed, I'd connect the mouse I have and go straight to the apple site and buy another trackpad. It's as simple as that.

juno_first said:
Magic Mouse where there is no scroll wheel. The MacOS scroll speed can only be influenced by the acceleration of the finger stroking the err device . Hence why moving a mouse wheel slowly does not scroll very fast as the scroll speed is only affected by how quickly the scrolling device is moved. Kind of an anti normal mouse feature.

Think of the top surface of the apple Magic Mouse as being a trackpad. Swipe to scroll, swiping the surface doesn't affect the scroll speed if you move the mouse up and down, it's got its own built in trackpad.

alex24 · 4 Nov 2021 at 08:29

I have the Magic Trackpad 2 as well, to be clear. I also have a Logitech MX Master which I've used on the MacBook but I still prefer the trackpad. Mouse movement wasn't a problem but scrolling was never smooth and as above, the gestures are really useful to speed up interacting with the machine. Worth noting that I use Windows and the MX Master all day for business, a Logitech G400 for gaming on my gaming PC but for the Mac (either Mac mini or MacBook Pro docked) I would use the Magic Trackpad. I use the Mac for web browsing, shopping, personal email, messages, music, home automation and when I get time, software development projects.

ChrisD. · 4 Nov 2021 at 08:38

I use the MX Master and don’t have any issues with it.

juno_first · 4 Nov 2021 at 17:21

Mx Master looks popular. My existing mouse is fine in Windows/gaming. Will get a trackpad on Black Friday in a couple weeks, maybe they'll drop in price.

Silent Bob · 5 Nov 2021 at 15:45

I use this https://mos.caldis.me with my MacBook Air and Microsoft Bluetooth mouse to smooth out scrolling. It also allows me to use the regular scrolling direction with the mouse wheel and "natural" using the touchpad.

juno_first · 6 Nov 2021 at 18:37

Silent Bob said:
I use this https://mos.caldis.me with my MacBook Air and Microsoft Bluetooth mouse to smooth out scrolling. It also allows me to use the regular scrolling direction with the mouse wheel and "natural" using the touchpad.

Amazing thanks, it works a treat. A bit like a mouse smoothing plugin on Firefox I use. MacOS is now useable with a normal mouse & scroll wheel.
I checked with Bitdefender folks & its clean.