What is Keyboard Ghosting?

The term 'keyboard ghosting' is not as scary as you think. However, it can certainly haunt certain keyboard users and cause undesirable consequences. You will find many anti-ghosting keyboards (the ability to receive signals from multiple keys at the same time) on the market to solve this problem, but the question remains: What is Ghosting and why should you care? to it?

What is keyboard ghosting?

Keyboard ghosting is when the keyboard does not perform the function of a key pressed, although the user has pressed it correctly. This is often because keyboard manufacturers try to reduce costs by using cheap parts.

What is Keyboard Ghosting? Picture 1

When you press the key on the keyboard as usual, you may never experience 'keyboard ghosting'. Very rarely do you hold more than 3 keys at a time. This is something that most current keyboards can support. As such, if you use the keyboard to do things or post on social networks, ghosting may never become a problem.

However, everything changes in the gaming environment. Let's say someone is playing an online first-person shooter and using a keyboard that supports at least 3 keys. That person is running on the battlefield, which means holding W to continue and Shift to switch from walking to running. That person is currently using 2 of 3 supported keys, just to move forward!

After that, the player discovers an enemy ahead, so immediately hold the Ctrl key to hide. Now all 3 keys W , Shift and Ctrl are pressed, which means that the maximum number of supported and concurrent keys has been used up.

If the player suddenly notices a landmine ahead and quickly press the SPACEBAR to jump over it, then this key is outside the supported range. Thus, the keyboard does not accept the press of the spacebar and the player is immediately entangled in the mine. This is really annoying!

Prevent ghosting

If you're looking for a new keyboard and don't want ghosting to happen, what can you do?

What is Keyboard Ghosting? Picture 2

First, you might consider an anti-ghosting keyboard. These options will usually list the number of keys on the keyboard that supports this feature, such as '25 -key anti-ghosting ' (supports 25 keys simultaneously). Instead of covering the entire keyboard, this feature will target keys that tend to be pressed along with other keys.

Another option is to search for keyboards designed to support a maximum of certain keys when pressed. These keyboards are advertised using the term '[number] -key rollover'. For example, a keyboard that allows you to hold 4 keys at once is called a 4-key rollover keyboard.

The most interesting is that the term n-key rollover has nothing to do with the physical N key on the keyboard; instead, it is a mathematical letter representing an infinite set of numbers. The relationship between them is due to the n-key rollover keyboard does not limit the number of keys. Each key press is recorded separately, which means no ghosting phenomenon occurs!

Keyboard ghosting doesn't impact everyone, but for those affected, it can be a major nuisance. If you want an anti-ghosting keyboard, make sure to select the n-key rollover keyboard to eliminate the problem. Refer more: Top of the best gaming keyboard 2019 of TipsMake.com if necessary

Does keyboard ghosting affect you? Do you think an anti-ghosting keyboard is the right investment? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below!