To be clear, any keyboard can be a “gaming keyboard.” If you play lots of video games today and have never sighed to yourself, “man, this keyboard is holding me back,” congratulations, you probably don’t need to pay extra for a new one. Self-proclaimed gaming keyboards often come at a premium, and while the best offer high-quality designs, snazzy RGB lighting and a few genuinely worthwhile features, none of them will give you god-like skill, nor will they suddenly turn bad games into good ones.
Some gaming keyboards are based on different mechanisms entirely. Optical switches, for instance, use a beam of light to register keystrokes, whilelinear, but they can allow for a more versatile set of gaming-friendly features, such as the ability to set custom actuation points. In general, they’re faster and more durable too. But keyboards with those extra features typically aren’t cheap.