quite possibly the worst mac question ever

there is something about macintosh cursor movement that i cannot explain. it is different. smoother? acceleration?

Frames per second, probably. The number of times it's read a second. You can easily change that in Windows. Run main.cpl (or go Control Panel ->　Mouse), Hardware tab, Properties button, Advanced configuration tab, set sampling rate above your screen's refresh rate (e.g. 100), OK to all. (Note: this won't work if you're using an old serial mouse. Only PS/2 and USB mouses support this.)