Weight Tuning

Ok, it's just a fancy naming method for simple adding weight to your mouse, but Gigabyte handled it well. The weights will be secure in their places so no rattling or anything, but you may have to do some mix and matching until you've found your ideal combination.



Interface

The interface is simple enough - everything is customizable via sliders or drop-down menus, and it can't get any simpler than this. We can't say we're too keen on the color scheme, but it does support Ghost theme colors. Besides, you won't be looking at the interface after you're done customizing it, but we couldn't shake off the feeling that interface tackyness is in direct relation to that of the mouse.



Testing

We’ve been playing a lot of games, ranging from Call of Duty to Warcraft, as well as use the mouse on a daily basis just to see whether it slips up in any kind of scenarios, but the mouse delivered in style. On-the-fly DPI changes are excellent for sniping scenarios, as too sensitive a setting can translate the tiniest of shivers into a jerk, most commonly ending up in a respawn. The solution is simple – lower the DPI get a nice and clinical frag, revert the DPI, select another weapon and go about your day.



We can’t say that DPI settings mattered much in Warcraft or any other RTS for that matter, but we’ve found the macros extremely handy in such scenarios. We simply loved this rodent in Warcraft III as controlling your hero via keyboard shortcuts is quite tedious, and some in-game keyboard hotkeys are simply too far apart to our liking. That’s where the GM-M8000 really made our life easy, and we ended up adding more and more macros to the profiles to the point where we probably could’ve dumped the keyboard.



Conclusion

Testing this mouse reveals that this rodent has what it takes to compete with some top gaming mice on the market. It comes with sensitivity adjustable up to 4000 DPI, 7 keys (5 programmable), 8KB Ghost Engine memory for your profiles, Teflon feet, gaming grade cable with gold-plated USB and Gigabyte’s Ghost Engine mouse software. The mouse can also be weight-tuned up to 38 grams (3x6g, 1x20g) for that “perfect” feel.

It’s nicely shaped and it fit in our hand like a glove, but you might want to check for yourself as we can’t guarantee “hand-to-mouse compatibility”. Design on the other hand isn’t quite doing this device any justice, as it in our opinion lacks the mean edge that’s usually associated with gaming peripherals. Don’t get us wrong, it still looks decent albeit a bit cheapish, but gaming mice are not supposed to look just decent – they’re supposed to look like lean, mean gaming machines.

The performance is simply flawless; we spent about a month playing all kinds of games, doing office work, and even some audio sequencing, and not once did we encounter any glitches. Gaming is especially made easy with on-the-fly DPI changes, 5 programmable keys and configurable macros, which almost made us not reach for the keyboard once in RTS games.

Gigabyte did a great job in all departments except for the “eye-candy” one. It still packs enough to go against the similarly priced competition mice, as it boasts higher resolution than for instance Logitech’s G9, but its looks might not appeal to broad audiences. Unfortunately, we found it priced a bit higher than G9, which can store one profile more but is already overpriced as it is, so we'll reserve our award for perhaps the next iteration of this device. On the other hand, if you purchase this mouse, you'll be pleasantly surprised, as Gigabyte has proven that it has what it takes to compete with the best of the best and this mouse performs simply flawless.