As a quick test of Gigabyte's Ghost GM-M8000X mouse I booted into an old but good game for a hardcore mouse: Quake III Arena. After a bit of experimentation I settled on using the Ghost M8000X's second-highest DPI setting (3200 DPI), and proceeded to try out a few frags.

Switching from a standard optical mouse the increased sensitivity of the M8000X takes a bit of getting used to, it's like moving from a butter knife to a precision scalpel. However after a few minutes it becomes easy to use, and the increased sensitivity of motion definitely becomes an asset. The M8000X makes actions like Quake-style rocket jumping (switch to a rocket launcher, point the crosshair down at your feet, jump and fire a rocket simultaneously) a lot easier than with a conventional mouse.

For extended sessions of mouse usage the ergonomics of the Ghost GM-M8000X mouse works quite well. The rubberized mouse grips are easy on the hand, and the mouse is big enough and shaped so that my medium-sized hands didn't cramp or strain to reach any buttons.

You also move your wrists less with a high-DPI laser, which cuts down on some strain if you're computing for hours on end. The weight cartridges also let you adjust the mouse until it feels just right in your hands. Personally I prefer my mice to be hefty, so I loaded the M8000X up with the full 38g of weight, bringing the total weight up to 183g.

A look under the shell. The GM-M8000X has two durable Omron 10 million click rated switches for the left/right buttons. All others are TCC or T-MEC.

One aspect I wasn't quite as pleased about was the scroll wheel. While it works about as well as you'd expect from a conventional scroll wheel and also allows for horizontal scrolling, the motion of the wheel felt a little too chunky. Adjusting the sensitivity in Gigabyte's GHOST software didn't do much to fix the problem, since it just causes the wheel to skip over huge chunks of the page.

Gaming with High DPI

Gigabyte's Ghost GM-M8000X laser gaming mouse has features that rival other gaming mice designed by top-tier manufacturers like Logitech and Razer, but at $70 CDN ($60 USD / $40 GBP), it's a lot more affordable. The 6000 DPI laser makes it incredibly sensitive, but thanks to on-the-fly DPI switching it's easy to set the mouse's tracking resolution to meet your needs. While I personally don't have a light enough touch to make use of its highest DPI settings, more competitive gamers will likely benefit from it and the laser along could justify the price.

Fortunately there's still a lot to love here for even the gaming neophytes. The Ghost M8000X's programmable buttons and easy-to-assign macros are fantastic for people who frequently have to access complicated keyboard and mouse commands, like the World of Warcraft gamer. This functionality can be extended out on to desktop computing as well, which can make things like browsing the internet or listening to music on your PC a little easier for the casual user.

Gigabyte deserves some extra credit for making the GHOST software suite so easy to use. Even manufacturers of premium gaming mice and keyboards haven't figured out how to make macro software that ordinary humans can use, so having simple drag-and-drop functionality in the GHOST software was quite pleasant. Spending just a few minutes with it can make your computing experience a lot better.

Gigabyte's Ghost GM-M8000X mouse is the real deal. It has pretty much everything you'd want in a high-performance, laser-based gaming mouse, but even with the extensive customization options and user-friendly software suite the M8000X's $60 asking price is a downright bargain. Highly recommended!

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