Weight is the number you feel straight away. A lighter mouse starts and stops with less effort, and that shows in fast flicks and long sessions. Polling rate matters less than the marketing suggests: 8K polling is real and measurable, but you only notice it with a high-refresh screen and a PC with the headroom to process eight thousand reports a second.
Weight and Your Flicks
Every flick is a start, a stop and a correction. Less mass means less force for each, and a hand that tires later in a long evening. Our three gaming mice cover the useful range:
- Xeus: 39 g, our lightest mouse.
- Ghost: 49 g, wired.
- Artemis: 52 g with the battery in, 42.5 g without it.
Lighter is not automatically right. Some players like a little weight to steady small, slow adjustments, especially at high sensitivity. If you aim mostly with the wrist and play tactical shooters, try the lighter end. If you play slower games or like a planted feel, 50 g is still light. All three are ambidextrous, with PTFE feet.
Polling Rate: How Often the Mouse Reports
Polling rate is how many times a second the mouse tells the PC where it is. At 1000 Hz it reports every 1 ms; at 8000 Hz, every 0.125 ms.
- Ghost: 500 Hz native (2 ms), up to 1000 Hz through Cybeart software.
- Artemis: 1000 Hz, 1 ms.
- Xeus: true 8000 Hz wired and wireless, 0.125 ms.
For most players 1000 Hz is plenty. You can feel the jump from 125 Hz to 1000 Hz easily. The step from 1000 Hz to 8000 Hz is subtler, and how much of it you get depends on everything else in the chain.
When 8K Polling Actually Helps
A faster report only helps if the rest of the system can show it, and that takes two things.
- A high-refresh screen. The monitor draws a fixed number of frames a second. If it draws far fewer frames than the mouse sends reports, most of those reports never reach your eyes. The higher your refresh rate, the more of the extra detail you see as smoother cursor and crosshair movement.
- A PC with headroom. Eight thousand reports a second is real work for the processor. A strong gaming PC barely notices. On an older machine or a busy laptop it can cost frame rate, which cancels the gain; if your frame rate drops at 8000 Hz, go back to 1000 Hz.
Battery is the other cost. The Xeus runs 34 hours at 1000 Hz and 12 hours at 8000 Hz, so a sensible routine is 8000 Hz on the cable or for ranked matches and 1000 Hz for everything else.
8K pays off for competitive FPS players with a fast monitor and a capable PC. For everyone else it is headroom to grow into, not a reason to replace a good 1000 Hz mouse.
Sensor Numbers: DPI, IPS and G
Sensors are described by three figures.
- DPI is how far the cursor moves per inch of mouse travel. Most players set it well below the maximum, so a very high ceiling counts for less than clean tracking at your own setting.
- IPS (inches per second) is the fastest movement the sensor tracks without losing position.
- G is the acceleration it tracks before it loses position.
The Xeus uses a PixArt 3950 with 30,000 DPI native (42,000 with software), 750 IPS and 50 G. The Artemis has a PixArt 3311 at 12,000 DPI native (24,000 with software), 300 IPS and 35 G. The Ghost uses an Instant 825 optical sensor at 12,800 DPI, 60 IPS and 20 G. If you swipe very fast at low sensitivity, look at IPS and G before DPI.
Switches: Feel and Life
The click switch sets the feel of each press and how long the buttons last. The Xeus uses TTC optical switches rated for 100 million clicks, the Artemis Kailh micro switches rated for 80 million, and the Ghost Huano micro switches rated for 5 million. All three have 5 buttons.
Matching the Mouse to the Player
- Xeus: competitive FPS on a high-refresh screen and a capable PC. 39 g, true 8K, the sensor with the most headroom of the three.
- Artemis: one mouse for everything, with Hyperswap™ batteries so you never stop to charge. 1000 Hz, tri-mode, Bluetooth for a laptop.
- Ghost: a light, honest wired mouse. 49 g, plug in and play, nothing to charge.
The gaming mice page has all three together, and the Xeus page carries its full specs.
