Visual opinions to the side, we now have to consider the performance aspect of both the GIGABTE M6900 and M6980. In some ways, establishing if a peripheral is a good performer is quite a hard thing to conclude. After all we all have our personal preferences; different shaped or sized hands and tastes. Nevertheless I will express my views on both mice as best I can. So the real question is: How doe they both fare across a assortment of platforms? In order to ascertain the performance of our gaming mice it is necessary to use both devices in the games arena for at least a day.

Gaming

Call of Duty Black Ops
Battlefield: Bad Company 2

In both the games above I played with both M6900 and M6980 for many hours. Both are very accurate rodents and are exceptionally precise. Its sometimes hard to move over to another mouse when you have become accustomed to the size, weight and shape of the one you use on a regular basis but moving over to both GIGABYTE mice didn't highlight any such problems at all. Both are very comfortable to use, especially the M6980 with its soft matte feel. On both mice we have the ribbed grip in the thumb region, this is a very comfortable section. I really like what GIGABYTE have done there.

For FPS gaming (what these mice are intended for) I found the sweet spot of 1700-2000DPI. But even if I did find a setting was too high or too low I could use the on the fly DPI adjusters, with this in mind the button placement is very good. All buttons on both mice are in natural positions and do not feel abnormal.

I tested both mice on a cloth and hard plastic gaming pad to determine any traction issues. Both pads were rotated throughout the testing stage. Movement is very fluid and both mice travel well. The optical and laser sensors react perfect with both types of surface.



General Usage

Microsoft Windows 7 Professional
Mozilla Firefox

The operating system is one of those elements in computing that we couldn't do without, on a daily basis we have to use its interface. Whist the M6900 and M6900 are primarily gaming devices its important for us to note its interaction whilst using Windows based applications.

Overall a pleasing response. Button placement is perfect, the size of both mice mean that small-large hands will be ideal for its usage. It isn't too small or too big - right in the middle! The forward and backwards buttons (used to jump forward and backwards in folders or in your internet browser) are placed in what I would call the ideal spot.