Software

The Viper V3 Hyperspeed is fully compatible with Razer's modular software, Synapse 3. Synapse is embedded into an overarching software suite called Razer Central. From there, it is possible to install additional optional modules, such as Chroma Connect, Chroma Studio, or the highly sophisticated macro editor.

All settings are accessible through four tabs. "Customize" houses button remapping, which also includes a HyperShift function to enable a second set of button maps that can be accessed upon pressing a dedicated shift button. "Performance" is used to adjust CPI for up to five color-coded levels, ranging from 100 to 30,000 CPI and in increments of 50. Polling rate can be set to 125, 500, or 1000 Hz. "Calibration" allows one to adjust the lift-off distance between three presets (low, medium, high), along with the option of setting up asymmetric cut-off. The fourth tab, called "Power," enables one to set the idle time (in minutes) after which the mouse enters sleep mode, as well as the battery status percentage at which Low Power mode is enabled. Low Power mode lowers the maximum tracking speed from 750 IPS (19.05 m/s) to 550 IPS (13.97 m/s) and maximum acceleration from 70G to 40G. Battery Selection allows one to define which battery type is supposed to be used for the discharge curve the battery charge indicator is based on. Lastly, profile management is available, too.

All setting changes are applied immediately and saved to the on-board memory, so the software does not need to be running (or be installed) all the time. On my system, Synapse had a RAM footprint of 380 MB on average when running in the foreground, which doesn't change when minimized, be it to the taskbar or system tray. Upon exiting the application, several processes with an overall RAM footprint of 171 MB keep running. Remarkably, these processes continue to load if Synapse is set to not auto-start with Windows. The most convenient way of terminating these processes is to run any recent Razer mouse firmware updater.

Battery Life

Razer states a maximum battery life of up to 280 hours using 2.4 GHz wireless. This refers to continuous usage at a polling rate of 1000 Hz. When using the HyperPolling Wireless Dongle and a polling rate of 8000 Hz, a battery life of around 50 hours can be expected.

Synapse includes a basic, non-percentage-based battery charge status indicator, which is based on the discharge curve expected from an Alkaline, Lithium, or rechargeable NiHM AA-battery, depending on the setting.

After not moving the mouse for a period of time set in minutes within Synapse, the Viper V3 Hyperspeed enters sleep mode, from which it can be woken up by moving the mouse or clicking a button.