ASUS TUF Gaming M5 Mouse Review 3

ASUS TUF Gaming M5 Mouse Review

Software & Lighting »

Sensor


I honestly had no clue about the capabilities of the PixArt PAW3327, which is the sensor inside the ASUS TUF Gaming M5. It doesn't really have any specification tables anywhere (I guess PixArt is a bit slow on updates), but I'm pretty sure it's based on the PMW3325. It is not a high-end sensor, albeit thankfully still a very good one. When I was done with all the testing, I was relived to see that the sensor will not at all be a weak point with this mouse. Tracking feels great, its responsiveness is on par with the top sensors, and I came across no issues, such as pixel skipping or acceleration.

Its nominal maximum tracking speed is 220 IPS (5.5 m/s). The resolution can be set from 100–6,200 CPI in increments of 100 CPI, and the available polling rates are 125, 250, 500, and 1000 Hz. There is an option to adjust angle snapping, but for gaming, I would highly suggest turning it off. The sensor did track from a DVD in height, but it didn't track from two, so the lift-off distance is about 2 mm. These measurements were done on a plain black cloth mouse pad. You can lower the LOD by applying higher mouse feet (this changes the CPI a bit) or using the tape trick.

Paint Test


There is no jitter on the reasonable CPI steps, or unwanted angle snapping and measurable (or audible) sensor lens rattle.

CPI Divergence


The TUF Gaming M5 has some strange things happening with the nominal and measured CPI values; however, the relative difference is only high at the lowest values. If you're coming from a mouse with next to no divergence, you should probably adjust your in-game sensitivity to these steps accordingly.

Perfect Control Speed


Perfect control speed is high; the nominal value is 220 IPS, which is about 5.5 m/s. It's not really possible to hit such a high value, even if you're playing on a ridiculously low sensitivity.


This test shows the sensor's accuracy at different speeds. You can see me doing a fast swipe to the right before I slowly slide the mouse back to its original position. Any displacement is almost entirely caused by human error in this test.

Polling Rate


All set values seem to be perfectly stable; there are no suspicious outliers after multiple tests as those that can be seen are mere measurement errors.

Input Lag






There aren't any issues with smoothing or input lag below ~5000 CPI, and it only reaches about +2 ms with 6200 CPI, which can still be called negligible (and you shouldn't really use such a high resolution anyways). The control subject was a Logitech GPW (in wired mode).
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Nov 23rd, 2024 06:15 EST change timezone

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