Wireless controllers are standard for game consoles, but there’s a certain appeal to wired gamepads. Specifically, they offer faster response and more reliable input than wireless gamepads, and that’s important for competitive gamers. Victrix takes the need for fast response even further with its Gambit Dual Core Tournament Controller for Windows 10 and Xbox, which it says has latency of less than 2.5 milliseconds—up to eight times faster than other controllers. We can’t evaluate that claim directly, but fortunately the Gambit has plenty of other features to justify its steep $99.99 price. It’s well-made, comfortable, and extensively customizable, courtesy of numerous interchangeable parts and an app that lets you tweak control mapping and sensitivity. The Victrix Gambit certainly seems responsive, but its build quality and wide range of hot-swappable options make the gamepad stand out from the pack, and earn our Editors’ Choice award for wired controllers.
Customize Your Game Feel
The Gambit cuts a profile that looks a bit more like the DualSense than the Xbox Wireless Controller, with wide, curving grips that end in gentle points. The layout is all-Xbox, with offset dual analog sticks, a direction pad below the left analog stick, and four A/B/X/Y face buttons in the Xbox configuration (A on the bottom) above the right analog stick. The Home, Guide, and Capture buttons are all flat, textured black plastic, as is the Function button located between the direction pad and right analog stick. The shoulder bumpers and triggers are large and also textured.
The gamepad’s back holds some of the hallmarks of a high-end, “pro” controller. Purple “clutch” switches serve as trigger locks, though they’re a bit more awkward than most. To make the trigger pulls short, you pull on the switches until they click. For long trigger pulls, you hold the switches and pull the triggers to their full, unlocked lengths, then release the switches at that position. It’s a bit odd. The Xbox Elite Controller has a simple switch that sets the triggers to stop at one of three positions, which is much simpler.
A flat black paddle panel below the clutch switches provides programmable inputs behind the grips. Two panels are included, one with a single paddle on each side and one with two paddles on each side, and they can be swapped by popping the installed one out with switch on the bottom edge of the gamepad.
Besides the paddle panels, the Gambit comes with loads of other swappable parts. The white, plastic faceplate pops off the controller and can be replaced with a purple silicone faceplate. The standard, plus-shaped direction pad can be switched with a diamond-shaped direction plate. Either of the short, concave analog sticks pop off, letting you install a longer concave stick or a short, convex stick (one of each is included). You can even switch the plastic rings at the base of each stick, choosing between circular and octagonal gates (though they can only be swapped when using the plastic shell). All of these parts, plus the aforementioned second paddle panel and the included fabric-wrapped USB-C cable, fit securely in the included zip-up, hard-shell case.
The Victrix Control Hub app for Windows 10 and Xbox provides a slew of software-based customization options for the Gambit. It lets you map any controls to the rear paddles, swap different button inputs on the standard controls, set the triggers’ maximum and minimum activation distances, and adjust the analog sticks’ dead zones. There are also many audio tweaks available if you’re using a headset plugged into the controller, including mic monitoring levels, game/voice chat balance, and even three slots for custom EQ settings that uses a 10-band EQ (though no preset curves are installed).
As a nice bonus, the Gambit includes a lifetime license for Dolby Atmos for Headphones, providing improved simulated surround sound on both Windows and Xbox. Download the free Dolby Access app on either platform, and the license will activate when you plug in the controller.
Peppy Performance
I plugged the Gambit into my Xbox Series X, and played a few games; I was largely pleased by the gamepad’s performance. It feels good, works well, and the different customization options really let me tweak my experience (though I settled in with the default analog sticks and shell, with the diamond-shaped direction pad).
The analog sticks, triggers, and face buttons all performed as needed in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. After taking a few spills from not having played the game in a while, I was nailing complicated combos filled with manuals, reverts, and wall jumps.
Getting back into Hollow Knight with the Gambit was easy. The diamond-shaped direction plate provided fluid movements during difficult platforming sections, and I easily killed a boss on the first attempt. The inputs felt a little too fluid with the pad, though, and switching to the plus-shaped direction pad added some cardinal-direction precision. The face buttons were just as responsive, letting me perform treacherous downward slash jumps to bounce over pits. Rumble also worked just like an Xbox Wireless Gamepad, providing tactile feedback when taking damage and healing in the game.
The Gambit also played well in a Fortnite match. Aiming was smooth and accurate, and I was able to take down 10 other places and end in 5th place. Of course, most of that was my own skill (and the fact that most Fortnite players are children), but the controller was still comfortable and responsive.
The option for octagonal gates appeals to fighting game players who don’t have their own arcade sticks (or prefer to use gamepads for some games), but I’m afraid that genre is out of my wheelhouse, and my level of execution in those games is very low. It’s also the genre that arguably benefits most from the Gambit’s claimed very fast input response (though lag is also a factor for shooters, and like I said, I did make 5th place in Fortnite), so our ability to evaluate that aspect is limited. That said, I have no complaints about the Gambit’s performance in the games I played.
A Serious Contender, Even If Its Wired
The Victrix Gambit is an excellent wired controller with customization options that justify its high price. You can tweak the sticks and even their gates, the direction pad, the rear triggers, and the shell itself to feel just like you want, and the Victrix app adds even more tweaks through software on both Windows and Xbox. The trigger locks are a bit awkward, and the claims of low input lag are difficult to evaluate, or even confirm that the vast majority of players will notice any difference, but otherwise this is a powerful gamepad. The lifetime Dolby Atmos license really helps sweeten the deal, too.
If you’re an Xbox or PC gamer and you really want to splurge, the Microsoft Elite Wireless Controller is one of the best wireless options out there, but it’s even more expensive than the Victrix Gambit. Meanwhile, the wired PowerA Spectra Infinity has programmable rear buttons and RGB lighting for less than half the Gambit’s price, but you will be giving up both hardware and software customization options. For wired, extensively tweakable gaming on PC or Xbox, the Victrix Gambit is one of the best options currently available, and earns our Editors’ Choice. Switch gamers, meanwhile, should check out the 8Bitdo Pro 2, a controller that also offers many software tweaks and rear buttons, and it works with PCs as well. If you’re a PlayStation 5 gamer, the DualSense remains the only real game in town.
