Gateron Milky Yellow Pro V3 Review (2026) | Sound Test Included | Keyboard Forge

Let’s talk about the Gateron Milky Yellow Pro V3 switches!

I’m a keyboard nerd who’s built dozens of boards and swapped switches more times than I can count.

I’ve put these things through the wringer for you.

This Gateron Milky Yellow Pro V3 review breaks down their specs, performance, and whether they’re worth your hard-earned cash.

Stick around to see if these switches deserve a spot in your next build!

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Switch Snapshot

• Type: Linear
• Top Housing: Nylon
• Bottom Housing: Nylon
• Stem: POM
• Initial Force: Not Specified
• Actuation: 50g
• Bottom-Out: Not Specified
• Pre-Travel: 2.0mm
• Total Travel: 4.0mm
• Pins: 5-pin
• Lube: Pre-Lubricated

View at Amazon

Amazon.com

Curious how this switch stacks up against the top-rated linears? Check out our guide to see our current favorites:

• Best Linear Switches

Hands On Breakdown

Gateron was founded in 2000 and is a manufacturer of mechanical keyboard switches and related components. The company has become a prominent player in the mechanical keyboard market and is known for producing high-quality switches.

I first used the Milky Yellow switches back in 2022. I actually enjoyed those switches and wanted to see what these Milky Yellow Pros were all about.

I tried these switches as they came from the factory using the following setup:

Keyboard: Neo Studio Neo65

• Case: Aluminum
• Plate: FR4
• Mount: Gasket
• Foam: Poron Case Foam, PE Sheet

Keycaps: Wuque Studio BOW

• Material: PBT
• Printing: Double Shot
• Profile: Cherry

Note: Neo Studio Neo65 doesn’t have RGB. RGB was tested on a Keychron Q1.

Overwhelmed by the anatomy of keyboards? Check these links to learn all about them:

• Keyboard Case
• Keyboard Plate
• Gasket Mount
• Keyboard Foam
• Keycaps
• Mechanical Switches

Here’s the force curve:

Colorway:

The switches have the following color scheme:

• Yellow: POM stem
• Milky: Nylon top housing
• Milky: Nylon bottom housing

I like the milky look on these switches. I’m not a fan of transparent at all, but the milky color makes it just opaque enough to look pretty nice to me.

PERFORMANCE | Score: 4

Preferences:

The switches I’ve used the longest are the Gateron Oil Kings. So, you can consider them the baseline for what my preferences are.

I like to rest my fingers on the keys when I’m typing. This often leads to keys being inadvertently pressed.

I also type like I’m hammering nails. I bottom out pretty hard when I press the keys.

General:

Gateron doesn’t list the initial force, but based on my experience testing switches and reading the force curve, I would say these are around 37g initial force.

The rest of the specs confirm that these switches are basically medium in weight. Their 50g actuation felt pretty good to me. I think I would enjoy them more if they were just a bit heavier, but the medium weight didn’t detract from my enjoyment of how the switches felt.

Binding:

I didn’t come across any issues with binding from the switches I individually sampled. Every press felt smooth.

Spring Return:

Spring return seemed to be okay. It’s fast, but not as snappy as some other switches.

Actuation:

Actuation felt very even when I was gaming and typing.

Gaming:

I spent days playing Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with these switches.

For those that aren’t familiar with the game, AC games involves moving your character using the WASD keys and pressing a bunch of other keys to use your character’s abilities. Everything felt really responsive to me and enjoyed learning the parry system in this game with the switches.

Though I did enjoy using the switches, I didn’t find myself pressing any random keys just to feel the switches. They didn’t really blow me away, but I can see why the Milky Yellow series are some of the most popular switches in the community.

Majority of the time was spent completing the main story. I had ample opportunity to spam the keys to assassinate and battle enemies.

Aside from WASD, RFHZXCVB and I-keys also got worked out. Lots of keys to use in this game.

I didn’t run into any actuation issues while playing, unless it was a fat-finger mistake.

Typing:

I’m actually writing this review using these switches right now.

I did a typing test and didn’t run into many issues. I did one warm up round before typing the results below.

A lot of my mistakes in the first run came from the lack of warm up. Once I was warmed up, I found myself typing at a good pace.

I wasn’t able to comfortably rest my fingers on these switches. The keys started sinking down as soon as I would make contact with them. I found myself consciously hovering my fingers over the keys instead.

I enjoyed typing on these switches and wouldn’t mind using them for more articles.

Check out the score I got on TypeRacer:

SOUND | Score: 3.5

Sound Signature:

These switches have a clacky profile. They’re not that loud, though. It’s not my preferred sound profile, but I also wasn’t bothered by the clackiness. I couldn’t barely hear them when I had my headphones on while gaming.

Listen to the sound test in the video posted up top.

Pinging:

I couldn’t hear any pinging at all from the sampled switches. I brought the individual switches up to my ears to listen closely and heard nothing.

I also put my ears down to the keyboard and couldn’t really hear any pinging.

Scratchiness:

I would say these switches have a less-than-average amount of of scratchiness. It really wasn’t bad at all.

Leaf Tick:

Leaf tick/crunch seems to be somewhat prevalent in these switches. About half of the sampled switches had some sort of crunching.

This ticking can probably be eliminated with some Krytox GPL 205g0 lube. Check out this link to learn about lubes:

• Keyboard Lubes

Microphone Usage:

In the past, I regularly had complaints on Discord about my mic picking up keyboard sounds when I was typing, but I didn’t get any complaints at all during the play sessions where I was testing out these switches.

I even told my teammates to specifically listen for my typing as I mashed on the keyboard for them. They said they couldn’t hear anything.

I also put my phone up next to the keyboard on a speaker phone call and the other side couldn’t hear any keyboard sounds either.

QUALITY | Score: 5

Socket Fit:

The switches installed into the sockets securely. They didn’t click in place, but felt secured once you seated them.

I wiggled the switches in the socket and didn’t discover any excessive wiggling.

Pins:

I poked around on the switches and didn’t notice anything wrong with the build quality.

The pins were nice and sturdy and I didn’t bend a single one while seating them into the sockets.

Housing:

The top and bottom housings felt tight and locked to each other securely.

Errors:

There were no issues with ghost-typing and all my keys worked on KeyboardTester.com.

Lubrication:

I opened them up to check out the insides. The switches had a nice amount of lube. The lube seemed to be spread very evenly across the rail. This probably explains why these switches felt so smooth.

COMPATIBILITY | Score: 4

Pins:

The switches were 5-pin design and were very secure.

Keycaps:

These switches had MX-style stems.

Keycaps went on with no issues. I got the usual resistance when pressing the keycaps onto the stems.

The caps sat on each switch securely and didn’t have any unusual wobbling.

Pulling off the keycaps was as easy as putting them on. None of the switches popped out when removing any of the keycaps.

RGB:

RGB worked awesome on these switches. The light diffuser really helps the RGB glow.

You won’t be disappointed if you’re an RGB fan.

VALUE | Score: B

At the time of this writing, the Gateron Milky Yellow Pro V3 switches were right in the middle of the Budget range.

These things have great value. I was surprised at how cheap they actually were. They punch way above their weight at this price point.

I don’t believe I’ have’ve seen them on sale before. There’s not much more you can save on their cost anyways.

If you like these things, just jump on them or just get the V2 if you don’t care about the light diffuser.

Quick Comparison

Here’s how these switches stack up against some similar options:

Who Are These Switches For?

You’ll love these switches if you’re a typist looking for a medium actuation weight. I didn’t really run into many mistakes while typing with the switches. I still would prefer just a bit more weight.

These things are also for those that are into clack. For being clack, they sounded kinda decent to me. Still, I prefer my switches on the thocky side.

These switches are also for the lazy tinkerer, just toss them in your board and forget about them. They already offer a great experience straight out of the box. No need to waste any time lubing them on your own unless you really want to even out the lube between the switches.

Wrapping Up

The Gateron Milky Yellow Pro V3 switches, as they came from the factory, felt great to me.

I love how smooth they are and I wasn’t bothered by the clackiness. I love the value you get for these switches.

If only they were heavier. This is purely based on my preference for heavy, heavy switches. I just prefer to have to very deliberately smash down on the keys to have them register. Weird, I know.

That said, unfortunately, they will have no place in my daily driving rotation purely based on the fact that I already have a heavier set that thocks. However, I would highly, highly recommend these to anyone that likes clacky switches.

So, you ready to give them a spin? Grab a pack and upgrade your typing today!

Amazon.com

How We Tested and Our Methodology

Keyboard Forge is a 100% independent publisher.

We purchased these switches with our own funds and were not paid by any company or manufacturer to influence our opinions or decisions.

We conducted numerous hours of hands-on testing with these switches in both gaming and typing environments. Majority of the gaming testing was done playing a variety of Steam games. Majority of the typing testing was done writing articles for Keyboard Forge.

We hope this review helps you get a better understanding of these switches. Feel free to reach out to suggest switches to review in the future.

Thanks for the support!

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