Gaming Mouse DPI Guide – What’s The Best Setting?

What is DPI?

DPI stands for dots per inch or in gaming terms, pixels per inch, it’s a measure of the sensitivity of a computer mouse, the higher the DPI the faster your cursor moves.

DPI is a measurement of how far a cursor moves per inch of mouse movement.

400 DPI = 1 inch mouse movement, moves the cursor 400 pixels.

You may also see CPI, counts per inch, this is just another term for DPI.

The best DPI for gaming

A mouse best operates somewhere 1600 DPI. The old wisdom was that lower DPI = better, more control, but this isn’t the case, gamers are just used to the DPI they started with.

A modern mouse performs better at a slightly higher DPI, 1600 DPI will have lower input latency and fewer pixel skips compared to 800 DPI.

While 1600 DPI will feel too fast for some people, you should adjust your sensitivity down to get your eDPI in game and in general productivity, more on that later.

Is higher DPI better?

You want to avoid playing at too high of a DPI, anything past 12000 is likely excessive, but more importantly, some sensors at this DPI accelerate and emulate the dots per inch, causing inconsistencies, it’s not a true raw DPI.

If this feels too fast for you in your OS or in game, adjust sensitivity to accommodate and fine tune your effective DPI.

How to change DPI

A lot of gaming mice have a button to quickly switch between DPI settings, you can then use a lower DPI for general computing, since a pixel skip will be less important in that environment. 

You can also have two DPI levels for sniping and run and gun for example.

In most gaming mice software, like Synapse and G Hub, you can set your mouse’s default DPI levels there.

Sensitivity

In addition to DPI, there are sensitivity settings that act as a multiplier to your mouse DPI. The first, is Windows native mouse sensitivity setting, this setting should always be set to the 6th notch.

Any higher than 6/11 and you run the risk of skipping pixels on your mouse movements

If 6/11 in Windows is too fast for you to use, you can turn this down, but be sure your games have raw input functionality. Most games now do have a raw input setting that ignores the Windows sensitivity setting.

Also make sure Enhance pointer precision is off, this introduces prediction and acceleration from Windows.

Every game has their own sensitivity setting as well, and their scales are often quite different. A mouse sensitivity calculator is a great way to translate settings from one game you’re familiar with to another.

EDPI or effective DPI (DPI x sensitivity)

This is really your true sensitivity. This combines your DPI setting in conjunction with your in-game mouse sensitivity. You can boil down eDPI has a multiplication of these two numbers. You can have a really low DPI but a really high in-game sensitivity to combine for an average eDPI.

Because of how sensitivity works, eDPI is a per game comparable metric, the universal comparison metric is how much distance it takes to make a full 360 in an FPS, measure in Centimetres or Inches.

Notable pro and streamer DPI and sensitivity settings

You’ll see that most pros have a DPI between 400-800 where all gaming mice are going to track perfectly.

Tfue

• 400 DPI
• 30% Sensitivity (Fortnite)
• 1,236 eDPI

Shroud

• 450 DPI
• 2.4 Sensitivity (CS:GO)
• 1,080 eDPI

Ninja

• 800 DPI
• 0.077 X Sensitivity (Fortnite)
• 0.079 Y Sensitivity (Fortnite)
• 62.4 eDPI

Cloak

• 400 DPI
• 0.11 X Sensitivity (Fortnite)
• 0.11 Y Sensitivity (Fortnite)
• 44 eDPI

Taimou

• 800 DPI
• 5 Sensitivity (Overwatch)
• 4,000 eDPI

Bugha

• 400 DPI
• 0.13 X Sensitivity (Fortnite)
• 0.13 Y Sensitivity (Fortnite)
• 52 eDPI

s1mple

• 400 DPI
• 3.09 Sensitivity (CS:GO)
• 1,236 eDPI

ZywOo

• 400 DPI
• 2.0 Sensitivity (CS:GO)
• 800 eDPI

TenZ

• 1600 DPI
• 0.175 Sensitivity (Valorant)
• 280 eDPI

m0NESY

• 400 DPI
• 2 Sensitivity (CS:GO)
• 800 eDPI

How to aim better

Now that we all understand that there’s no “best” DPI, here’s how to get better at aiming at a high level.

1. Make sure you have a mouse that fits your hand and a good sensor. Check out our best mouse post if you need a new one, otherwise the one you’re used to is best.
2. Take note of your current DPI and sensitivity settings, this is where your muscle memory is built up
3. Decide whether you want to be a low sens or higher sens gamer, either can work, but generally most people aim better with lower sensitivities, you can look at the pros sens to have an end goal
4. Depending on where you’re starting off from, you have to make small steps down to your end DPI goal, do not make big leaps of eDPI, it’ll be discouraging and you’ll be way worse than you previously were.
5. Good luck and have fun!