What is the best DPI for gaming?
While it’s usually not a top priority when assembling a gaming PC, it’s important to select the best mouse to meet the user’s needs. The market is flooded with countless gaming mouse of all shapes, price ranges and built-in features; with so many people vying for a customer’s attention, it can be hard to know where to start.
Although hardly mentioned in the promotion of desktop or casual variants, DPI is usually stuck on all gaming mice. This feature provides plenty of leeway, with some mice supporting a range from 100 to over 10,000 DPI. What is the best DPI for games? Is a high or low DPI better?
What is PPP?
Before going any further, a brief explanation of DPI is necessary. “Dots Per Inch” determines the number of pixels a cursor will travel across the screen for each inch the mouse is moved over the pad. Basically, a mouse with 1300 DPI will move 1300 pixels per inch.
The higher the DPI, the more space the cursor will cover on the monitor. Therefore, high DPI translates to faster on-screen movement or a more responsive mouse. On paper, this may seem like a good thing, but it can lead to lower accuracy.
Desktop mice typically come with a DPI between 800 and 1600; however, gaming mice are different. While there are exceptions, most gaming mice promote flexibility, allowing gamers to choose from a range of DPIs.
For example, the SteelSeries Aerox 9 Wireless has a DPI (or CPI, which can be treated as the same thing in these cases) range between 100 and 18,000, divided into increments of 100. Gamers can use the mouse app to set their preferred DPI. .
A wide DPI range isn’t an exclusive feature of high-end gaming mice either, as budget options like the Razer DeathAdder Essential have a respectable maximum sensitivity of 6400.
Selecting a DPI for games
Ultimately, DPI comes down to personal preference, and users are recommended to try out the full range of a mouse to see which works best for them. A wide selection of gaming mice include a DPI button that cycles through different levels (usually starting with the lowest and ending with the highest), and some even allow this input to be customized through an app. Feel free to experiment to find the perfect setting.
DPI depends on monitor resolution
A 4K monitor has 4x the number of pixels of a 1080p display; therefore, a mouse with a DPI of 1600 will feel much slower on the former than on the latter. Like any other component of a gaming PC, monitor and mouse compatibility should be the deciding factor when selecting a DPI.
Even though some mice have a DPI of up to over 20,000, those numbers won’t be practical for most people unless they’re using an 8K monitor. In reality, users with 1080p and 1440p do not need a mouse that supports more than 1600 DPIand even that may be exaggerated.
Benefits of high DPI (>1000)
As high DPI equates to faster cursor movement, these levels are generally considered a good fit for twitch shooters and games that require quick reflexes. However, as mentioned earlier, high DPI results in lower accuracy, which can be a death sentence for accuracy-based first-person shooters. That said, a high DPI can complement things like RPGs or MMOs where players want to move their camera quickly.
Advantages of low DPI (
Low DPI means every pixel counts, giving gamers full control over the cursor at the expense of speed. MOBA and strategy titles require precise actions, and a high DPI would be detrimental to these genres.
In-Game Mouse Sensitivity and EDPI
The majority of PC games allow gamers to change the sensitivity of their mouse. By increasing or decreasing this setting, the DPI of the mouse will change, creating what is called eDPI (“Effective stitches per inch“).
If a game’s sensitivity is set to 2x, a mouse with a DPI of 1200 will have an eDPI of 2400. Conversely, if the sensitivity is set to 0.5x, the mouse’s eDPI will be 600.
It is also possible to change the sensitivity of a mouse via Windows.
What is the best DPI for gaming?
800 is the best starting DPI for a 1080p or 1440p system. Although it may seem low, this level is fine for most playstyles. Rather than constantly changing a mouse’s DPI, players must set an eDPI for each game. Once the ideal sensitivity for that title is discovered and saved, that setting will always be ready to go. There’s not one DPI that’s right for all experiences, so rather than jumping between mouse levels, choose a base that can support as many configurations as possible.
If a game doesn’t have a standard mouse sensitivity option, then 800 may be too low for a number of genres. In such cases, start with 800 and then increase exponentially, increasing 400 DPI at a time.