What’s your go-to mouse DPI for FPS games?

[Sithaer]

I've been using 1600-1800 DPI/500Hz rate on my 2560x1080 res ultrawide monitor since 2019 depending on the mouse but this is for all games and use cases like I don't ever switch to a different DPI cause of a game or anything really and its just about right for me. 'If something really feels off then I just tweak the in game mouse sensitivity setting a bit'

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I start at 3200DPI with about every shooter and go up to 4200. My G502X has a button that can temporarily switch it to its lowest setting (which tends to be 800) without me having to shift all the way down and back up again. I use 800 for when Im doing something like sniping in game.

I used to use 1000mhz polling rate but now use 500 instead and dont really see any difference.


::EDIT::

I really miss the old Logitech Gaming software.

 

[wheresmycar]

I start at 3200DPI with about every shooter and go up to 4200. My G502X has a button that can temporarily switch it to its lowest setting (which tends to be 800) without me having to shift all the way down and back up again. I use 800 for when Im doing something like sniping in game.

I used to use 1000mhz polling rate but now use 500 instead and dont really see any difference.


::EDIT::

I really miss the old Logitech Gaming software.

3200DPI on your LG GP850-B (2560x1440 27") panel?

What is your Windows mice setting cursor speed set at?

Same res - for me 3200 DPI massively reduces the physical movement, to the extent its impossible to control. Thats some Jedi surgeon hand reflexes in millimetres of space. I just tried 3200 now - no jokes, wrist movement was reduced to wrist twitching like its having a breakdance seizure.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

What is your Windows mice setting cursor speed set at?

10.

Or maybe ive been doing it wrong for the last 20 years?

But yes. I generally dont have to scroll around a whole lot. I dont really move my wrist at all. palm grip and use my thumb, pointy and middle finger to move (push/pull/drag etc) the mouse one micron at a time.

 

[Onasi]

I'm am wandering though, those of you who are reporting considerably higher DPI configs, are you using stock OS settings? maybe some shifting in gears with in-game mouse sensitivities or perhaps some sort of preconfigured game-mode? For example, at 1440p, for me anything above 1000 DPI (1K PR) is nothing short of a Houdini Mice Act, playing hide-and-seek magic tricks. A little flick of the mice, GONE!

In Windows on 1440p 1600 DPI is fine, I have no idea why it would be uncontrollable, used that for ages on 6/11 slider position with “EnhancePointer Precision” being Off (that being basically mouse acceleration for Windows pointer). Generally using smaller mice with fingertip grip. In games where mouse input is important Windows settings don’t matter anyway these days - they all use raw input.

 

[sLowEnd]

1600dpi

 

[Macro Device]

My rodent is hard stuck at about 450 DPI because I do designs from time to time. It doesn't feel slow in games because winging my mouse a foot left or right ain't an issue, I'm fit and my desk is huge.

 

[jarablue]

800 at 4k 300% scaling on a 48in OLED in Win11. And motion sync on. 1000 polling.

 

[Waldorf]

@lexluthermiester
its 21st century and if you are here in this forum (not just joining to ask for help), and your rig has trouble with 1000Hz polling? your shit is too old or broken
never a single issue for the past 20y of using 1000@1000, even after adding the KB thats polling at 1000 as well (both use usb2 ports).

 

[Launcestonian]

1600dpi for 3440x1440, good enough for me. Polling rate? no idea, can't find it in windows. 3rd party software for my mouse is bloatware, never use it.

 

[wheresmycar]

In Windows on 1440p 1600 DPI is fine, I have no idea why it would be uncontrollable, used that for ages on 6/11 slider position with “EnhancePointer Precision” being Off (that being basically mouse acceleration for Windows pointer). Generally using smaller mice with fingertip grip. In games where mouse input is important Windows settings don’t matter anyway these days - they all use raw input.

Thats the weird part.. clean windows 11 install, default 6/11, tested with EPP enabled and disabled, no game modes enabled in any third party application/setting, only using Synapse with PR set to 1k and for me 1600K is way too responsive, playable but very hard to control in fast paced reflex driven FPS titles. Put it this way, at this setting what I'm experiencing is movement reduction to 1x1" surface area where a quick flick sends the cursor flying. I've tested those higher DPI settings in games before, and every time the crosshair moves erratically with quick aims and flick turns. It's playable, but it feels like I'm setting the sensitivity so high, movement reduction so low, the memory muscles go into BSOD mode. Either its a case of some unknown/overlooked sensitivity setting somewhere stacking on top of my DPI or maybe my muscle memory has spent years perfecting the art of being comfortably inefficient. Performance wise, not a problem, for me 650-800 is a snappy blast - usually its the other guys on the other end of the screen complaining: "he's cheating".

 

[Onasi]

@wheresmycar
Again, you are missing the point. Saying “I can’t aim at 1600 DPI” is a meaningless statement. Each game has its own sensitivity settings which act as a multiplier for your mouse DPI. As such, in any taken game, you adjust said settings accordingly - there is no difference between 4 at 800 and 2 at 1600. They are both the same effective DPI or eDPI for short. If you don’t adjust and just blindly switch mouse DPI without touching the ingame setting to equalize eDPI - no shit it will feel wonky. But even that metric is only usable when comparing within one game. The one true metric that is consistent between games and engines and DPI and mice and whatever is cm/360. Without knowing what your preference for that one is (your rotation, essentially) it’s impossible to equalize sensitivities between games and DPIs. If I know I want 35cm/360 I can get that every day any day on any mouse and any DPI in any game I would care to play, either just using an online calculator for popular titles or just with a goddamn ruler for something obscure.

 

[Waldorf]

@Onasi
au contraire, mon colleague.

for me, in win anything above 1100 is moving way too much, let alone 1600, no matter what win/moni res i use(d).

im using 1000 dpi since i started with an (dpi) "adjustable" mouse in 2005 running FHD, ~10y ago going 1440p, and now with UHD (except that i now use 175% scaling).
win settings are identical (no pointer enhancement, slider in middle), no matter the mouse (all logi G series, all wireless, using 2.4), and usually mouse has/had onboard memory,
so no need for sw installed once it was set up and stored).

same for games (any enhancements/improvements in game settings turned off), no matter what shooter it is/was (UTx/SWAT/R6 and many others i dont remember).
only with newer games like R6 Siege or recent COD/BF stuff (eg. games with more than a simple slider) did i have to adjust mouse settings in-game, but not for "matching" the feel of 1000 dpi,
but the difference between "use" (movement/hip aim/scope aim) and axis offsets.

and as long as i dont talk specific games (settings), mouse dpi to me is generic, the same way i can say i have a car with 1000 HP, but not saying what type (e.g. heavy american muscle car from the 70
vs Agera RS (which makes a big difference in real world performance).
but true, game settings nowadays count, with many doing "high" for mouse, and "low" for game {settings}, at least for those top perf in pvp i got to know in Siege.

 

[lexluthermiester]

for me, in win anything above 1100 is moving way too much, let alone 1600, no matter what win/moni res i use(d).

I turn the relative speed down in the Windows settings to keep the cursor from racing all over the place. One gets the benefit of high DPI and without the jankiness of the overly fast cursor.

 

[Apocalypsee]

I've never understood people who run at high dpi counts, you must have your cursor sensitivity in windows cranked all the way to the left, rather than its default middle position because if I put my mouse on 16000dpi, I can cross an entire 4K desktop in 1cm of mouse movement, which makes clicking on things accurately quite difficult for me.

0 (the middle of the slider in windows) was traditionally the only accurate position; Moving the slider introduced rounding errors and count-skipping which hurts your muscle memory, accuracy, and can be felt at low speeds (careful aiming) so I've always left it at zero in the middle and disabled mouse acceleration to ensure that what my mouse reports to the game is accurate.

as for amidoingitwrong? - I'm not doubting that 12,000 dpi works for you but do you use that natively, or do you have to compensate for that by turning down sensitivity in windows and game settings? If the answer to that is no, are you one of those people who would spin several times on the spot if you suddenly moved your mouse a couple of inches to the right?

IDK if you, or any of you, feels that Windows 10 mouse movement seems...wrong? I try this markc mouse fix on each my Windows 10 installation because after I install this fix, it felt like the older Windows. Maybe you guys could try it. Back up registry just in case.

The MarkC Windows 10 + 8.1 + 8 + 7 Mouse Acceleration Fix

The 'MarkC Windows 10 + 8.1 + 8 + 7 Mouse Acceleration Fix' is available for download from this link: DO NOT USE THIS: MarkC_Windows_10+8....

donewmouseaccel.blogspot.com

 

[Chrispy_]

IDK if you, or any of you, feels that Windows 10 mouse movement seems...wrong? I try this markc mouse fix on each my Windows 10 installation because after I install this fix, it felt like the older Windows. Maybe you guys could try it. Back up registry just in case.

The MarkC Windows 10 + 8.1 + 8 + 7 Mouse Acceleration Fix

The 'MarkC Windows 10 + 8.1 + 8 + 7 Mouse Acceleration Fix' is available for download from this link: DO NOT USE THIS: MarkC_Windows_10+8....

donewmouseaccel.blogspot.com

I'm aware of that but the fix is only for games that call Windows' "Enhance pointer precision" function, even when you have it enabled. Very few games do that now (it was definitely a thing back in the Windows 8 era, but not something I've stumbled across in a long time!)

I always disable mouse acceleration in games, if I can feel any mouse acceleration that doesn't have a menu option to disable it, I'll use console commands, edit ini files for the game engine in question. Like I said, it's super-rare these days. Generally most of the games I've come across like this were also plagued by GFWL too, and most of those have been patched/fixed/repacked since GFWL was finally culled.

 

[Onasi]

for me, in win anything above 1100 is moving way too much, let alone 1600, no matter what win/moni res i use(d).

Desktop sensitivity is personal preference, of course. My friend uses 400 dpi and I literally groan when I have to use his PC. It’s just too slow for me.

On everything else you said - I am not sure where you are disagreeing with me. In any game, even older ones, where you CAN adjust sensitivity multiplier properly, the matching cm/360 WILL apply. Yes, including older games that don’t support raw input, though, as @Chrispy_ mentioned, there you would have to make sure the game doesn’t call for Windows settings in an unintended way. This isn’t a personal opinion, that’s just how mouse input works with FPS games.

Again, people focus on desktop cursor speed, which ISN’T what the thread is originally about.

 

[Waldorf]

not for the game part, just when ppl mentioning straight dpi (setting) on mouse, that i still "compare" without looking at screen size/res.
like i can compare 2 scanners by dpi quality (e.g. 300 vs 1200), without knowing picture size that will be scanned.

 

[Strix_Gaming]

I'm using on daily basis 3900dpi and 1000Hz.

 

[Chrispy_]

Again, people focus on desktop cursor speed, which ISN’T what the thread is originally about.

Plenty of FPS games have menus with cursors too, so desktop cursor speed is actually relevant, IMO.

I'm not just talking about the settings menu, it's stuff like maps, inventory, quest logs, skill points, in-game monitors/computers/keypads and other cursor or pointer-driven interactibles. You want a cursor to behave normally even when in this thread we're primarily talking about camera/view aiming sensitivities.

Some games have separate settings for camera sensitivity and cursor sensitivity, but I think more games don't separate those two settings so you don't want a bajillion DPI if it means that your in-game cursor crosses the entire screen with only half a millimetre of mouse movement.

 

[Onasi]

not for the game part, just when ppl mentioning straight dpi (setting) on mouse, that i still "compare" without looking at screen size/res.
like i can compare 2 scanners by dpi quality (e.g. 300 vs 1200), without knowing picture size that will be scanned.

Yeah, that IS a fair point. DPI on desktop is relative. 400 on 6/11 is nigh unusable on 4K, for example, IMO. Of course, preferred DPI also very much relies on mousing space available - not everyone has a spacious desk and a big pad.

@Chrispy_
I mean, that’s true, but if one has no issue using Windows on whatever DPI they prefer they won’t have an issue in menus in game either. That’s why the answer to “What DPI should I use?” in the aiming community for years has been “Whatever is comfortable in Windows, adjust in game multiplier accordingly”. The initial question that spawned the whole discussion was the disbelief from the OP that people can comfortably use higher (1000+) DPI in Windows comfortably. I merely stated that there ARE people who can do that without issue and that it doesn’t really effect FPS sensitivity in any way when adjusted properly. The whole thread is a mess anyway with people conflating different things. Again, DPI is irrelevant if you know what you are doing and mostly personal preference. The more interesting and properly worded question would be “What’s your preferred cm/360 in FPS games?”, but, judging by this thread, I feel like TPU is a wrong place to ask this.

 

[Zyll Goliat]

I am at 7000 DPI with 1000 Hz Polling rate I believe I could adapt easily up to the 12000 DPI and I am OK from anything above 5500 DPI but slower than 3000 DPI for me is really harsh to maneuver especially on my desktop,youtube and every day tasks....

 

[Chrispy_]

The more interesting and properly worded question would be “What’s your preferred cm/360 in FPS games?”, but, judging by this thread, I feel like TPU is a wrong place to ask this.

Yeah, that's a far more relevant measure of mouse sensitivity. How you actually get there is a combination of different variables: Mouse DPI, Windows DPI scaling factor, Windows mouse speed slider, screen resolution (sometimes), game resolution, if different (sometimes) and in-game mouse sensitivity value.

I have been at 55mm/360 since Quake released in 1996, as that was the first game I played with a mouse competitively. I have two white paint dots on the edge of my deskpad that are 55cm apart, so I tune the in-game sensitivity slider to do 10 rotations in that distance. My '180noscope' accuracy really depends on that being pretty close, and the ultimate test is whether I can reliably do a 180-degree flip in game without looking.

 

[Waldorf]

@Onasi
pftt, my mouse pad is 2ftx4ft, enough space
but i do have kb on there as well, more like a desk mat, but still not covering it completely, havent found one that's 3.5ftx6.5ft.

 

[Onasi]

@Waldorf
Just as a heads up, your @ mentions don’t work properly, for whatever reason, and don’t generate notifications. They look wrong too, with a non-link part. As an example:

I suspect that it’s the @ part not being the part of the link that causes this.