What Is a Good Mouse DPI? Is Mouse DPI Enhance Performance?

Do you know that the DPI of your mouse completely affects your gaming performance? If you love playing games or want to develop a carrier in gaming, then you must choose a good mouse DPI.

Obviously, you need the best gaming mouse for better performance. But how do you determine that the mouse is the best? Yes, it is the DPI that determines the quality of a gaming mouse.

You may be wondering about what mouse DPI is good and what should be the DPI of a gaming mouse when buying it. Let’s find out!

What Is Mouse DPI?

Before proceeding further, you should have basic knowledge about the mouse DPI. It is the short form of “Dots Per Inch”. To put it simply, DPI determines how far a cursor moves when the mouse is dragged 1 inch on the mouse pad. For example, if the DPI is 1000 then the cursor will move 1000 pixels if the mouse is moved 1 inch.

Which One Is Good: High DPI or Low DPI?

Now, as the concept of DPI is clear to you, let’s see what DPI is considered good – high DPI, or low DPI.

High DPI

High DPI means a rapid cursor with high sensitivity. In high DPI, the movement of the cursor will be too fast. This is good for twitch shooters or the games that require high reflex. High DPI is the best mouse setting for MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online Games) or RPG (Role Playing Games) as the gamers can move their camera quickly with it.

On the contrary, a high DPI isn’t good for FPS (First Person Shooting) gamers as these settings reduce the accuracy of aiming.

Low DPI

There is no doubt that the cursor will move slowly in lower DPI. In this mouse setting, you will need to drag your mouse so far or multiple times to move the cursor from one side to another on your screen.

That’s why gamers with low DPI use long mousepads. Wondering why they do it? Simply because of accuracy. Yes, low DPI makes the movement of the cursor smooth and doesn’t let it skip the pixels. That’s the reason why most FPS gamers keep their mouse DPI lower.

Not only gamers but also professional graphics designers also keep their mouse DPI low for curving the details in their design.

What DPI Should You Choose?

Hopefully, you have understood which DPI is good in which sector. So, it completely depends on you and your situation which DPI should you choose. However, there are some standard DPIs for specific things like monitor resolution, game type, etc. Let’s learn about them.

DPI According to The Resolution of the Monitor

The compatibility between the screen resolution and mouse is an important factor when it comes to choosing DPI for a mouse.

A monitor with a 1080p resolution has around 2 million pixels whereas a 4K monitor has over 8 million pixels on the screen. So, if you set your mouse DPI at 1600 on a 1080p screen, then the mouse will be too fast even can be almost overkill for you.

On the contrary, if you use the same DPI on a 4K screen, then your mouse seems too much slow. So, if you have a 4K or 8K monitor, then you need to buy a mouse with a very high DPI. Otherwise, a mouse with 1600 DPI is enough for a 1080 or 1440 monitor.

DPI According to The Types of Games

There is no such thing as the best DPI because what is best for someone won’t necessarily work for you.

If you are playing shooting or FPS games, then you need to keep your DPI of 400 to 800 for good accuracy. On the other hand, MMOs and RPGs demand quick movements and good reflection. In that case, you need to keep your DPI between 1000 to 1600.

Here is a short list of some ideal DPIs:

• 1000 – 1600 DPI for MMOs and RPG games.
• 400 – 1000 DPI for FPS and other shooter games.
• 400 – 800 DPI for MOBA games.
• 1000 – 1200 DPI for Real-Time strategy games.

However, many people say that 1000 DPI is the best for the game. But I hope that now you understand what is the best DPI for you.

Impact of DPI in Gaming Vs Productivity

As now you know DPI can put a huge impact on the performance of gaming or raise productivity in graphics design. Let’s see how.

Impact of DPI on Games

As you already know that DPI can change the performance of a gamer and it is also variable for individual types of games. Now let’s talk about the impact of DPI on games.

Suppose you are playing Call of Duty and your enemy is shooting behind you. In that situation, you need to turn around quickly. You can quickly turn around if you have around 1000+ DPI set on your mouse.

Again, if you are targeting to get a headshot from a mile away, you can’t do that with 1000+ DPI. You’ll need 500 or less DPI for that. For this reason, some high-quality gaming mice give the feature to switch DPI during games using the DPI button.

Impact of DPI on Productivity

If you are a professional graphics designer, then the whole process depends on your mouse. The DPI of your mouse controls the productivity as well as the quality of your work. Let’s make it simpler.

Suppose you need to draw or cut an object from a picture. You cannot cut it cleanly if your mouse moves so fast. You need almost 800 DPI to have a clean cut of the picture.

On the contrary, if you use 800 DPI on an HD screen (1920x1080p), then you need to move your hand too frequently which may cause muscle strain or carpal tunnel syndrome in long term. You need to increase your mouse DPI in that case.

Frequently Asked Questions

What DPI Mouse Should I Use?

Mouse DPI is used to measure the sensitivity of a mouse. It is up to you whether you are comfortable with high sensitivity or low sensitivity. If you are not sure about this, then keep the DPI between the range of 800-2000 according to your comfort on your HD screen.

Is High DPI Good?

To be honest, it depends on the task that you want to do with your mouse and your screen resolution. If your screen resolution is 4K or 8K, then a high DPI is obviously good for you. On the other hand, if you are using just an HD screen with a high DPI then your reflex will increase but the accuracy will decrease.

What Is the Best DPI for FPS?

The performance of the first-person shooting (FPS) games completely depends on the shooting accuracy and the accuracy depends on the DPI of a mouse. Keep your DPI at a lower range and set it between 400-600 DPI to gain accuracy in FPS games.

What Happens When Someone Uses 100 DPI or 16000 DPI?

100 DPI is extremely low sensitivity and if you set your mouse DPI to 100, then you need to drag your mouse multiple times to move your mouse from one side to another of your screen.

On the other hand, it would be hard to control your cursor at 16000 DPI. Because the sensitivity of the mouse will be very high and even if the mouse is slightly tapped, the cursor will move quickly.

How Do I Check My Mouse DPI?

• Press the “Win + I” key simultaneously to go to “Settings” and select “Device” from the list.
• Then select “Mouse” from the left menu bar.
• On the right panel, click on “Additional mouse options” which is underneath the “Related Settings”.
• After that, the “Mouse Properties” tab will appear on your screen.

Note: You may need to click “Yes” or “Next” on the further on-screen warnings before the “Mouse Properties” popup before you.

•  Now, click “Pointer Options” from the upper panel.
• The slider of “Motion” indicates the DPI of your mouse.

Conclusion

To conclude, mouse DPI is the standard for measuring mouse sensitivity. It is completely upon you whether to use high DPI or low DPI according to the task you are doing with your mouse. I hope you’ve found this guide helpful to get what a good mouse DPI is. If you have any suggestions or queries feel free to share them with us in our comment section below. Thanks for reading.