Is there an advantage to running a mouse at a higher DPI

[dguy6789]

I have a Logitech MX 518 mouse that can select between different DPI settings. By default it runs at 800 DPI and I feel comfortable using it that way along with the default mouse sensitivity settings in games.

I am curious if there would be any improvement in responsiveness or smoothness in the mouse movement if I were to increase the DPI to 1600 but lower the in game sensitivity so that similar motion of the mouse moves the screen the same distance as before.

I tried it myself already but the difference might be too small for me to notice. Does anyone have an answer?

 

[brblx]

it's not going to make a difference. the on the fly DPI adjustments are for certain situation in games- i.e. sniping, maybe lower the sensitivity, hop in a vehicle, maybe you want to turn it up.

20 billion dpi laser gaming mice really don't do anything extra for you. if your mouse is tracking properly, it's accurate enough.

 

[TridenT]

I don't really get what the DPI crap does, but on my Logitech G5... if I hit the up/down buttons on the mouse to change the DPI it just makes it more or less sensitive. Higher resolution as well.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=30&threadid=2288068

 

[dguy6789]

Originally posted by: TridenT
I don't really get what the DPI crap does, but on my Logitech G5... if I hit the up/down buttons on the mouse to change the DPI it just makes it more or less sensitive. Higher resolution as well.

http://forums.anandtech.com/me...id=30&threadid=2288068

This answers what I was asking, thanks. Running the mouse at a higher DPI but lower sensitivity has a higher "resolution" than running at lower DPI but higher sensitivity.

 

[CurseTheSky]

It's not going to make a night-and-day difference. However, I can feel the difference between 3200 DPI / low sensitivity and 800 DPI / high sensitivity. Even when they're adjusted for the same "speed," the higher DPI definitely tracks better.

I suppose it's also because of the way I use the mouse. I have a large mouse pad (Steelseries SP) and I only use about 1/4th of the total surface. A slight flick of the wrist is usually enough to do a 360 spin in a FPS game. It's actually pretty entertaining when people sit down to use my computer for a second - watching them try to click on an icon or a link is priceless. Hell, about 7/8" to 1" of horizontal movement moves my cursor all the way across the screen (1920x1200).

With that said, going from something like 2000 DPI to 3200, or 3200 to 4000 wouldn't be noticeable. 800 to 3200 is a pretty big jump.

 

[TheUnk]

High DPI with low sensitivity is the way to go. It will be much more accurate for you than low DPI and high sensitivity.

Some games I notice the mouse skips pixels (kinda jumps around) at high sensitivity, but does not do this at low. In my experience, the lower the sensitivity, the more accurate it is but requires more mouse movement - which is what the high DPI eliminates.

 

[brblx]

Originally posted by: CurseTheSky
I suppose it's also because of the way I use the mouse. I have a large mouse pad (Steelseries SP) and I only use about 1/4th of the total surface. A slight flick of the wrist is usually enough to do a 360 spin in a FPS game. It's actually pretty entertaining when people sit down to use my computer for a second - watching them try to click on an icon or a link is priceless. Hell, about 7/8" to 1" of horizontal movement moves my cursor all the way across the screen (1920x1200).

this is pretty much how i am, and it's why a mouse's tracking is always the least of my concerns. comfort, button placement and such are all more important, as i've never had problems with the mouse not accurately following movement, even when i was using an original intellimouse explorer (first optical mouse released iirc).

the people who feel that high dpi laser mice are neccessary tend to be the ones who use very low sensitivities. i'm surprised that you've noticed a difference, i've experimented and never observed it.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Is there an advantage to running a mouse at a higher DPI, but lower sensitivity in games compared to the opposite?

No, it doesn't do anything. Again, you want to avoid software interpolation as much as possible. Running a high DPI, say 5000dpi, and then using software to make it feel like it would when its 1000dpi with neutral software settings means the computer is throwing away 4 out of every 5 dots observed per inch of movement.

Originally posted by: TheUnk
High DPI with low sensitivity is the way to go. It will be much more accurate for you than low DPI and high sensitivity.

This statement is only true because low DPI + high software sensitivity (higher than the neutral setting) results in pixel skipping/stair stepping, which is clearly worse than having the computer throw out extra data like would happen with high dpi + low software sensitivity. 'Just right' DPI and neutral software sensitivity is the actual ideal setting to shoot for.

Originally posted by: brblx
the people who feel that high dpi laser mice are neccessary tend to be the ones who use very low sensitivities.

This is the opposite of true, at least for users who actually know what they're doing. Low sensitivity players have avoided laser mice like the plague ever since the first generation laser mice have performed absolutely horrible when pushed at the high speeds required from true low sensitivity play. Newer laser sensors have since fixed things, but still, low sensitivity users will stick to 1:1 tracking with low dpi, something high DPI laser sensors aren't needed at all for, and something old LED opticals still do perfectly well (and are generally much less expensive).

 

[brblx]

okay, i guess i don't know how to use a mouse.

i don't need high dpi because my movements are so miniscule and non-energetic that the sensor never has trouble keeping up. people who use low sensitivities have to hurl the mouse a foot to perform large movements quickly. how is that better with a low dpi mouse?

edit to clarify - i'm not saying high dpi = faster tracking, but it's not just high sensitivity, either. it's greater accuracy, but i've never had accuracy issues with even the lowest end mice.

i guess what you're saying is that my assumption about low sensitivity users is wrong and there's basically zero need for high dpi mice.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I think you're just confused on the matter.

If we keep software settings neutral so we have 1:1 tracking from the mouse to the screen, high dpi = high sensitivity and low dpi = low sensitivity. A 400dpi mouse will require 4 inches of mouse pad to traverse the width of a 1600x1200 screen, whereas a 1600dpi mouse would require only one inch. Both mouses are equally accurate/precise on screen, the only difference is on the mousing surface where the 400dpi mouse requires greater arm/hand speed (and possibly a larger mouse pad), with the 1600dpi mouse requiring finer motor control. In general, higher dpi (ie high sensitivity control) allows you to more easily perform fast movements with a sacrifice on accuracy while low dpi (ie low sensitivity control) allows for greater accuracy but at the cost of being able to perform fast actions with ease.

 

[dguy6789]

How do we know at what point that it is neutral though? Default game settings could already be amplifying mouse readings. Going the higher DPI route with less mouse sensitivity settings is the only way to know for sure it's not messing things up, right?

I came up with a mental picture that might help. Think of the computer as able to detect where the mouse is based on a checkerboard. Each square represents a spot the mouse has to be before the computer can detect movement. Higher DPI reduces the size of those squares and increases the total number of them on the field. Higher mouse sensitivity settings makes it skip one or more squares per square it detects.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Neutral settings would be set to the middle in windows and mouse drivers (ie notch 6 of 11 for windows and generally the default position for driver software, generally in the middle, just like with the windows setting), and ingame settings the default position (which would/should never amplify). There really is no reason to go out of your way to make a higher DPI setting usable for you by lowering software sensitivity, you'll just be throwing away data, even with your checkerboard example. The only time you should mess with software sensitivity is if you're stuck with some hardware DPI (say your mouse can only run at 800dpi), and then (if you have to) you should only change the ingame sensitivity setting.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

ooops, dp...

 

[Dangerer]

high DPI, low sens and 1k max polling rate is how i play.