Have a gaming mouse? Turn down your dang DPI

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FlyingPenguin
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Have a gaming mouse? Turn down your dang DPI

Post by FlyingPenguin »

I decided to do some research to see what the best DPI is for gaming. For the desktop, the higher the better, within reason, if you do Photoshop type work.

I was using 1000 DPI on both my workstation and my gaming PC, but after reading a lot of articles about what gaming pros use, I brought it down to 750 and bumped up the Windows mouse sensitivity one to compensate(on the Windows desktop, I calibrate my mouse to let the full width of the mouse pad equal the full width of the screen). I may even go lower. As a side effect, this also helps with mouse settings in games. Because of the high DPI I was using, in-game mouse settings for all my games are down at the extreme low end. That's okay for games like Killing Floor 2 that have fine grained mouse setting increments of .1%, but a lot of games have a very course 10 increment mouse setting. For me, a lot of those games are difficult to setup the mouse for because setting 1 is to low and setting 2 is too high, and there's nothing in between.

Seems that most pros use between 300 and 800 DPI. However they also use MUCH larger mouse mats than we casual players do. A 2 foot wide mat is not unusual. Some players use even wider mats. Apparently pros use their arms more than their wrists for better precision (it's also easier on the wrist if you're trying to avoid carpal tunnel).

I may experiment with a larger mouse mat. I actually have a a couple of 35 x 16 gaming mats that I use for working on PCs on my desk, so I don't scratch the desk. You're supposed to put the keyboard on mouse on them.

Couple of good articles here if you're interested:

Have a gaming mouse? Turn down your dang DPI
https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/11/your ... or-gaming/

How to configure your mouse so it doesn't hurt you
https://www.pcgamer.com/how-to-configur ... -hurt-you/
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

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FlyingPenguin
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Re: Have a gaming mouse? Turn down your dang DPI

Post by FlyingPenguin »

Okay, I've decided to experiment. I broke out the spare gaming mat I have and put it under the keyboard and mouse, giving myself effectively a 14" x 14" mouse pad.

It's a bit of a learning curve to use your wrist less and your arm more, but after 3 hours of gaming I'm not only getting used to it, but it feels a lot better, less brutal on the wrist, and subjectively I do feel I have better accuracy.

I thought I would have a problem not having a wrist cushion for the mouse, like my old mat does, but then again I DO have my chair and desk setup ergonomically: the arm rests on my chair are at the same level as the desk (I've always preferred this) so there's really little strain on my wrist.

Let's see what happens after a few weeks.

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FlyingPenguin
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Re: Have a gaming mouse? Turn down your dang DPI

Post by FlyingPenguin »

This is the gaming mat I'm using BTW:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FU8TQFQ
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Losbot
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Re: Have a gaming mouse? Turn down your dang DPI

Post by Losbot »

Makes sense. I move my arm. Very minimal wrist movement.
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