gaming mouse dpi question

i got my first gaming mouse and have set the dpi to 4000 but it is way too fast. so what i did was set it to 4000 dpi and reduced the sensitivy of the mouse to the lowest settings so it can be a comfortable speed. now my question is, is there any benefit to this setup or do i lose the dpi factor since i lowered the sensitivity? i am assuming it is still taking advantage of higher dpi in as the precision is more accurate than say, putting a 1500 dpi and increasing sensitivity to have same cursor speed.

 

To answer your question, I am going to provide a link which will do a much better job at explaining the mouse sensitivity vs. DPI debate than I can.

CS:S Mouse Optimization at Overclock.net

The article is very much detailed and a bit technical but worth a read to truly understand the effects of mouse properties. =)

 

dpi is the hardware level reading of the scale of movement.

sensitivity is the software level reading of the scale of movement.

Too keep your mouse cursor moving at the same speed its like a slider, going to software on one side and hardware on the other.

Basically once you get to a certain point (the point where a human being can accurately move a mouse willfully) you doing gain any further benefit from a higher dpi because the mouse starts reading movement so small that you cant even make a voluntary movement in such a small increment. This is when you start dumbing it down with a lower software level reading (sensitivity) so you can control the mouse again, and then of course your not actually using the full dpi reading anymore for the most part.

Visualize taking a pen and marking out a inch on a piece of paper, now start making dots with the pen tip. How many do you think you can fit in there? Defintily not in the thousands witch is how accurate the high end dpi mice are now. But now imagine trying to move the mouse only just 1 "dot".

With no sensitivity setting 1 dot would move you one pixel on screen. @ 5000dpi you would move 5000 pixels in less than a flick of the wrist. Nobody can control a mouse like that, so you turn down the sensitivity so the computer says "for 100 dots of movement I will move the cursor just 1 pixel) so your mostly really only using 500dpi with that example

I think the common threshold for where people can notice a difference in how the mouse moves is like 1200-1600dpi higher than that and the readings are so small that it makes no difference. It may "feel" different with a higher dpi and lower sensitivity, but its placebo effect or how the computer is interpreting the readings via the sensitivity setting, there not actually using the full dpi.

This concept is just that, a concept its not exactly how a mouse works but its the basic idea. There are other factors in play like reading errors, error handling, refresh rate, but all said I still feel that the super high dpi is just a gimmick and yes your just counteracting the higher dpi with a lower sensitivity and thus no real benefit is to be had.

 

The way I see it, anything over 1,800 DPI or so is just fine, even for high resolution displays. Below 1,000 or so you can really tell the difference, especially on a really high resolution. So, DPI is important, but not everything.

Perfect control speed is another factor; it's the top speed at which you can physically move the mouse and maintain perfect tracking. Beyond this speed, tracking behavior becomes erratic. The Razer DeathAdder, for instance, is one of the top performers in this category with a perfect control speed of around 4 meters per second, which is insanely fast for moving your arm.

Maximum acceleration (in terms of G forces) is another important aspect of gaming mice. Some mice handle sudden accelerations, like whipping the mouse around in different directions at high speeds, better than others. It' not really a huge deal though; just about any gaming mouse will handle whatever acceleration a gamer manages to subject it to.

Response time, also referred to as polling or latency, plays a part as well. It is the amount of time it takes for a signal from your mouse to reach the computer and be processed. Your average office mouse has a polling rate of 125 Hz, which yields a response time of 8 ms. Just about every gaming mouse is capable of 1,000 Hz polling, with near-instantaneous 1 ms response. There are a few exceptions to this; some older gaming mice, especially wireless ones, only do 500 Hz/2 ms.

So, mice ae about more than just DPI, although to be fair, most gaming mice on the market today will do what you need them to do.