What Is DPI & eDPI?

Posted on September 10, 2019
Answer:

DPI stands for Dots Per Inch and is a measurement of how sensitive a mouse is. Higher DPI means more sensitivity so your curser will move farther when you move the mouse in contrast to a low DPI setting.

eDPI stands for Effective Dots Per Inch and is a calculated number for the effective sensitivity of any player, independent from hardware or software settings.

When researching the specifications of gaming mice, you’ve most likely encountered the term DPI, which is a measure of how sensitive a mouse is.

It is not to be confused with the polling rate.

Let’s start by explaining what DPI is.

DPI

DPI stands for Dots Per Inch. If a mouse has a DPI of 800, it means that the mouse will measure 800 points of measure for every inch the mouse is moved.

So your cursor will move 800 pixels (dots) on the screen for every inch the mouse is moved.

This essentially means that higher DPI numbers result in more sensitivity throughout the whole system. Many mice have an adjustable DPI value that can be set with software or with a physical hardware switch on the mouse.

Most professionals use a DPI between 400 and 1600

Mice that are advertised with high DPI limits are just a marketing gimmick as you most likely will never use the highest setting.

We recommend that you also use a DPI between 400 and 1600, and then use the in-game settings to adjust your sensitivity in the game.

Sensitivity

The sensitivity (also referred to as ‘sens’) is the sensitivity in the game you are playing.

So naturally, the sensitivity differs from game to game and you can have multiple sensitives with the same mouse.

Also, note that games do not necessarily use the same methods when calculating the sensitivity so having the same sensitivity in a different game does not equal the cursors are equally sensitive.

That’s what eDPI solves.

eDPI

eDPI stands for effective Dots Per Inch. This is the value you must use when comparing the true sensitivity of players, implying the game uses raw input. Otherwise, the Windows sensitivity setting also plays a role unless it is set to 6/11 and smoothing (Enhance pointer precision) is turned off.

eDPI = DPI * Sensitivity

eDPI Calculator

DPI:

Sensitivity:


eDPI:

With this value, you can compare the sensitivities of other players regardless of their software or hardware settings.

For example, a player with a DPI of 800 and an in-game sensitivity of 2, has the same ‘true’ sensitivity as a player with a DPI of 400 and an in-game sensitivity of 4.

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