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What is DPI and why is it important for gamer mice?

2 min read

The most important input device for a PC gamer is the mouse. Practically this is the most used active hardware item outside of the keyboard, as we keep our hands on it almost all the time.

Dpi is one of the most important attributes of gaming mice, which has many misconceptions, so let’s clear this first. Dpi is an English acronym for “dot per inch” – 25.4 mm. Dpi is the unit of resolution, the number of pixels per inch. For example, a pixel in a 25 dpi image has a pixel size of approx. 1mm x 1mm. Why is this important to us? Because the higher the resolution of the mouse sensor, the more accurate it can be. For example, an 800 dpi mouse may not be able to target a specific point with a tongue-in-cheek, because it simply skips due to low sensitivity. The difference between an office and a gamer rodent can be thought of as the relationship between a square grid and a graph paper. Basically, the more the better. Currently, high-end mice go up to 5700 dpi and entry levels are around 1600-2000 dpi. By default, at 1600dpi, we can’t talk about a gaming mouse at all. By comparison, ordinary office mice have a roughly 800 dpi resolution.

The higher the DPI value, the more accurate is the optical mouse sensor, which is responsible for detecting movement. Accordingly, when you move the mouse over the surface, the cursor on the screen will more accurately and smoothly repeat this movement.

If the DPI value of the optical mouse sensor corresponds to, for example, 1600, then this means that when you move 1 inch, the cursor can move 1600 pixels. Therefore, the higher this value, the cursor on the screen is able to move faster. Obviously, to increase DPI , it is enough to simply reduce the surface area that the sensor will see, i.e. put a stronger lens. But even in this case, the sensor will work with images obtained only with its small matrix. Therefore, DPI directly has nothing to do with mouse accuracy. This is just a characteristic showing how much surface area the sensor covers, and depends on the properties of the lens and the size of the photosensitive sensor matrix.

The readings provided by the sensor are processed by the operating system. With standard mouse pointer settings  in Windows, one reading means moving the cursor exactly one point on the screen. And the number of dots on the screen depends on the resolution of the monitor. If the screen resolution is set to 1920 * 1680, then a mouse with 1600 dpi, the whole screen will go from left to right if you move it by 1920/1600 = 1.14 inches, i.e. just three centimeters, and a mouse with 3500 dpi – in 1.5 cm!

Hopefully, we managed to give you a basic idea about DPI. If you are looking to replace your old mouse, check out our selection of amazing deals for gaming mice at Bzfuture.

 

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