Just got a 5600dpi mouse -- too much?

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ar55x

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First time poster here,

I've recently upgraded to a 5600dpi mouse, the new Cooler Master Storm Sentinel.

Now personally, 5600 even at a low sensitivity (at a 1920 x 1080 windows/game resolution) doesn't feel natural to me -- but I'm assuming that's because it's such a drastic change from my old mouse (been gaming with the standard MS mouse since my teens). Should I take the time to get used to it or is 5600 way too much? Asking because I was told it's always better to have your dpi set to the mouse's max. Also, mainly using it for Source games and COD4.

Thank you in advance for any help.
 
Yes. This trend of DPI going higher and higher is ridiculous. It's all marketing, nobody in their right mind needs more than 800dpi for gaming. I've been using 400/450dpi for the past decade and it's been perfectly adequate.
 
Welcome!

I'd say get used to it - you already have it, and you'll get accustomed to it soon. I recently got a mouse with adjustable dpi to go along with a new gaming rig (I previously used a 800 dpi mouse) I decided to increase it to 1200, which I quickly got accustomed to. I'm currently at 1600 and it's beginning to feel sluggish (this is all on standard sensitivity). A standard mouse to 5600dpi is a massive leap, but you'll quickly get used to it!
 
Thanks all,

Also, is there a general rule of thumb for how to setup windows sensitivity vs. in-game vs. drivers?
 
Windows settings 6 (the sixth tick) is shown to be the most precise interpolation of movements. Then, depending on what game you play, you want to use whatever in-game setting has the best interpolation within that engine, which is usually 1. Then adjust your DPI in place on your traditional sensitivity adjustments. I hope I explained that well enough.
 
I use the middle tick on my G5 (800dpi) and it works great for windows and such. Sometimes I will go up to 1800-2000 DPI for shenanigans in games, but really no need for anything higher as even that is uncontrollable at times.

I love how DPI has become one of those marketing things though, hilarious to see the numbers keep getting bigger.
 
Is there any limit to DPI? Is it just going to get bigger and bigger? Does it only really reflect sensitivity?
 
Jon55 said:
Is there any limit to DPI? Is it just going to get bigger and bigger? Does it only really reflect sensitivity?
Click to expand...
DPI affects precision, not just sensitivity. The higher the DPI, the more accurate the translation of the movements of your hand into actual cursor movements on the screen. In fact, higher DPI makes more of a difference at lower sensitivities, because the higher resolution allows it to be more precise when it comes to measuring larger mouse movements.
 
Jon55 said:
Is there any limit to DPI? Is it just going to get bigger and bigger? Does it only really reflect sensitivity?
Click to expand...

only in direct relation to the res you play at, which isn't going up in leaps and bounds. unless you run triplehead/eyefinity or somesuch, and you need the dpi to get across a multi-mon setup.

ar55x said:
Thanks all,

Also, is there a general rule of thumb for how to setup windows sensitivity vs. in-game vs. drivers?
Click to expand...

get rid of any mouse accel in windows if it's on. then you can either set your os dpi once and match all your games to it, or turn all your games to minimum and match your dpi to it. I prefer the former since it's just easier for me, I don't don't care that much about the most precise aiming possible as long as it's in the ballpark. I would rather change the game settings once than keep adjusting dpi, even though my g3 has a quick dpi toggle. I keep my general dpi at around 700-1k, and put most properly adjusted game acceleration to slightly above minimum, to match my 1680 res. I can do 2000 dpi, but I've never had a use for it.
 
Zero82z said:
DPI affects precision, not just sensitivity. The higher the DPI, the more accurate the translation of the movements of your hand into actual cursor movements on the screen. In fact, higher DPI makes more of a difference at lower sensitivities, because the higher resolution allows it to be more precise when it comes to measuring larger mouse movements.
Click to expand...

not true
 
Here is a very comprehensive guide to mouse sensitivity.

Pretty much: you only need enough DPI so that there's no pixel skipping at your desired in-game sensitivity at your monitor's resolution. If you play with a high in-game sensitivity or with a high-res monitor (1920x1200 or 2560x1200) then a higher DPI mouse may help you, although 5600 is excessive.

Also, ALWAYS set the Windows sensitivity to the 6th notch, the middle (and default) point. Or else bad things happen; like this:

Greater than 6 causes pixel skipping, so drawing a thin diagonal line in paint looks like a stair case.
Less than 6 (strangely enough) makes it so the cursor moves slightly slower to the right, and faster to the left. Making a looping motion in paint over and over again makes your cursor drift to the lower left
 
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Joga said:
Here is a very comprehensive guide to mouse sensitivity.

Pretty much: you only need enough DPI so that there's no pixel skipping at your desired in-game sensitivity at your monitor's resolution. If you play with a high in-game sensitivity or with a high-res monitor (1920x1200 or 2560x1200) then a higher DPI mouse may help you, although 5600 is excessive.

Also, ALWAYS set the Windows sensitivity to the 6th notch, the middle (and default) point. Or else bad things happen; like this:

Greater than 6 causes pixel skipping, so drawing a thin diagonal line in paint looks like a stair case.
Less than 6 (strangely enough) makes it so the cursor moves slightly slower to the right, and faster to the left. Making a looping motion in paint over and over again makes your cursor drift to the lower left
Click to expand...

Where do you adjust this setting in Win7?
 
I have the sentinel and I normally use 2600 dpi. Just feels the best to me in games/windows.
 
DPI effects both sensitivity and accuracy, you want your mouse to read the surface to as high as degree of accuracy as possible. The side effect this has is a naturally higher sensitivity, you can use the mouse driver settings or the in game mouse sensitivity settings to lower the sensitivity (NOT the DPI) and the accuracy will remain high with a comfortable sensitivity. Higher sensitivity is harder to use but it's ultimately more beneficial to make 180 turns easy and less lifting the mouse off the pad.

Those saying 800dpi is enough are wrong in some cases, you ideally want to achieve pixel perfect aiming and to do that at high sensitivity with a high resolution takes a few thousand DPI at least, you can demonstrate this using maths.

With windows sensitivity you want the middle notch (default) on the scale, this leaves mouse input at a 1:1 ratio with windows mouse movement, if you go higher or lower your mouse input is distorted and will result in skipping pixels. Preferably with enhanced pointer precision turned off to get rid of nasty mouse acceleration.
 
OpStar said:
I have the sentinel and I normally use 2600 dpi. Just feels the best to me in games/windows.
Click to expand...

That's the mouse I have as well. Have you noticed that unlike Razer mice, where the windows pointer speed and driver sensitivity are two separate features, the driver sensitivity in the CM software actually mirrors the windows pointer speed (i.e., if you change one, the other will mirror it, and vice versa).

I changed windows pointer speed to default and the mouse feels a lot more "accurate" now, although I had to lower the DPI because at a speed of 6 and DPI of 5600 the movement was way too fast. Lowered the DPI to 1800 for windows and 2600 for in-game and it feels more manageable.

Also read through the guide; the trick to find the perfect sensitivity in CSS by "poling" around the bullet marks actually worked real well.

Although this has been a PIA I feel it'll ultimately be worth it. Wish they'd invent some auto calibration program :)
 
A lot of time and effort goes into discusing mouse DPI and I don't understand the fuss. Never once in my 10+ years of PC use have I even considered/thought about mouse DPI when I made a mouse purchase and I have never been unsatisfied. As a matter of fact, only once ever, on a laptop touchpad, did I even have to make an adjustment to the pointer acceleration.

Can someone please explain to me what the big deal about mouse DPI is?

This subject almost seems as pointless as discussing the performance difference between page file or disk cluster sizes. Are people really this bored?
 
well i bought a g5 when they first came out. and i tried that 2000dpi. woo boy talk about sensitive.
haven't tried that dpi in games since
 
bigdogchris said:
A lot of time and effort goes into discusing mouse DPI and I don't understand the fuss. Never once in my 10+ years of PC use have I even considered/thought about mouse DPI when I made a mouse purchase and I have never been unsatisfied. As a matter of fact, only once ever, on a laptop touchpad, did I even have to make an adjustment to the pointer acceleration.

Can someone please explain to me what the big deal about mouse DPI is?
Click to expand...

Try using 5600 dpi on a 17" monitor, or 800 dpi on a 30" monitor. Then you'll realize why people need to make adjustments.

Also, some people like to use a higher dpi when running around and then switch to a lower one when sniping. If you run a low dpi all the time it makes doing quick 180s difficult and/or impossible.

Basically, there are distinct advantages to using certain dpi settings both for general usage and in games. Some people are fine with using a static 1600 dpi all the time, but it's nice to have the option to change it and it is worth discussing to graphic designers and competitive gamers (among others).
 
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There was a very informative user here who posted a short DPI faq in another DPI thread. Basically what he posted made much sense to me, high DPI + low sensitivity is the way to go. The more dots per inch means the more pixel point accurate your mouse pointer will be.

For CS:S a game where my settings have to be an exact certain way, I have 1920 x1200 resolution, default windows sensitvity, mouse acceleration on(I actually like it on), my mouse polling rate at 1000mhz, angle snapping off, 5700 DPI with in-game sensitivity at 0.6 and it takes me just about 1 inch to make a 180 degree turn. Many would say that is very sensitive, I am a high sens player with major hand control though.
 
BETA. said:
There was a very informative user here who posted a short DPI faq in another DPI thread. Basically what he posted made much sense to me, high DPI + low sensitivity is the way to go. The more dots per inch means the more pixel point accurate your mouse pointer will be.

For CS:S a game where my settings have to be an exact certain way, I have 1920 x1200 resolution, default windows sensitvity, mouse acceleration on(I actually like it on), my mouse polling rate at 1000mhz, angle snapping off, 5700 DPI with in-game sensitivity at 0.6 and it takes me just about 1 inch to make a 180 degree turn. Many would say that is very sensitive, I am a high sens player with major hand control though.
Click to expand...

FYI -- I've been using similar settings after another poster's suggestion in this thread , and I must say that at first it was pretty painful to get used to, but after a few hours of playing my aim has gotten a lot more precise in CS:S (not quiet like in my younger days but getting there :)). I really think it has to do with the resolution and 720p/1080p being the norm these days. I'd probably be fine with a crap $5 mouse if I was still playing 1.6 on a 18" screen.
 
I'm currently at 2000 DPI on my Razer Mamba with 9 acceleration. (>" )>
 
My mouse goes up to 2500 but I never seen myself use anything but 600dpi-800dpi
Jon55 said:
Where do you adjust this setting in Win7?
Click to expand...

Open control panel, in the top right search box type "mouse".
Done.
 
Ron FTL said:
My mouse goes up to 2500 but I never seen myself use anything but 600dpi-800dpi


Open control panel, in the top right search box type "mouse".
Done.
Click to expand...

No need to open CP -- just type "mouse" in the Start Menu's search bar. :)
 
TheBlueChanell said:
Yes. This trend of DPI going higher and higher is ridiculous. It's all marketing, nobody in their right mind needs more than 800dpi for gaming. I've been using 400/450dpi for the past decade and it's been perfectly adequate.
Click to expand...


Nah

it depends on the user and the style of game. I have always been a super high sensitivity player. The extra DPI helps me lower my sensitivity to almost zero and still have exceptional precision at 1920x1200. I currently use the mamba but I have been using high DPI mouses since the original Razer Boomslang, that was when I actually gamed competitively. ;)
 
TheBlueChanell said:
Yes. This trend of DPI going higher and higher is ridiculous. It's all marketing, nobody in their right mind needs more than 800dpi for gaming. I've been using 400/450dpi for the past decade and it's been perfectly adequate.
Click to expand...

LOL

Do you use a 1024 x 768 resolution or something?
 
I have the storm sentinel mouse set to 1400dpi on default windows sensitivity. Once I install Win 7 and get a new monitor, I will probably lower the sensitivity and up the dpi though.
 
From my experience a lot of lasers mouses for me feel more floaty or artificially accelerated. Microsoft optical for me has always been just right.
 
bigdogchris said:
A lot of time and effort goes into discusing mouse DPI and I don't understand the fuss. Never once in my 10+ years of PC use have I even considered/thought about mouse DPI when I made a mouse purchase and I have never been unsatisfied. As a matter of fact, only once ever, on a laptop touchpad, did I even have to make an adjustment to the pointer acceleration.

Can someone please explain to me what the big deal about mouse DPI is?
Click to expand...

You ever hear a bunch of golfers talk about their clubs? Doesnt make a bit of sense to me, why dont they just use one club and be done with it? :confused:

But I used to 'overclock' the ps/2 port back when we were all using ball mice that you had to clean the goo out of every few days. Now its the USB poll rate. Some things never change. :D
 
MX518 with 800dpi. Most clanners will tell you this is all you ever need for counter-strike source at least but any game really. Why hurt your wrist? move your arm ya big lazy pants. I should note I have a backup Razor Deathadder which is pretty equivalent to a MX518.
 
TheBlueChanell said:
Yes. This trend of DPI going higher and higher is ridiculous. It's all marketing, nobody in their right mind needs more than 800dpi for gaming. I've been using 400/450dpi for the past decade and it's been perfectly adequate.
Click to expand...

Actually, I use a sidewinder x8 and I use mine at the full 4000dpi and have it turned up all the way in driver. Some people (like me) enjoy the extremely high sensitivity.

In response to the OP, no, 5600dpi isnt too much if you find that it suits you
 
I accept that higher DPI yields greater angular precision for mouselook, but to me the point of diminishing returns was way back at 800 or less. I remain convinced that the majority of DPI increases seen in the mouse market over the years have simply been one-ups on the "numbers" game with hardly any tangible benefit.
 
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