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go try to shop for a gaming mouse and you'll often have someone try to sell

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you one based on how many DPI it's rated

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at but this is actually one of the most overused overhyped words in the gaming

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peripheral industry but before we get into that I should probably explain what

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DPI actually means DPI is a misnomer

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when referring to mouse sensitivity it stands for Dots per inch meaning the

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number of dots that can fit in a straight line which is 1 in in length on

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a screen or printed image the proper name for measurement of mouse

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sensitivity is actually CPI or counts per inch this is the number of counts or

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virtual pixels that the mouse sensor will be able to display and register on

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a Surface in 1 in of physical space Optical sensors have a maximum native

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resolution or a native CPI based on the size contraints of a mouse usually

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somewhere between 800 and 1,600 CPI so

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in order to raise the CPI beyond that level manufacturers actually have to

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split each virtual representation of a pixel into four or more virtual pixels

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which is why DPI technically CPI measurements given by manufacturers are

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usually in multiples of 800 well split

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away you might be saying higher CPI must always be

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better let's not go that far splitting these virtual pixels actually causes

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some significant issues with sensor accuracy as having more virtual pixels

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creates more noise or interference and therefore more errors when reading Mouse

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movements the main message here is that just because your mouse has 8,000 CPI

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does not mean that it's actually able to read more information than a mouse with

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800 CPI CPI is only a measurement of the

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relationship between how far your mouse moves on the surface and how far your

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cursor moves on the screen not a measurement of precision or accuracy so

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then why do mouse manufacturers insist on releasing these mice with monstrous

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DP ey numbers attached to them the main reason is as usual marketing and

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branding being able to say our brand new mouse Now featuring a 10 billion DPI

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sensor sounds much more impressive than you know our new mouse with like you

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know better quality switches inside it or any number of other features that

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might actually make a difference and it's not helped by the fact that the

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industry created hype around this then Gamers created hype around it thinking

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it was good and this creates a positive feedback loop around this feature that

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doesn't actually improve the product necessarily and in

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some cases even makes it less accurate the second reason is that there are some

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people out there who enjoy using their Mouse at some ridiculous High

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sensitivity whether they use very high resolution displays they move their

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Mouse with little micro movements or they just like to whip the mouse cursor

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around on the screen faster than most people's eyes can even move and third

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there are some people who legitimately do believe that they are more accurate

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in Shooters in other games while using using an extremely high Hardware CPI and

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lowering their sensitivity in software but as I mentioned before a higher CPI

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usually leads to more noise and a higher error rate for Mouse movements so let's

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just say the jury is still out on that last one all right so it's conclusion

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time is there a proper or best DPI the

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shorter answer is no as is the case with

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most computer peripherals it's going to come down to personal preference so

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there isn't necessarily A CPI that is better than the rest the good news is

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that most mice come with adjustable CPI so all you need to do is experiment with

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a few different ones play around with your software sensitivity and cursor

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speed and find out what works for you

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what we can say for sure is that for the foreseeable future we've pretty much

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reached the top end of what we need in terms of CPI so it's time for Mouse

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manufacturers to work on features that will actually improve the user

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experience something some of them are actually starting to do these days

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speaking of improving experiences Josh from

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fractal design seems to feel like the

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best way for me to improve the experience that you're having watching

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this video you know rather than listening to me talk about you know how

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they've got you know great cases and power supplies and cooling products and

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all that stuff you know some kind of sales pitch about their fractal design

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Scandinavian design would be to instead

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show you guys my debut performance of

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milkshake while wearing this ridiculous wig so here it is my milkshake brings

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all the boys to the yard and they're like it's better than yours and damn

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right it's better than yours I could teach you but I have to charge all right

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Josh are you happy now do you see what you've done to me I'm I'm a grown man

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I'm a grown man with children and I wear this wig because you make me do

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this anyway I'm sure the boys in the

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yard enjoyed it so good for them guys be sure to check out the fractal design

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Link in the video description to give them some kind of thanks for sponsoring

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us although I'm not sure that I want you to like this video if you liked it dislike it if you disliked it leave a

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comment letting me know if you have suggestions for future fastest Possible episodes we really do read them and as

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always don't forget to subscribe for more videos just like this one