go try to shop for a gaming mouse and you'll often have someone try to sell
you one based on how many DPI it's rated
at but this is actually one of the most overused overhyped words in the gaming
peripheral industry but before we get into that I should probably explain what
DPI actually means DPI is a misnomer
when referring to mouse sensitivity it stands for Dots per inch meaning the
number of dots that can fit in a straight line which is 1 in in length on
a screen or printed image the proper name for measurement of mouse
sensitivity is actually CPI or counts per inch this is the number of counts or
virtual pixels that the mouse sensor will be able to display and register on
a Surface in 1 in of physical space Optical sensors have a maximum native
resolution or a native CPI based on the size contraints of a mouse usually
somewhere between 800 and 1,600 CPI so
in order to raise the CPI beyond that level manufacturers actually have to
split each virtual representation of a pixel into four or more virtual pixels
which is why DPI technically CPI measurements given by manufacturers are
usually in multiples of 800 well split
away you might be saying higher CPI must always be
better let's not go that far splitting these virtual pixels actually causes
some significant issues with sensor accuracy as having more virtual pixels
creates more noise or interference and therefore more errors when reading Mouse
movements the main message here is that just because your mouse has 8,000 CPI
does not mean that it's actually able to read more information than a mouse with
800 CPI CPI is only a measurement of the
relationship between how far your mouse moves on the surface and how far your
cursor moves on the screen not a measurement of precision or accuracy so
then why do mouse manufacturers insist on releasing these mice with monstrous
DP ey numbers attached to them the main reason is as usual marketing and
branding being able to say our brand new mouse Now featuring a 10 billion DPI
sensor sounds much more impressive than you know our new mouse with like you
know better quality switches inside it or any number of other features that
might actually make a difference and it's not helped by the fact that the
industry created hype around this then Gamers created hype around it thinking
it was good and this creates a positive feedback loop around this feature that
doesn't actually improve the product necessarily and in
some cases even makes it less accurate the second reason is that there are some
people out there who enjoy using their Mouse at some ridiculous High
sensitivity whether they use very high resolution displays they move their
Mouse with little micro movements or they just like to whip the mouse cursor
around on the screen faster than most people's eyes can even move and third
there are some people who legitimately do believe that they are more accurate
in Shooters in other games while using using an extremely high Hardware CPI and
lowering their sensitivity in software but as I mentioned before a higher CPI
usually leads to more noise and a higher error rate for Mouse movements so let's
just say the jury is still out on that last one all right so it's conclusion
time is there a proper or best DPI the
shorter answer is no as is the case with
most computer peripherals it's going to come down to personal preference so
there isn't necessarily A CPI that is better than the rest the good news is
that most mice come with adjustable CPI so all you need to do is experiment with
a few different ones play around with your software sensitivity and cursor
speed and find out what works for you
what we can say for sure is that for the foreseeable future we've pretty much
reached the top end of what we need in terms of CPI so it's time for Mouse
manufacturers to work on features that will actually improve the user
experience something some of them are actually starting to do these days
speaking of improving experiences Josh from
fractal design seems to feel like the
best way for me to improve the experience that you're having watching
this video you know rather than listening to me talk about you know how
they've got you know great cases and power supplies and cooling products and
all that stuff you know some kind of sales pitch about their fractal design
Scandinavian design would be to instead
show you guys my debut performance of
milkshake while wearing this ridiculous wig so here it is my milkshake brings
all the boys to the yard and they're like it's better than yours and damn
right it's better than yours I could teach you but I have to charge all right
Josh are you happy now do you see what you've done to me I'm I'm a grown man
I'm a grown man with children and I wear this wig because you make me do
this anyway I'm sure the boys in the
yard enjoyed it so good for them guys be sure to check out the fractal design
Link in the video description to give them some kind of thanks for sponsoring
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
comment letting me know if you have suggestions for future fastest Possible episodes we really do read them and as
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