When it comes to what we’re being told about gaming mice, DPI is right up there as one of the most important — if not THE most important — factors you need to worry about in a gaming mouse.
To be more specific, mice with high maximum DPIs are generally considered better than mice with low maximum DPIs.
Because of that, if you’re shopping for a gaming mouse, it’s easy to fall down a rabbit hole of checking the maximum DPI of every model that appears on your screen.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it is good to know exactly why you might want a mouse with a high maximum DPI. The most logical reason for that may surprise you. But first a very quick reviser about what DPI is…
What is DPI anyway?
DPI stands for dots per inch and refers to the number of pixels per inch of screen space your mouse’s cursor crosses when you move it.
A high number of pixels means your curser is going to be extremely sensitive and move very quickly. On the other hand, a low number of pixels means your cursor will be slow and less sensitive.
The fact that adjusting DPI changes your mouse’s sensitivity and speed means it does have a perceivable effect on how much control you have in your games.
Further reading: The best gaming mice
Take three classic scenarios as an example: low, high, and just right. A DPI setting that’s exactly right for a specific game provides you with the right amount of speed and precision for maximum control.
Contrary to that, a DPI setting that’s too low for your game means you won’t react fast enough to stimuli and will most likely find yourself lifting your mouse to speed up its movements.
On the other hand, a DPI setting that’s too high for your game, will result in you making uncontrollable, sporadic movements that are too fast for your senses to keep up with.
Is a high DPI really important for gaming?
The big myth is — and here’s the kicker — that you need a mouse with a maximum DPI setting anywhere from 8,000 to 32,000 DPI, something that’s hinted at in the marketing materials for many gaming mice.
In fact, however, you probably won’t ever need to set your mouse’s DPI to its maximum limit.
A glance at Prosettings.net — a website that compiles the settings that esports athletes use in their matches — shows that even the most advanced gamers don’t use DPI settings much higher than 1,600 DPI (a common DPI band for esports players is between 400 to 1,600 DPI).
That raises the question: Why do mice like the 30,000 DPI Razer DeathAdder V3 Pro and the 26,000 DPI Alienware Pro Wireless even have such high maximum DPIs?
One theory is that gamers like to know there’s a high upper limit to DPI. A supercar analogy works well as an explainer in this case. Imagine, you were in the fortunate position to be buying a Lamborghini. You wouldn’t want one that had a top speed of just 60 mph, even if 60 mph is the speed you’d be driving at most of the time.
In a similar way, it’s kind of nice to know that your Alienware Pro Wireless can be clocked to a whopping 26,000 DPI, even if you’ll never use it.
I mean, sure, you could use it; you could go ahead and switch it to 26,000 DPI for a game of CounterStrike 2, in the same way that you could decide to drive your new Lamborghini Diablo to the shopping mall at 200 mph — both are possible — but the kind of control you’re likely to get in either scenario isn’t going to be great.
What mouse DPI should I buy then?
All that being the case, it doesn’t necessarily mean you shouldn’t aim to buy a gaming mouse with the highest DPI setting you can possibly get.
Indeed, as manufacturers push the envelope on DPI in successive generations, they’re also pushing the envelope on a whole bunch of other functionalities — like mouse sensor speed, button switches, and the polling rates — things that are arguably even more important than DPI.
It’s for that very reason I’d still choose a 2024 Alienware Pro Wireless over most gaming mice released back in 2020.
So that’s a roundabout way of saying “absolutely, buy a gaming mouse with the highest possible maximum DPI you can get.” But just be sure to spend as much time comparing the mouse’s other key metrics when you do.