What's the difference between mouse CPI and DPI, and why should you care?

Shopping around for a mouse will often land y'all on production pages that list a specification in Counts Per Inch (CPI) or Dots Per Inch (DPI). The latter — unsurprisingly — covers how many dots are in an inch and can be used in printing equally well as mice, while the sometime specifically relates how many virtual pixels the mouse sensor can pick upwards with the onboard sensor. In curt, these ii terms essentially cover the aforementioned specification of a mouse and tin be used interchangeably.

But only because they both virtually mean the same matter in this context, which is the right term to use?

DPI vs. CPI

Some retailers, vendors and even consumers employ DPI when talking virtually mice and how many dots (or virtual pixels) can be detected and read by the mouse, but fright not as the figures are the aforementioned regardless. CPI (and in turn DPI) revolves around how much the mouse cursor will movement on-screen compared to physical motility detected on the pad. The higher the CPI, the further the cursor will move, requiring less endeavour on the user'due south part.

For example, a CPI configuration of 800 will motion the on-screen cursor 800 pixels for each inch the mouse is moved on the pad. By design, sensors are express to around 1600 CPI, but in society for manufacturers to offer even more than sensitive configurations, they take to effectively split all those pixels in half. Information technology's obvious as to how this can become a problem with the performance of a mouse. If the pixels are made smaller and more difficult to discover by the sensor, it may result in worsened accuracy.

This is why it's not recommended to become beyond a certain CPI level unless yous actually need to. There has to be a fine residuum maintained between CPI, acceleration (measured in Gs), and Inches Per Second (IPS), the latter which determines the maximum speed the sensor can maintain high levels of accuracy at.

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College CPI ≠ Better

Just even the advice of keeping CPI low isn't really right, as there is no "best" CPI or mouse sensitivity settings. Information technology'south all dependant on personal preference and use cases. The same can be said for different mechanical keyboard switches — each type requires a different amount of force to activate a fundamental press but no switch is the "best." Take a offset-person shooter, you lot may want to take lower CPI for hip and atomic number 26 sight fire but a higher CPI for a long-range telescopic, which allows for smaller mouse movements to adjust the weapon farther.

So there you go, the mystery of CPI and DPI uncovered. If you continue to utilize DPI when talking about mice the world certainly won't end, but information technology would be better for everyone if we can grow accustomed to a single acronym.

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Source: https://www.windowscentral.com/difference-between-mouse-cpi-and-dpi

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