Mouse sensitivity

[Azafran]

I found some topics about this in the forum, but I think it would be worthwhile to talk a bit more about it and see current opinions.

 

I recently bought a new wireless mouse to replace my old SteelSeries Sensei. I've been used to high quality sensors not just for games but for working on my PC and I realised I can't tolerate anything less precise than what I had. I say this because I ended returning a new mouse that had (unknowingly at the time of purchase) a poll rate of 125hz and it felt absolutely atrocious compared to the 1000hz I'm used to for years.

 

The thing is that I've been fiddling a bit with DPI settings and all and now I use 2400 dpi (with Windows mouse speed at 6/11, "neutral", no scaling). In FPS games normally I use a sensitivity of 10cm of mouse travel to do a 360º camera spin.

Then I read in Reddit and other parts of the internet that this is considered a very high sensitivity and most people use 800dpi and around 30cm/360º. It seems that no professional players are using a sensitivity that high, which would suggest that is not efficient nor competitive.

That came a bit of a surprise to me because since I started PC gaming in the era of ball mouses, the mouse pad was no wider than 25 cm and I weren't making big arm movements, I just used my wrist within the limits of my pad. And I keep using it like that until now. I indeed tried to use a lower sensitivity and feels awful, having to lift the mouse multiple times just to reach the edge of the screen or to turn around in Doom.

 

The question is: was people in the 90s using higher sensitivities, like me now? What's your mouse sensitivity config? It's your sensitivity different for Doom compared to other FPS games?

[Andromeda]

I also use very high sensivity, currently on 3200 dpi - it's what I'm used to and since I have little space on my desk I don't really have a reason to try to go lower.

[ReaperAA]

Having a high sensitivity has an advantage and a disadvantage. The advantage is that there is much less "hand effort" required to turn around. But precise aiming (as required in modern fps games) becomes much harder.

 

Since in modern games, you aren't doing much 360º flips and rather focusing on taking out enemies with precise aiming, it makes sense that the having lower sensitivity is meta.

 

For Doom, aiming is not a big factor and the focus is on movement and turning, so it makes sense to have higher sensitivity in Doom (and other similar games).