DPI Calculator

A DPI calculator tells you the in-game sensitivity you need after changing DPI so your aim stays exactly the same. The rule is short: new sensitivity equals old sensitivity multiplied by old DPI divided by new DPI, and the calculator above applies it for your game, with cm/360 shown alongside.

Changing DPI without touching sensitivity is the most common way to wreck a sensitivity you spent months getting used to. Going from 800 to 1600 DPI doubles how far the view turns per inch. Halve the sensitivity at the same time and nothing in the game changes; only the desktop cursor gets faster.

How to use the DPI calculator

The calculator is split into an input row at the top and two result panels beneath it. Everything updates as you type.

1. Pick your game under Game. The yaw constant for that game is used for cm/360; the DPI-change result itself is the same in every game.
2. Enter the DPI your mouse runs now under Current DPI and your in-game sensitivity under Current sensitivity. If you leave the sensitivity empty, the calculator uses a placeholder value for the selected game, so fill it in for a real result.
3. In the panel Change DPI, keep the same feel, type the DPI you are moving to under New DPI or click one of the quick buttons for 400, 800, 1600 or 3200. The large number under Set your game sensitivity to is the value to type into the game.
4. In the panel Sensitivity from a cm/360 target, type the distance you want for a full turn under Target cm/360. The result under Sensitivity at your new DPI is the sensitivity that gives that distance. If you have not changed the new DPI field, it uses your current DPI.
5. Check the summary row at the bottom: eDPI for your current setup, Current cm/360, and DPI ratio, which is new DPI divided by current DPI.

Reset puts the DPI fields back to 800 and 1600 and clears the sensitivity and cm/360 target. Before you trust the result, make sure the current DPI you typed is the DPI the mouse really uses. The DPI analyzer measures it with a ruler in under a minute, and how to check mouse DPI covers the software route.

800 DPI to 1600 DPI: what changes and what does not

Take a CS2 player at 800 DPI and 1.1 sensitivity. Their eDPI is 880 and a full turn takes 47.2 cm. Switching the mouse to 1600 DPI with the calculator gives a new sensitivity of 0.55. The eDPI is still 880, the turn is still 47.2 cm, and the DPI ratio box reads ×2.00.

Inside the game the four rows are indistinguishable. What does change is the desktop: at 1600 DPI the Windows cursor crosses the screen in half the distance it did at 800. If that bothers you, lower the pointer speed in the operating system, but keep the slider at the default notch when gaming or you will introduce scaling the game cannot see.

The same arithmetic works in every game because DPI sits outside the game's yaw constant. A Valorant player going from 0.5 at 800 DPI to 1600 DPI gets 0.25, and the 32.7 cm turn is unchanged.

How to calculate sensitivity from cm/360

The second panel works backwards from a distance. This is the better tool when you are copying a setting from someone whose cm/360 you know, or when you have decided on a turn distance and want the matching sensitivity.

The formula the calculator uses is:

sensitivity = 360 × 2.54 ÷ (yaw × DPI × target cm)

In CS2 at 800 DPI, a target of 30 cm per turn needs a sensitivity of 1.732. At 1600 DPI the same 30 cm needs 0.866. For Valorant at 800 DPI, 45 cm per turn needs 0.363, and the same distance in CS2 needs 1.155. The placeholder in the Target cm/360 field is your current cm/360, so you can see immediately whether you are asking for something faster or slower than you have now.

This panel is also the quickest way to try a sensitivity change in measured steps. If 47 cm feels sluggish, enter 42, play a session, and move again. Thinking in centimetres makes the change concrete in a way that "sensitivity 1.1 to 1.23" does not.

Why cm/360 is the number to keep

DPI alone does not describe how fast you turn. Neither does sensitivity. Only the combination, filtered through the game's yaw, tells you what your hand actually does, and cm/360 is that combination expressed in a unit you can measure on the desk.

Because it is physical, cm/360 survives everything: a new mouse at a different DPI, a different game, a reinstall that resets the config. Note your cm/360 once and you can rebuild any setup from it. This is also what the mouse sensitivity converter preserves when you move between games, and what the eDPI calculator shows next to the eDPI it computes.

Which DPI should you change to?

The calculator makes any DPI feel the same in-game, so the choice comes down to three practical points.

Desktop comfort is the first. Most players settle at 800 or 1600 because the cursor moves at a sensible speed on 1080p to 1440p monitors without touching the Windows pointer slider.

Input granularity is the second. At very low in-game sensitivities, a higher DPI gives the game finer steps per count, which some players notice as smoother slow tracking. The effect is small and largely gone above 800 DPI, so this is not a reason to run 3200 or higher.

Sensor behaviour is the third. Some sensors are tuned most accurately at their native steps, typically 400, 800 and 1600, and perform a little worse at odd values like 1250. Stick to the standard steps unless the mouse software documents otherwise. If you are weighing DPI against sensitivity as the thing to change, DPI vs sensitivity goes through the trade-offs in detail.

After you change DPI

Two settings often get missed. The first is scoped or ADS sensitivity: if the game multiplies your hipfire sensitivity by a separate scope factor, the factor itself does not change, but any absolute scoped values do. Check them after the switch.

The second is the DPI stage itself. Set the new DPI in the mouse software, then confirm with the DPI analyzer that the mouse is actually sending that many counts per inch. If the measured value is off by more than a few percent, either the wrong stage is active or the sensor needs the number corrected, and the calculator result should be re-run with the measured DPI. For the step-by-step on the software side, see how to change mouse DPI.

Related

• DPI analyzer measures the DPI your mouse really runs, which is the number this calculator depends on.
• eDPI calculator compares your DPI × sensitivity with the usual pro range for your game.
• Mouse sensitivity converter keeps the same cm/360 when you switch games.
• How to change mouse DPI covers DPI buttons and brand software.