Your mouse settings can have a big impact on your gaming performance. The precision and accuracy of your aim can vary with settings like DPI and polling rate. Because of that you need to know how to optimize your settings to get the best performance. Below are my favorite tips for doing that.
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1. Turn off mouse acceleration
Mouse acceleration allows your mouse’s cursor speed to increase if the mouse is moved quickly. The setting can cause movement inconsistencies in games, so it’s best to switch it off. Here’s how to do that:
Press Windows Key + I to open up Settings. Navigate to Bluetooth and Devices > Mouse. Now scroll down and choose Additional mouse settings. Switch to the Pointer Options tab. Uncheck the Enhance pointer precision option, and click Apply.
2. Customize the DPI
The DPI settings determine how fast your cursor moves on your screen. Therefore, customizing the DPI is recommended to determine the speed of the cursor movement. You can customize your DPI in your gaming mouse’s companion app, or via your mouse’s DPI up/down buttons if it has them. But you should also customize DPI in Windows too. Here’s what to do:
Go to the Mouse section in Settings. Adjust the slider beside Mouse pointer speed to zero. Now gauge how the mouse feels by moving it. Carefully move the slider up, gradually testing while you go until it reaches a pointer speed that you’re happy with. My happy point was about mid-way.
3. Update the mouse drivers
Outdated mouse drivers can cause movement inconsistencies, so you’ll want to keep the drivers updated. You can update your mouse drivers through your mouse’s companion app. Most companion apps should do this automatically when you open them, so chances are your mouse is already up to date if you run the software simultaneously while using your mouse.
4. Increase the polling rate
The polling rate refers to how many times per second a mouse reports the position of its cursor back to the computer. A higher polling rate reduces the lag between moving your mouse with your hand and seeing the cursor move on the screen.
A high polling rate of 1,000Hz or more is recommended for games like first-person shooters where action is quick and reaction time is important. So, make sure you raise your polling rate to the highest you have available. This can be done in your mouse’s companion app.
Pexels: Ron Lach
5. Enable raw input
The input from your mouse usually goes through Windows before it reaches the game you’re playing. That causes some latency as it takes a little extra time for your game to read it. But you can bypass Windows with raw input.
This setting allows the game to get input directly from the mouse instead of from Windows. To change to Raw Input, open your game’s settings menu and look for the option Raw Input Buffer (or something similar). You’ll want to turn this to on.
6. Turn on auto HDR
Auto HDR is a Windows feature that’s usually switched off. But this feature improves the graphics quality of games and videos, so ideally you’ll want it switched on. The better graphics quality provided by auto HDR lets you track your mouse cursor more easily in games and helps you improve your aim.
If you have a compatible display, turning it on is easy. You simply navigate to Settings > System > Display. Select the “HDR” option and turn on “Auto HDR.”
7. Turn off angle snapping
Sometimes angle snapping is turned on by default in a gaming mouse’s companion app. When this is enabled, your mouse moves at a constant horizontal angle even if you make small vertical movements. Angle snapping can be useful to improve crosshair placement, but it can also make aiming difficult. So, I recommend you switch it off. You can turn off angle snapping in your mouse’s companion app.
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