What is eDPI?
eDPI collapses two settings into one comparable number, which solves a real problem. It also gets quoted across game boundaries where it means nothing at all. Both facts are worth understanding.
The formula and what it fixes
The problem eDPI solves is that neither half of that product means anything alone. A player saying "I use 0.4 sensitivity" has told you nothing until you know their DPI, and a player saying "I use 1600 DPI" has told you nothing until you know their in-game value. Multiply the two and you get a single number that fully describes their aim within that game.
| DPI | Sensitivity | eDPI | Feel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 400 | 2.00 | 800 | Identical |
| 800 | 1.00 | 800 | Identical |
| 1600 | 0.50 | 800 | Identical |
| 3200 | 0.25 | 800 | Identical |
They are not merely similar, they are the same. Each one produces exactly the same number of degrees of rotation for the same physical movement. If you can tell them apart, something other than eDPI is different, most likely sensor behaviour at an extreme DPI or a scaling step you have not accounted for.
The limitation, stated plainly
eDPI is not comparable between games, because the engine's yaw constant sits outside the formula. Two games with different constants turn the same eDPI into wildly different aims.
| Game | cm/360 at 500 eDPI | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Valorant | 26.1 cm | Fast but usable. A normal competitive value. |
| Counter-Strike 2 | 83.1 cm | Extremely low. Almost nobody plays here. |
| Overwatch 2 | 277.1 cm | Physically impossible on any desk. |
This is why the phrase "what eDPI should I use" is unanswerable as asked, and why a chart of professional eDPI values is only meaningful if every player on it plays the same title.
eDPI ranges that mean something
Within a single game, eDPI is a perfectly good shorthand. Here is the practical span in each of the three families, expressed as the eDPI that produces the cm/360 band it corresponds to.
| Band | cm/360 | Source family (CS2, Apex) | Valorant | Overwatch 2 / CoD |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Very high | 20 cm | 2078 | 653 | 6927 |
| High | 28 cm | 1484 | 467 | 4948 |
| Medium | 38 cm | 1094 | 344 | 3646 |
| Low | 50 cm | 831 | 261 | 2770 |
| Very low | 70 cm | 594 | 187 | 1979 |
Two things fall out of this table. First, the Valorant column is the one most people have seen quoted, and it is roughly a third of the Counter-Strike column, exactly as the constants predict. Second, if you have ever wondered why Overwatch sensitivity values are large single digits while Valorant values have three decimal places, this is why: the engine constant is a factor of ten apart, so the slider ranges had to be too.
When to use which metric
- Talking to someone in the same game: eDPI is fine and convenient.
- Talking to anyone else, or writing it down for future you: cm/360.
- Changing mouse: keep eDPI constant and your aim is untouched.
- Changing game: keep cm/360 constant. eDPI will change, and should.
Related reading
- cm/360, the metric that does survive a game change.
- Calculate eDPI and cm/360 together.
- DPI and CPI: what the number on the box actually measures.
Frequently asked questions
What does eDPI stand for?
Effective dots per inch. It is your mouse's hardware DPI multiplied by your in-game sensitivity setting: eDPI = DPI x sensitivity. The word "effective" is doing the work: it is the DPI you would need at sensitivity 1.0 to get the same aim.
Is 800 eDPI high or low?
In Counter-Strike 2 it is low: a 51.9 cm turn. In Valorant it is very high: a 16.3 cm turn. In Overwatch 2 it is impossible: a 173 cm turn that no desk can accommodate. The number alone tells you nothing without the game.
Should I change DPI or sensitivity to adjust my aim?
Whichever gives you finer control over the value you want. In-game sensitivity usually has more decimal places than a DPI setting has steps, so adjust sensitivity. Keep DPI at 800 or 1600 and forget about it.
Do professionals all use 400 or 800 DPI?
Most do, and the reason is historical rather than technical. Older sensors genuinely degraded at high DPI, and 400 became the safe default; the convention outlived the problem. Modern sensors track cleanly at any DPI in their range. There is nothing wrong with 1600 if the sensitivity value you need is available.
What is the difference between DPI and eDPI?
DPI is a hardware property of the mouse: how many counts it reports per inch of travel. eDPI is DPI combined with how much the game amplifies each of those counts. Two mice at the same DPI will feel identical; two players at the same eDPI in the same game will aim identically regardless of their individual DPI values.