Windows pointer speed and the 6/11 rule
The Windows pointer speed slider has eleven positions. Ten of them scale your mouse counts before any application sees them, and several of them discard information permanently. The sixth is the one that does nothing, which is exactly what you want.
The multiplier table
Each notch on the slider corresponds to a fixed multiplier applied to the count values your mouse reports, before any application sees them.
| Notch | Multiplier | Effect on your counts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0.03125 (1/32) | Catastrophic. Movements under 32 counts round to zero and vanish. |
| 2 | 0.0625 (1/16) | Severe count loss on small movements. |
| 3 | 0.25 (1/4) | Three of every four counts discarded on fine movement. |
| 4 | 0.5 (1/2) | Half of your resolution thrown away. |
| 5 | 0.75 (3/4) | Uneven: some counts pass, some do not. |
| 6 | 1.0 | Pass-through. Your counts arrive unchanged. |
| 7 | 1.5 | Coarse: some counts become two pixels, some one. |
| 8 | 2.0 | Every count becomes two pixels. Coarse but even. |
| 9 | 2.5 | Uneven and coarse. |
| 10 | 3.0 | Coarse but even. |
| 11 | 3.5 | Very coarse and uneven. |
The asymmetry that matters
Notches below 6 and notches above 6 are wrong in different ways, and the difference is important.
Below 6, information is destroyed. The multiplier is a fraction, the result is rounded, and counts that round to zero are gone. There is no way for any application to recover them. At notch 4, a slow, careful 20-count adjustment becomes a 10-count adjustment with rounding error on top.
Above 6, information is duplicated. Your counts are multiplied up, so the cursor moves in larger jumps, but the original movement is still fully represented. It is coarse rather than lossy.
This is why the standard advice is "never go below 6" and the slightly stronger advice, which we agree with, is "use exactly 6".
Raw input, and why 6/11 still matters
A game using raw input asks Windows for the device's report stream directly, before the pointer pipeline runs. At that point the pointer speed slider has not been applied, so it genuinely does not affect your aim in that game.
Set it to 6/11 anyway, for four reasons:
- Not every game implements raw input, and some implement it only in gameplay and not in menus or scoreboards.
- Some engines apply raw input to camera movement but use the system cursor for UI, so your inventory or shop navigation is scaled differently from your aim.
- Any measurement you take of your own cm/360 on the desktop, or in a browser-based aim trainer, will be wrong.
- It costs you nothing. There is no benefit to any other setting for anyone using a mouse with adjustable DPI.
Where to find it
Windows 11: Settings, then Bluetooth and devices, then Mouse, then Additional mouse settings, then the Pointer Options tab. Set the pointer speed slider to the sixth notch and uncheck "Enhance pointer precision". Windows 10 is the same panel reached through Control Panel, Mouse.
If you want a faster desktop cursor, raise your mouse DPI rather than the slider, and lower your in-game sensitivity to compensate. That gives you a fast desktop and an unchanged aim.
Related reading
- Mouse acceleration: the checkbox next to this slider, and the three layers it hides in.
- DPI: the correct place to change your desktop pointer speed.
- Measuring your cm/360, which is only meaningful once this is set correctly.
Frequently asked questions
What is 6/11 in Windows mouse settings?
The sixth of eleven notches on the pointer speed slider, which is the default position. At this setting Windows applies a multiplier of exactly 1 to your mouse counts, passing them through unchanged. Every other notch applies a multiplier other than 1.
Why are the low settings worse than the high ones?
Because the low settings multiply by a fraction, and the result gets rounded to a whole number of pixels. At 1/11 the multiplier is 0.03125, so a movement of fewer than 32 counts can round to zero and be discarded entirely. High settings multiply up, which duplicates information rather than destroying it, so movement becomes coarse but is not lost.
Does pointer speed matter if I use raw input?
In games where raw input works correctly, no: raw input reads the device report stream before the Windows pointer pipeline, so the slider is bypassed. It still matters on your desktop, in games without raw input, in menus that use the system cursor, and in any game where the raw input implementation is partial. Setting it to 6/11 costs nothing and removes the whole class of problem.
What about Enhance pointer precision?
That is Windows acceleration, a separate checkbox on the same tab, and it should be off. Pointer speed scales your movement uniformly; enhance pointer precision scales it by how fast you moved. Turn the second off and set the first to 6/11.
Do I need to change anything on macOS or Linux?
Both apply acceleration curves by default. On macOS, disabling pointer acceleration requires a terminal command or a third-party utility. On Linux, most desktops expose a flat acceleration profile in their input settings. As on Windows, a game using raw input bypasses the whole issue.