Mouse Dpi - Whats Essential And Whats Just For The Hardcore?


Joined
Jul 31, 2007
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Hello once more oh fellow 2xers.

I've been looking at getting an optical mouse now my old 'ball' mouse is becoming a bit jumpy and repeated cleanings isn't helping. It's a bugger when editing on photoshop.

Anyway, I've seen some fairly cheap mice but started noticing DPI differences, so I thought I'd check out the latest mice and see DPI now goes up and above 2000??

I've checked wikipedia etc but can't really find a simple explanation of what would count as an ideal DPI. I see stuff about software changing the DPI according to what you'd want to do.

Given I'm not an intense gamer and basically want a mouse that will be nice and smooth for photoshop work and similar, what would you recommend?

Thanks in advance (as usual!).
 
I just use the standard MS Intellimouse in work - has a few programmable buttons and is as smooth as you like! I use it a lot with imaging apps and it works fine. I think any branded mouse should be fine for your needs. If you were to be playing serious 3D games, then you would need to research more!
 
You don't need a high resolution mouse for FPS'es..... Any cheap thing works fine. The real difference is the range of surfaces you can use it on more than anything. The rest is just gimmickry. What matters more is how the mouse feels to you. I will say don't get a shitty low end cordless mouse though as some of them have this awful delay to them that will get you slaughtered in games. I just use a corded mouse. Much simpler.
 
For FPS games, your mousepad texture matters more than your mouse. My brother bought a Func Labs mousepad for $30, its good for FPSs, but I made something just as good for nothing (that fiberboard stuff used for the backs of furniture, with all the little bumps on it, sanded to be between rough and smooth and spraypainted black).
 
Blah said:
For FPS games, your mousepad texture matters more than your mouse. My brother bought a Func Labs mousepad for $30, its good for FPSs, but I made something just as good for nothing (that fiberboard stuff used for the backs of furniture, with all the little bumps on it, sanded to be between rough and smooth and spraypainted black).
Holy Sh!t, $30 for a mousepad - your bro is either mega rich or mad :eek: :lol:

I just use my table top with no problems, although I do suck at FPS's - maybe there is a connection ;) !
 
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For most optical mice, you need something that the mouse sees as a constantly changing image, or the result is an inaccurate mouse (as the only way it knows the direction of movement is by taking images and comparing). I paid £16 for my mousepad which is about 3 times bigger than necessary, but I find it useful as I can then change the mouse sensitivity and not run out of mousepad and have to pick up the mouse.
 
I have a rubber and cloth mouse pad with the Coca-Cola logo on it. It works great for optical mice. I'm not sure if this is the same pad I have, but it has the same graphic on it, so it could be:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Coca-Cola-Classic-Mous...7QQcmdZViewItem

EDIT:
Whoops, that's not the same pad at all. Just took another look at mine, and they look almost exactly the same, but mine doesn't say "Classic" on it. At least you get an idea of what it looks like though.
 
I swear, if you don't have a G5 you might as well be using your foot to move the mouse. Just go touch one, don't even plug it in, just touch it and you will spit on your old mouse when you get home. A life altering experience from it's braided solid copper cord to it's weird slipperiest stuff on earth you never heard of little feet it's like nothing else... ever.
 
Sphinxter said:
I swear, if you don't have a G5 you might as well be using your foot to move the mouse. Just go touch one, don't even plug it in, just touch it and you will spit on your old mouse when you get home. A life altering experience from it's braided solid copper cord to it's weird slipperiest stuff on earth you never heard of little feet it's like nothing else... ever.
I just have a regular Logitech that I got for about $5. I actually put my hand on all the mouses I saw one day at Best Buy, and I didn't like the way any of them felt. I didn't like the way this one felt at first either, but I'm getting used to it (it's a right or left handed mouse). The way it glides on my cloth pad seems just about right to me, if it were any harder to move, I wouldn't like it, but if it were any easier to move I would be constantly overshooting my marks.
 
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sataniC Virus said:
Blah said:
For FPS games, your mousepad texture matters more than your mouse. My brother bought a Func Labs mousepad for $30, its good for FPSs, but I made something just as good for nothing (that fiberboard stuff used for the backs of furniture, with all the little bumps on it, sanded to be between rough and smooth and spraypainted black).
Holy Sh!t, $30 for a mousepad - your bro is either mega rich or mad :eek: :lol:

I just use my table top with no problems, although I do suck at FPS's - maybe there is a connection ;) !


When you have a credit card and no job (and no sense of the value of a dollar), everything looks like a good buy.
 
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My mouse pad is the xraider flexiglow, lights up green around the edges but with a tracking resolution of 2000/800/400 dpi, (user-selectable on the fly), image processing at 6.4 megapixels/second, maximum acceleration of 20 g and a maximum neck breaking speed of 45–65 inches/second it could just as well be a mud fence for all the G5 cares.
 
Sphinxter said:
My mouse pad is the xraider flexiglow, lights up green around the edges but with a tracking resolution of 2000/800/400 dpi, (user-selectable on the fly), image processing at 6.4 megapixels/second, maximum acceleration of 20 g and a maximum neck breaking speed of 45–65 inches/second it could just as well be a mud fence for all the G5 cares.
I just did a search and I can't find that mouse for much under $30.

See, the thing about me is I only buy things for my computer if they're cheap (though even I'll admit I probably should have spent a little more on my graphics card, as the 7100 is just barely cutting it). I got my mouse including shipping for about $8 and it's pretty awesome. I got the mouse pad free from someone else.
 
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Have you thought about buying a graphics tablet and a cheap optical mouse with programmable buttons? Use the cheapy mouse for FPS and the graphics tablet for all your graphical work. Believe me, once you have used a tablet and pen you will never go back to editing graphics with a mouse.
 
Interesting stuff, cheers for the replies. I have considered graphics tablets but there is a cost issue there, how big would you say you needed the tablet to be at a minimum? I can imagine anything less than A4 user space would be annoying but then I haven't used one...
 
InsertFaveGameNameHere said:
Interesting stuff, cheers for the replies. I have considered graphics tablets but there is a cost issue there, how big would you say you needed the tablet to be at a minimum? I can imagine anything less than A4 user space would be annoying but then I haven't used one...
You don't really need an A4 Tablet, and it doesn't have to be mega expensive. I presently use a Wacom Graphire3 A5 version, it's active area is about 208x150mm:
Tablet.gif

It does come with a mouse, but the mouse is not very good for FPS games.

Not only is a tablet more precise and fun, it feels more natural to draw and shade with a pen instead of a mouse. And when you turn the pen over, you are in erase mode! Plus you have different pressure levels.
 
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