Optimal Mouse Settings for CS:GO

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CS:GO Pro Mouse Settings Guide

I don’t think anything has improved this author’s game more, than changing my mouse settings. I did some research on this pretty early when starting on CS:GO, but it is something everyone should do right away. The change was so noticeable that I went from being silver to gold nova, pretty quick after changing mouse settings. As of today here in 2016, I am currently at the highest rank; Global Elite. This is not just based on my own experience though, I have made a lot of research. Looking at statistics from the best players and also checking all the pro players’ mouse settings.

We have broken the guide into different categories, which is the following:

  • Operating system mouse settings (Windows)
  • CS:GO mouse settings
  • DPI/CPI/Sensitivity settings
  • Crosshair settings
  • Choosing the right mouse and surface
  • Mouse and mousepad recommendations
  • TL;DR

Operating System (OS), Windows Mouse Settings

Almost every good CS:GO player has the same Windows mouse settings – which is the “default” with no mouse acceleration. To change this settings, navigate to: “control panel -> mouse -> pointer options”. The pointer speed should be on 6/11 – this is the Windows default speed. Enhance pointer precision should NOT be checked on. Going over 6/11 in Windows sensitivity will result in skipped pixels. At 8/11 two pixels are occasionally skipped and at higher sensitivities, the minimum mouse movement becomes multiple pixels. At lower Windows sensitivities, certain amounts of movement are thrown out, but minimal mouse movements still result in 1 pixel of movement.

Optimal Windows Mouse Settings for CS:GO

We don’t want any enhanced pointer precision OR mouse acceleration as this will randomize our mouse movements!

Therefore it is also important to check that mouse acceleration is turned off in your driver software (depending on your mouse manufacturer, e.g. Steelseries, Logitech, Razer etc.).

Best CS:GO Mouse Settings

The most important thing here is to turn mouse acceleration OFF.

CSGO Mouse settings

As you can see “Raw Input” is turned ON. This means that it ignores Windows mouse settings. Why use raw input you then might ask? Well, I just recommend it as a safety feature, if you by a mistake change some Windows mouse settings, your in-game mouse settings will still work.

You can also archive these settings by console commands. I use the following settings in my autoexec.cfg:

m_rawinput “1” //Raw Input on
m_customaccel “0” //Mouse Acceleration off
m_customaccel_exponent “0” //Acceleration Amount
m_mousespeed “0” //Windows mouse acceleration off
m_mouseaccel1 “0” //Windows mouse acceleration initial threshold (2x movement)
m_mouseaccel2 “0” //Windows mouse acceleration secondary threshold (4x movement)

 

DPI/CPI and Sensitivity Settings

What is mouse DPI/CPI?
Dots per inch (DPI) is the number of pixels in one inch (2.54 cm). Mouse DPI, properly known as counts per inch (CPI) and formerly known as polls per inch (PPI), is the number of times your mouse notifies the computer of its position per inch moved. If you have 300 CPI, your mouse would tell the computer it moved 300 times for every inch it traveled. High CPI does NOT increase accuracy. CPI relates directly to how sensitive a mouse is when moved.

Total mouse sensitivity

To calculate your total/true mouse sensitivity, you have to take your DPI/CPI and multiply it by your in-game sensitivity. If you for example got a CPI of 1200 and your in-game sens is 2.5, your total mouse sensitivity will be: 1200 x 2.5 = 3000. This requires that your Windows pointer speed is 6/11 (default) or you have set “Raw Input” ON in the CS:GO settings.

Statistics show that a lot of the professional CS:GO players are using low sensitivity settings. I cannot state enough how important it is to use a low in-game sensitivity/DPI/CPI. If you are used to very high sensitivity, it might take some time for you to get used to a very low sensitivity – but trust me, in the end, it will improve your game and aim immensely. You will need to move your mouse a lot more, but again, you will get used to it. I have lowered my sensitivity many times, and right now I play with 810 CPI and 1 in-game sensitivity – making my total sensitivity 810 (800 x 1). For me, it feels perfectly normal.

To back up my statement about good players are using low sensitivity, i found a survey (sorry link is broken) some time ago. I have taken two graphs from the survey that you can see below.

rankdpi ranksens

The sensitivity index is the same as the total mouse sensitivity I mentioned before. As you can see, most higher-ranked players have a sensitivity index of around 1000, whereas people ranked in Silver have an index around 3000. Also, 400 DPI seems to be the most popular choice. I can highly relate this to myself. When I started playing CS:GO many years ago, my mouse sens was crazy high. I got ranked in the upper Silver range. I couldn’t land headshots quickly enough and couldn’t understand why until I researched mouse settings. Now I am in the Global Elite with a total sens of 810.

The total sensitivity is of course a personal preference. I have seen much debate about whether these recommendations are correct or not, but I advise you to test it out for a month at least.

In this video adreN – a professional CS:GO players – talks about finding the right sensitivity. He recommends everyone to have a total sensitivity around 520-1600 (400 CPI with between 1.3-4 in-game sensitivity). Again, 1000 is the median among pro players.

USB polling rate
Changing your USB poll rate from 125hz to 1000hz does make the mouse slightly more responsive. It has no effect on mouse sensitivity settings, but it changes the polling interval from 8ms to 1ms. Most gamers want to run games with at least 100 fps (10ms per frame displayed) or 60 fps (16.67ms per frame). This means that changing your USB poll rate could potentially make your mouse inputs display up to 1 frame faster.

Screen resolution and sensitivity
Your mouse sensitivity stays the same when you change resolutions. Both in the Windows desktop and in CS:GO. Your mouse has a larger pixel distance to travel when you increase the resolution. Resolution is also highly debated in the CS:GO community and I won’t go into detail about this. I use my native screen resolution at 16:9 and don’t play with black bars. I have witnessed some professional matches where players couldn’t see an enemy in the corner of the screen, due to low resolution and black bars (see the video below). But it is up to personal preference what to use. I might go into detail about the pros and cons of screen resolution in another tutorial.

Crosshair settings

The default crosshair might be good to begin with, but you would never see a pro player using the default crosshair. Which crosshair to use is entirely up to you, it’s all about personal preference. Everyone uses different crosshairs, even the pros. One thing most have in common though is that they use a static crosshair.

csgo-crosshair-settings

I won’t go into much detail about why to use a static crosshair, but almost everyone does it. One explanation is that the flickering movement (enlarging and shrinking) from a dynamic crosshair is distracting to the player. Besides a good player know when they are accurate and when they aren’t, so they don’t need the “hint”.

Example crosshair

csgo-crosshair-example

cl_crosshairstyle 4
cl_crosshairsize 5
cl_crosshairgap -1
cl_crosshairthickness 0
cl_crosshair_drawoutline 1
cl_crosshaircolor 4

You can use a Crosshair generator to create your own crosshair.

Choosing the right mouse and mousepad

Choosing the right mouse and surface is entirely up to your preference. What we recommend is that you find a mouse, where you have the option to change the DPI/CPI settings. Try some different and choose the one that gives you the most comfort. I don’t like it if a mouse has too many buttons. Popular brands are SteelSeries, Razer, Logitech, ROCCAT, Corsair, Madcatz, Cooler Master etc.

When it comes to the surface I personally prefer a BIG cloth mouse pad. Why? Because when you play with a low mouse sensitivity you need to move your mouse A LOT. The before mentioned brands also make some good mousepads. I use the SteelSeries QCK+ which is 450x400x2mm. I prefer cloth pads compared to steel or glass mousepads because these tend to get cold and uncomfortable to use.

Mouse recommendations

After analyzing pro players and reading up on the latest reviews, we have made a list of recommendations for mice and mousepads. Please note that the gear is in random order and individual preferences play a big part in choosing the right gear. There are so many brands making great gear targeted towards gamers, so we have cut out a lot of. This list is just to give you some inspiration. That said, all our recommendations are some of the most used and recognized by several professional CS:GO players currently in the scene.

Mouse List

Mousepad recommendations

As well as with mice, personal preference is a big part of choosing the right mousepad. Here is a small list of recommendations.

Mousepad List

If you want to learn more about what settings and gear pro players are using, head over to Pro Player Settings.

TL;DR (Too Long Didn’t Read)

  • Windows sensitivity: 6/11, enhance pointer precision: off.
  • Mouse driver settings: mouse acceleration off.
  • CS:GO mouse settings: raw input on, mouse acceleration off.
  • DPI/CPI and in-game sensitivity – recommendations:
    DPI/CPI: 400-800
    In-game sensitivity: 1-3.75
    Total mouse sensitivity: 600-1500 (CPI x In-game sensitivity)
  • Crosshair: static.
  • Mouse: comfort, being able to change DPI/CPI, made for gaming.
  • Mousepad: big mousepad, maximum comfort, cloth.

 

I hope you enjoyed this guide, if you have anything to add then please leave a comment.

66 thoughts on “Optimal Mouse Settings for CS:GO”

  2. Thanks for the guide I need to try this. I’ve been playing CS since 2006 and over time thought the higher DPI and In Game sensitivity the better. It’s looking like I am very mistaken. ATM I use a G500 set at 5700 DPI and in game of 3.13. I’ve been able to make it work as I’ve adjusted to it over the years but seem to have tapered off. So I figured it’s time to get back to the drawing board if I want to step up my comp game. It’s certainly going to take some getting used to because it feels like my mouse went from skates on ice to trying to use a stick in the mud but practice practice practice.

    • Trust me, it will help a lot! I went from a very high DPI as well, to about 800 now (810 DPI x 1 sensitivity). It doesn’t take that long to adapt and my rank has improved from MGE to LEM. You will however use the mouse a lot, so I recommend a big mousepad. :-)
      Btw. i started with around 3000 DPI, adjusted it to 1200 and slowly went down to where I am now at 810.

      • Since I posted this every time I play I find myself lowering my settings a little more each team. I’m now down to 800 dpi and 2.4 in-game. One of my biggest downfalls is I really don’t have much mouse pad room to work with (literally 1 mouse length each direction. But it’s been slowly coming along. My game is improving and it’s a fun learning curve.

      • You can keep your dpi as high as you’d like, as long as your sensitivity in the end is low and your DPI/CPI is native. Most mice are 400 or 800 native, but 3310 and 3366 sensor mice are any step-native. These mice are actually more precise at for instance 1600dpi with 0.6 sensitivity than 800dpi @ 1.2. Source: my own testing and everyone that’s tried it that’s confirmed it. You can test it by going into a custom map, setting fov_CS_debug 1 (after SV_Cheats 1) and feeling the difference in small mouse movements far zoomed in. Only works with high end, new optical sensors though. Otherwise just stick to whatever your mouse has native (Never use a Deathadder at 400 or 800… it’s native 1800, adjust sensitivity accordingly) and go from there. 40cm for a 360” turn is a good guideline anyhow.

    • literally my mouse can barely move at that dpi and sens.. i do not understand it honestly. im using the 400 dpi, but in order for my to peak someone as they rush a corner and adjust my crosshair while they are running fast, i have to use a 4.9 sensitivity.. wtf…

        • For me, this is the most important content of the article:

          “Sensitivity index is the “total” mouse sensitivity. If your DPI/CPI is 400 and your in-game mouse sensitivity is 2, you would have 800 on the sensitivity index (400 x 2). As you can see, most higher ranked players, have a sensitivity index around 1000, whereas the silvers index is around 3000”

          Playing with less than 700-600 (sensitivity * dpi ) seems really hard.

  9. It is optimal with a high sens. But CSGO has some issues with the ingame-sens and rinput. So for the regular pleb you will have more consistant gameplay with a lower sens.

    • Sure man… sure ;) CSGO has no issues what-so-ever with raw input and actually has more direct input than most other shooters on the market right now. You can even test that if you’d download the software needed. 1:1 pixel aiming will always win. High sens players can’t do that, no matter how hard theyll try to convince themselves they can. It’s easier to flick the arm on low sensitivity for fast turns than to adjust pixel precise aim with high sensitivity. You’re defending a harder option. Let me give you another one: play with a controller. If you make it to Global in soloQ: I’ll eat your sock.

  10. yup, my issue has been sensitivity. The problem is..I play other shooters, and I simply cannot do well in them with lower sensitivity. CS doesn’t require a lot of quick 180 shooting, it’s more about peaking angles.. where as other games I do, and on lower sens….. it’s tougher to do a 180 without having to lift off… and doing that feels really uncomfortable to me. I use 1800 DPI on my deathadder 2013 — because I was told it’s the mouses native dpi, and I’ve also heard you want to run the mouse’s native dpi for best tracking. So my sens is 1800 dpi, 2.25 in-game sens. Basically requires about 4.5 inches of mouse movement to do a full 360 turn. I’ve thought about going down to 800 for CS.. and lowering the sens to 2 and just getting used to it. but due to how much I switch games, and those games requiring different styles of “aim” — it’s going to be a tough hurdle for me.

      • But typically Quake players use a much higher sensitivity because the game is much faster and movement is way more important. 60cm would be considered extremely low for Quake unless you had a lot of accel. Accel can work well in Quake, but I don’t see much use for it in CS. But everyone has to find their own perfect settings. Guides are worse than useless. The time you waste reading someone’s guide, you could spend experimenting until you find what works

  11. sensitivity is completely up to the player… if you want you can play with higher sensitivity it wont make you worst than the people who use low sensitivity…
    For example i’m dmg and i use 3200 dpi + 2.5 in-game sensitivity…. it akes a while to get used to it, but if you’re always playing with the same sensitivity you’ll be as good as everyone else

    • My thoughts exactly… AT FIRST, Let me tell you though, it does become an issue of consistency later. I was at 3000 dpi and 4 ingame sense, I hit Supreme with this. Most of my friends and people I meet who I divulge this knowledge to are shocked…

      Ill tell you this though, I am having a hell of a hard time hitting GE with this… and I am just now starting to tune it down a bit to make long range headshot adjustments more accurate. Its proving to help but its definitely something im getting used to as transitioning from a wrist player to a more arm + wrist player is not easy.

      My flicks are currently off… I used to have amazing awp flicks, but cant do that now, however, my long range 1 taps are much better, and angle peeks and adjustments are more precise.

      There really is a reason why pros play with such low dpi and sense, its more pinpoint with movement, but honestly, to get to LEM or Supreme, u could use whatever the hell you want lol.

      • You have described EXACTLY what has happened to me with my new mouse, which I bought 2 weeks ago. I thought trying this new “low-sens” strategy with my new mouse, because I would have to get used to it anyway, and I’m having mixed results; I used to play with 2.5 sens and now I’m trying to get used to 1.8 sens. For example, my accuracy with pistols at short distance has improved, as well as my rifle accuracy at long distance…but, and this is a big BUT, I use to be amazing with the AWP, and now I can barely hit anyone. And that is because my flicks are just not working anymore…and I don’t think I will ever get that back with low sens, because it’s just not long enough movements.

    • Nope. But you’re free to believe whatever you want. It’s not black and white, you’re correct in that (For instance: I might do much better at 800dpi @ 1.2 sens whilst you might do better at 800 2.0) but at highest level you just won’t make it. It’s like min-maxing an RPG character really… You might not be into it and do just fine with your 4-4-4-4-4 character in fallout 4… but a more specialized character will always do better.

      I can play most shooters and still do well with a ballmouse… I’m serious. But give me a zowie FK1 and I WILL be better. You’re defending the ball-mouse here. There’s no one size fits all, but it’s proven that low sens>> all. Even in Unreal and Quake this seems to be the trend unless people use insane acceleration, which most pros have stopped doing.

      My smallest mouse movement = 1 pixel. You can’t do that no matter how hard you try to make yourself believe you can. Your mouse and sensitivity settings simply won’t allow it. I’ll aim at that one pixel: your head, you’ll try and fail. I can’t make it much more simple than this ;p However if I’d drop right behind you you’d destory me because you can turn much faster.

      • This is true. I’m use to fast sensitivity because of the old days of playing rainbow six games/COD. Fast sensitivity was a learning curve but made you into a monster when you mastered it. Then like 7 years back I started pc gaming & I did fine, but people with slower beat me. I even used controllers at first & beat people on shooters. But then just got use to the mouse & been using it since. My problem is I can’t switch to a slow slow slow sensitivity because it effects my skill in other games. I play a lot of Dota 2 & LoL, & I’m Diamond 3. I set up my sensitivity for CSGO & did better, but it absolutely fucked me over in LoL & games like rainbow six siege. It’s basically be good at 1, average/consistent at all, or pro at one & average at the rest. : /

        • I basically have a ”sensitivity per game style”. MOBA? around 1000 dpi (in Dota 2 you can’t change sensitivity, just dpi) and in LoL I’ll calibrate till its about the same speed. Shooters? Google ”same mouse sensitivity in all shooters” and use the website, it works. I basically go with 40cm/360” in any shooter and ”finetune” from there. CSGO? Slighly more cm/360… Quake? Slightly less. But always around the same. That way I can adapt quickly. Muscle memory >>> months and months of practise.

  13. its a question if you want to improve faster and become better – while sacrificing a few weeks of getting use to a completely new sensitivity and mouse/arm movement. I’m GE use 400dpi @ 2 sens ingame and i can do very quick 180s and remain accurate. However considering to lower it a bit as on long range its still bit too much effort in getting those headshots. CSGO pros like olofm and flusha use under 2 sens.. JW arguably best AWPer in the world uses 1.3@400 dpi … its not ridiculous, it your sens that is ridiculous XD ( no offence intended;3 )

  17. Well, thank you for writing this helpful tutorial, but I think that I’m still confused about what you said there:
    “Your mouse sensitivity stays the same when you change resolutions. Both in the Windows desktop and in CS:GO. Your mouse has a larger pixel distance to travel, when you increase the resolution.”
    So after all, will change screen resolution result in different sensitivity experience in hand?

    • Basically yes. We should really edit the article (will do some time), to include the cm/360 – how many cm it takes to do a full 360 degree turn. This is the most accurate way to measure the true sens, but it is not very easy. So until we get the guide fixed, just stick with “total sensitivity”. The main point is that most lower ranks use way to high sensitivity.

  20. Well I might be late,but good guide bro.But the low dpi thing is not that good.I mean you have to move your hand much more so you become slower.For csgo I prefer 2400 dpi and 4.3 in-game sensitivity.But I know a guy who used 8000 dpi and he landed 1000m shots in dayz with KSzVK under 1 sec,so its pretty subjective.Bye guys

    • That’s not how it works though ;p Really it’s not. You’re not as accurate as you think you are. As a human being you’ll always be faster and more accurate if you do arm movements for fast flicks and wrist/finger aiming for precision at longer ranges. I could go into detail, anatomy wise, why this makes sense but I could also just point at the fact that there’s no high sensitivity pro players in CSGO at all. Yeah 2.8 @ 400 dpi. But that’s still like a 10th of yours ;p That’s why low sensitivity >> high in… basically any game. Even Some Quake and UT pros play low sense. Not CSGO low, but very low, MUCh lower than you play it.

      • Late on this thread but are you (and others) saying the human arm and shoulder/back muscles are more controlled and accurate than the human hand and finger muscles?

        Fingers have much finer controll than the arm muscles. Try writing as neatly and accurately with arm movements then again hand and finger movements. This seems counter intuitive.

        I’ve no doubt people can master a mouse at low DPI as others can master it at high or higher DPI.

  21. i haven’t been playing CSGO for too long but managed to get up to MG2 using 1800dpi and ingame sensitivity of 6 :P thinking of trying a lower sensitivity though to see if i can improve.

  24. How do you know which DPI/CPI your mouse has? Is it possible to change it? Where can you do that? I used to play with 2.5 sensitivity with my former mouse; now I bought a new one (about 2 weeks ago), and have been trying with different sensitivities (in a range from 1.5 to 2.5) and I just can’t find one that suits me!!! I’m going crazy…I used to be Silver Elite and it cost me a lot, but now I’ve been deranked to Silver III. I’m really frustrated…what can I do??? Please help!!!

  27. bro do you know what “m_customaccel_exponent” do exactly?
    i get different feelings when i switch between 0/1

    0-faster(some inconsistencies )
    1-slower(but easy to aim)

    but the console always shows “m_customaccel_exponent=1”

    but there is a difference between 1 and 0

    AND I DONT KNOW WHICH IS ACCURATE AND WHAT I SHOULD USE .these are my other console commands i want to turn off the mouse acceleration and reduce delay as much as possible

    m_rawinput “1”

    m_mouseaccel1 “0”
    m_mouseaccel2 “0”
    m_mousespeed “0”

    m_customaccel “0”
    m_customaccel_exponent “0”
    m_customaccel_max “0”
    m_customaccel_scale “0”

    fps_max “0”

    i also use mark c and windows sens is 6/11

  28. @thetoby:disqus
    bro do you know what “m_customaccel_exponent” do exactly?
    i get different feelings when i switch between 0/1

    0-faster(some inconsistencies )
    1-slower(but easy to aim)

    but the console always shows “m_customaccel_exponent=1”

    but there is a difference between 1 and 0

    AND I DONT KNOW WHICH IS ACCURATE AND WHAT I SHOULD USE .these are my other console commands i want to turn off the mouse acceleration and reduce delay as much as possible

    m_rawinput “1”

    m_mouseaccel1 “0”
    m_mouseaccel2 “0”
    m_mousespeed “0”

    m_customaccel “0”
    m_customaccel_exponent “0”
    m_customaccel_max “0”
    m_customaccel_scale “0”

    fps_max “0”

    i also use mark c and windows sens is 6/11

  29. @thetoby:disqus
    bro do you know what “m_customaccel_exponent” do exactly?
    i get different feelings when i switch between 0/1

    0-faster(some inconsistencies )
    1-slower(but easy to aim)

    but the console always shows “m_customaccel_exponent=1”

    but there is a difference between 1 and 0

    AND I DONT KNOW WHICH IS ACCURATE AND WHAT I SHOULD USE .these are my other console commands i want to turn off the mouse acceleration and reduce delay as much as possible

    m_rawinput “1”

    m_mouseaccel1 “0”
    m_mouseaccel2 “0”
    m_mousespeed “0”

    m_customaccel “0”
    m_customaccel_exponent “0”
    m_customaccel_max “0”
    m_customaccel_scale “0”

    fps_max “0”

    i also use mark c and windows sens is 6/11
    i play dota 2.

  30. I use 4/11, 800 dpi and 1.2 sens but I think it is a bit low for go. I am used to extremely low sense from 1.6 but go requires a lot of checking around corners. What should I do?

  31. All I can say is that sensitivity is not a preference but there is an absolute sensitivity and that is to have total sensitivity around 1000 which the article clearly mentioned. No way you can configure your mouse to move 1 pixel at a time believe me I have tried even though you might think you’ve done it. So the real question is to get the control of your mouse as much as possible. I play cs go and 1.6 (yeah still) I personally think 800 dpi is the best and your in game sensitivity should be around 1.0 to 1.1. Outer sensitivity 6/11 with no mouse acceleration. Still the most important thing is your game sense.

  32. If it can be helpful:
    Setting 1/11 = 0.0625
    Setting 2/11 = 0.125
    Setting 3/11 = 0.25
    Setting 4/11 = 0.5
    Setting 5/11 = 0.75
    Setting 6/11 = 1
    Setting 7/11 = 1.5
    Setting 8/11 = 2
    Setting 9/11 = 2.5
    Setting 10/11 = 3
    Setting 11/11 = 3.5

  33. Thanks for the guide, I need to try this. I have been playing CS since 2006 and over time I thought that the higher the DPI and sensitivity in the game, the better. It seems that I am very wrong. ATM I use a G500 set to 5700 DPI and running 3.13. I’ve been able to get it to work as I’ve adapted over the years, but it seems to have slowed down. So I figured it’s time to go back to the drawing board if I want to up my compensation game. It’s certainly going to take some getting used to because it feels like my mouse went from skating on ice to trying to use a stick in the mud, but practice, practice, practice.

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