Should You Enhance Pointer Precision For Gaming?

As a gamer, we’re always looking for a competitive edge. No matter what it may be, every small advantage can make the difference between winning and losing. It’s why we have the best PCs to make sure our games run smoothly, why we insist on the best connections so we have no interference.

This is definitely true when it comes to a gaming mouse. And when you get a gaming mouse, you’ll want to make the most of it – and this is where pointer precision comes in.

Should You Enhance Pointer Precision For Gaming?

The answer is that most people will not want to enhance pointer precision settings for their gaming mouse. This is because it can actually make it much harder to gauge mouse movement, especially when you’re playing competitive games like fps.

However, if you’ve been playing with this setting enabled for a while, you may not want to disable enhance pointer precision straight away, as it’s likely you’ve grown used to it. But what exactly is this setting, and how can you adjust it?

What is enhance pointer precision?

Essentially, pointer precision is a mouse acceleration feature at that attempts to give you more precise mouse movements – the sensitivity of a mouse becomes increasingly important depending on what game you’re playing. If it’s a first-person shooter, RPG or MMO like World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy, then the mouse settings become even more important.

You set the mouse dpi (dots per inch) to adjust the sensitivity of your mouse. So, if you have a low dpi, it will take longer for your mouse to move from the top of your display to the bottom than if you went for a high dpi setting.

However, mouse acceleration like pointer precision changes your dpi somewhat. When activated, it essentially relies on the speed that you move your mouse across the display. This means that when you drag your mouse slowly, the pointer will become even slower than your dpi. And when you make quick jolts with your mouse, it’ll become even faster than the dpi.

For some people, this can work, and it doesn’t matter too much when you’re using your mouse for everyday things. But when you’re playing competitive games, your cursor movement is crucial.

How to enhance pointer precision settings

If you’re using the Windows operating system as most people do with a gaming mouse, it’s easy to adjust your precision pointer settings – you don’t necessarily need any mouse enhancing software.

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First, head into your Control Panel and then go to Hardware and Sound. Here, you should be able to find Mouse Properties.

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Then, go ahead and click onto Pointer Options. In here, you’ll be able to adjust your pointer speed from Slow to Fast. But underneath, you should be able to toggle the Enhance Pointer Precision box on and off too.

What is enhance pointer precision actually for, and should I use it?

As I mentioned, the enhance pointer precision is essentially there to automatically adjust your sensitivity depending on the mouse movements you are doing. This is a personal preference setting which some will prefer and is generally not used in combination with gaming, there will be some that use it for specific games, but it’s never encouraged or recommended.

This is where some people think that enhance pointer precision can help. So, what exactly does enhance pointer precision do? Essentially it changes the DPI of your mouse to accommodate what you’re doing, if you are moving your mouse around from one side of the screen to another a lot then the setting will increase your DPI to help with it. Does it help? No…

The problem that the enhance pointer precision setting has is that it changes your DPI all the time depending on your mouse movements, this prevents your from learning the exact speed of your mouse and will lead you over estimating or under estimating how far you need to move the mouse and therefore miss the click. In cases such as fps this can be disastrous, more slow-paced games it’s less of a problem, but it is still not going to be helping at all.

FAQ

What DPI do I want for gaming?

The DPI you select will differ depending on the type of game you play. Keep in mind that there are recommendations which are generally considered better, but nothing is set in stone. Play with what you are most comfortable with.
Here are the recommendations per game type: 1000 DPI – 1600 DPI for MMO and RPG games; 400 DPI – 1000 DPI for FPS and shooter games; 400 DPI – 800 DPI for moba games; 1000 DPI – 1200 DPI for real time strategy games.

What is the difference between pointer speed and DPI?

DPI stand for dots per linear inch, this is essentially how fast your pointer is moving across the screen and therefore is practically the same thing as pointer speed. The higher the DPI the higher the sensitivity and therefore the faster the pointer speed.

Why is enhance pointer precision bad?

Enhance pointer precision is not fundamentally bad, it does have it uses, however it will mean that your pointer accuracy is reduced. The enhance pointer precision option essentially changes your DPI (mouse sensitivity) automatically and is therefore going to hinder your accuracy.

Conclusion

So, as a whole you aren’t going to get the results of a gaming mouse without actually getting one yourself. There are many actual benefits of a gaming mouse such as additional buttons, better performance, more customisable and generally they are a bit more durable, to account for a few knocks and bumps that us gamers tend to do.

In conclusion the enhance pointer precision option is generally going to be a negative in a gaming sense. Because of the change in sensitivity that the enhance pointer precision does it will generally reduce the accuracy of your mouse when gaming and lead to a drop in performance.

Many games actually have this force turned off by default meaning that no matter what setting you have on your PC the game will always have it off. Usually this is done in FPS games such as Overwatch where the option can be the biggest issue.

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Author

Edward

Edward brings years of experience in a variety of different fields including online marketing & No-code app development, and he's been investing in stocks and cryptocurrency since 2016. Outside of work you'll usually find him watching movies at the local cinema or playing games in the Apple Arcade.

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