Is Mouse Acceleration Good or Bad for Gaming?

Mouse acceleration has always been a debatable subject in the gaming world. If you’re not too familiar with the terms “mouse acceleration,” it’s pretty simple. If we want to explain simply, mouse acceleration refers to the change of speed of the cursor that you see on the screen when you move the physical mouse.

So for gamers, is mouse acceleration good or bad for gaming? Let me put it this way. Would you prefer your mouse cursor to move precisely as much as your mouse moves? Or do you want it to move further than the actual physical movement? As I’ve said before, the topic is pretty debatable. So you got to go through the article to find out!

 

Is Mouse Acceleration Good or bad for gaming?

The practical answer would be no, it isn’t good for gaming. Keeping the acceleration will affect your aim and accuracy quite a lot. If you don’t want to see the cursor moving further than you want it to, keep the mouse acceleration turned off.

Whether you’re using a standard mouse or a gaming mouse, you can still use it for gaming. When you ask gaming enthusiasts about mouse acceleration, they’ll probably shrug you off, saying this feature is pretty annoying.

So, is mouse acceleration good or bad for gaming? To find out, you actually need to play games. A regular PC user wouldn’t probably notice the difference anyway.

 

What is mouse Acceleration?

Aside from what I’ve just explained, the entire topic around mouse acceleration is quite fascinating. Some mice come with particular skill sets in software that allow you to tweak the mouse’s settings. You can change the DPI (Dots per linear inch), color pattern (if the mouse has RGB LEDs), and other functions.

But you don’t need a software or a fancy mouse to tweak the mouse acceleration. You can do this in Windows settings, too, by adjusting the pointer speed in the “Pointer Options” tab of the mouse properties.

 

Is My Mouse Acceleration Turned On?

A more practical example of mouse acceleration can be seen when you move your mouse from one point to another. Suppose, at first, you move it from one end of your mousepad to the other slowly. See the distance the cursor moved. Now repeat this; only move your mouse the same space with a much faster speed.

Did you see a difference in the distance traveled by the cursor on the screen? Did the cursor immediately hit the screen’s side due to moving the mouse at a faster speed?

If yes, then you can conclude that your mouse acceleration settings are turned on. Another way to check is to see if your cursor travels a more considerable distance with your mouse’s subtle movement.

 

Should You Keep Mouse Acceleration Turned On?

If you’re followed through the article clearly, you can guess that the general answer would be “NO.” Precision shooters and FPS games require you to be extremely precise. Or else you’ll miss an easy headshot. Imagine an enemy in front of you, and you try to move your mouse to position him between your crosshair.

A non-accelerated mouse would help you secure that headshot. But an even a slightly accelerated mouse might cause you to miss the shot and, worse yet, lose the round.

This is the primary school of thought. But you can’t expect this to be the case with every gamer. Some professional gamers surprisingly keep their mice accelerated. Some of them have even embraced the feature. But they do use dedicated software that allows them to control the acceleration a little more. The default settings are downright wrong.

 

Professional Gamers with Mouse Acceleration

You might have come across a few streams and saw players mentioning that they keep the acceleration settings. You might immediately think that since they’re so good and they have it on, you should probably do the same. Not exactly!

Every little tweak comes down to personal preference. If you can get used to the accelerated mouse settings, be my guest and keep it on for the rest of your gamer days.

Some streamers even say that keeping the mouse acceleration option can allow them to move a greater distance than they could without it. That’s like saying you can take down enemies quicker with a 49-inch ultra-wide monitor that provides a broader view.

 

Those Flicks Need Practice!

A precise mouse is one of the most essential peripherals for gamers. The quality of a mouse sometimes decides whether a game is won or lost. That’s why a gamer needs to have the right mouse to make their ends meet.

Most gamers who you’ll come across will typically say that they avoid mouse acceleration. Albeit some of them do tend to keep it on, and they build up their skills around the feature, a mouse should primarily offer raw performance. The players who play with the setting switched on probably developed their aiming with the quality.

A good gaming mouse should come with default settings without any acceleration filters. Even if they do, there should be an option to turn it off. Whipping up countless headshots with insane flicks of the wrist doesn’t come with an expensive mouse.

It would help if you had years of practice and experience for that. That kind of performance is achieved through advanced muscle memory. Your brain adapts to the movement of your wrist and develops excellent hand-eye coordination. The process of moving your hand comes naturally after hundreds of hours of CSGO!

 

Why is Mouse Acceleration bad for gaming?

The majority of gamers recommend that you don’t tinker with the sensitivity settings too much. A change in the model of a mouse drastically changes your muscle memory. You can’t feel the same way with two different mice. That’s why you should get one that will last you for a while.

To see if mouse acceleration is good or bad for gaming, tweak a few settings. If you change the mouse acceleration settings even a wee bit, you will feel a drastic difference as your hands are not used to it. Apart from that, you would probably take a long time trying to go back to your old settings as a slight change can mess many things up.

Consistent aiming down the sights needs consistent mouse settings. When you switch the acceleration on, you will have to worry about how fast you’re moving the mouse apart from a distance. That’s an extra thing to think about while gaming competitively. That’s not all; it’s pretty hard on your brain too! So what do you think? Is mouse acceleration good or bad for gaming?

 

Using A Mouse Without Acceleration

If you decide to keep your acceleration settings off on the other end of the spectrum, you will experience incredible accuracy. Your screen has millions of tiny pixels on it. When the proper grounds are kept, and the mouse acceleration settings are switched off, you can hit every individual pixel!

This comes in handy while editing in Photoshop in projects where you need to be extremely precise. But it can help you in games too. You don’t have to deal with those unintentionally missed shots if you keep the settings toggled off.

 

Mouse Acceleration Settings: How to Toggle?

If you don’t have a premium mouse that says that it’s a gaming mouse, you probably have to change this sensitivity setting from Windows. Go to “Mouse Properties” and select the “Pointer Options” tab. You’ll see a checkbox that says “Enhance pointer precision.” If you want to experience mouse acceleration, check the box.

But if you do have a feature-packed mouse that comes with its software, you can tweak these settings on that dedicated software. Mouse software is pretty amazingly made to give the users fantastic customizability. You can even control the degree of acceleration from there, which can come in handy in some games.

The other way to toggle your mouse acceleration settings is to control it in-game. Move into the game settings, and the mouse sensitivity option should be pretty apparent. You can set the same acceleration from these settings.

 

How to Use Mouse Acceleration as an Advantage?

Well, till now, we’ve said that you should keep your acceleration settings off if you’re very serious about gaming. But you can tweak the settings in some mice in a way that the feature might even be useful for you! So how do you do it? Let’s get into it!

This is the other side of the question, “Is mouse acceleration good or bad for gaming?”. To see the best results, we recommend using the mouse software that comes with your specific mouse. This will provide the best experience when you’re tweaking any setting.

The sensitivity and mouse acceleration settings can be adjusted; however, you like with these softwares. Play around by applying different levels of acceleration and determine which one suits you the best.

 

Conclusion

To conclude, the debate is still on. The general answer to the question “Is mouse acceleration good or bad for gaming?” is that it is bad. That’s because it limits the pace at which you can make precise movements with the cursor. You can try out a few settings and use the feature to your advantage in a couple of games. But you should probably keep it off for the most part.