You open a shooter for the first time and the view either whips past like a spinning chair or crawls like a boat. Sensitivity is the setting that fixes it, but the numbers are confusing: your mouse has a DPI, the game has its own sensitivity, and people online quote something called eDPI. This guide turns all three into one thing you can feel: how far you move your hand to turn all the way round.
DPI means "dots per inch". Slide your mouse one inch (2.54 cm) across the pad and a mouse set to 800 DPI sends the computer 800 tiny steps. A mouse set to 1600 DPI sends 1600 steps for the same movement. More steps per inch means the cursor, or your view, moves further for the same hand movement.
Every game then multiplies those steps by its own sensitivity number to decide how many degrees to turn. Double the sensitivity and each step turns you twice as far. So two separate dials control one thing: how fast you turn.
eDPI is simply DPI multiplied by in-game sensitivity. 800 DPI at 0.4 sensitivity is 320 eDPI, and so is 400 DPI at 0.8. Both turn you the same amount in the same game. That makes eDPI handy for comparing settings with other players, but only within the same game, because every game converts steps to degrees differently.
cm/360 is how far you move the mouse, in centimetres, to turn a full 360 degrees. It works across games, and it is easier to picture than an abstract setting: a low number means a fast, twitchy view and a short hand movement; a high number means a slow, steady view and a big sweep of the arm. Many players of tactical shooters land somewhere between roughly 30 and 60 cm/360, which is a good starting range, not a rule.
The maths is: cm/360 = 360 × 2.54 ÷ (DPI × sensitivity × yaw), where yaw is how many degrees one step turns you at sensitivity 1. Counter-Strike 2 uses 0.022 and Valorant uses 0.07, which is why the same sensitivity number feels very different in each.
Set the slider to CS2, 800 DPI and sensitivity 1.0: a full turn takes about 52 cm, more than a typical small mouse pad is wide. Raise sensitivity to 2.0 and it drops to about 26 cm, a comfortable swipe. Now switch to Valorant with the same DPI and sensitivity 1.0: one full turn needs only about 16 cm. Same numbers, very different feel. That is why you should compare cm/360, not the raw sensitivity number, when you move between games.
A lower cm/360 (a faster view) lets you turn around with a flick of the wrist, but small hand wobbles move your aim a lot. A higher cm/360 (a slower view) is steadier for tiny corrections, but needs arm movement and a larger pad, and a quick 180 degree turn can run you out of space. Neither is right for everyone, and hand size, grip, and the game you play all matter.
Start with the mouse at 800 DPI, a common default, and adjust sensitivity in the game until a full turn takes about 30 to 50 cm. Play for a few days before changing it; your hand needs time to learn. If you keep overshooting targets, raise cm/360 a little. If you keep running out of pad, lower it. Once you have a setting you like, write down the cm/360 so you can match it in other games.
One tip: set DPI once and leave it, then change only the in-game sensitivity. Changing both makes it hard to tell what helped.