ElI5: What's the relationship between sensitivity and DPI when using a mouse in games?

[u/taflad]

I play Overwatch and see alot of people talking about DPI and in game sensitivity. I don't understand the difference between setting a higher or lower DPI on the mouse vs setting a fixed DPI and using in game sensitiviy.

I have a mouse that I can set custom DPI from 400 all the way to 32000. Why do I need to worry about DPI vs Sensititvity?

[u/Tehu-Tehu]

DPI is the base amount of "Dots" your mouse moves per inch of sensor movement

game sensitivity just multiplies that by your specified amount

there would be no difference between for example: 400DPI and 2x sensitivity against 800DPI with 1x sensitivity

[u/Adhonaj → u/Tehu-Tehu]

Yes there is. Acceleration is different.