Mouse Acceleration: The Complete Guide (And Why It's Not Always Bad)

What is Mouse Acceleration?

Mouse acceleration makes the cursor and crosshair move faster, depending on how fast you move your mouse.

If the mouse acceleration off: When a mouse with 800 DPI is moved by an inch, the cursor will move by 800 pixels, no matter how slow or fast the mouse moved.

But if the mouse acceleration on: The cursor will move further or shorter depending on the speed of mouse movement.

How to Turn Off Mouse Acceleration on Windows 10

Step 1: Open Control Panel by typing “Control Panel” in the Windows search bar.

Step 2a: If your control panel looks like this, click on Hardware and Sound. Then click on Mouse. (If it looks different, go to step 2b.)

Step 2b: If your control panel looks like this, click on Mouse.

Step 3: Go to Pointer Options tab in Mouse Properties.

Step 4: Check off Enhance pointer precision. Click OK to save your settings.

Is Mouse Acceleration Good or Bad For Gaming?

Vast majority of players claim mouse acceleration is bad for gaming. They believe that it’s more accurate and consistent to move the same number of pixels, no matter how fast or slow the movement is.

However some players (including pros like autimatic and Brax) say they prefer to turn on the Windows mouse acceleration:

Thus, there is no universal answer to whether mouse acceleration is good or bad for gaming.

However when “mouse acceleration” is mentioned, it almost always refers to the Windows’ Enhance Pointer Precision option under mouse settings.

One thing many players do not realize is that there are other types of mouse accelerations besides that. And many players have improved their aim from using mouse acceleration correctly.

Whether to use mouse acceleration at all is completely up to you. But we highly suggest you to understand the full potential when mouse acceleration is used correctly, before blindly turning it off.

Mouse Manufacturer Software

Most gaming mice nowadays do not have mouse acceleration, but some still have an option to turn it on or off. For example, you can turn mouse acceleration on or off on the Logitech G502 using Logitech Gaming Software.

Logitech’s mouse acceleration doesn’t occur as quickly as Windows’. But there is no maximum acceleration, which means the screen tends to move very fast if you make quick mouse movements.

RawAccel

Many Quake players swear by the benefits of mouse acceleration, because there are a lot of settings available to customize the mouse acceleration in Quake Live.

(According to Kovaak, about 10 of the top 12 Quake Live pros use mouse acceleration.)

Previously, tweaking your mouse acceleration speeds was only possible in Quake Live. But nowadays, players can use a software like RawAccel, which allows you to fully control how mouse acceleration works on your PC.

RawAccel is based on Povohat’s mouse accel driver, which he created to enable customization of mouse acceleration like Quake Live.

How Mouse Acceleration Can Help

There are many FPS players who have low mouse sensitivity settings. Pros like Hiko, f0rest, and s1mple player at under 35 cm/360.

While low sensitivity works great for accurate aiming, the downside is that you have to flick very fast to look around, such as doing an 180°.

It’s even more detrimental when playing a hyper-FPS games like Overwatch and Apex Legends, because both aiming and looking around is vital.

That is where software like RawAccel can shine the most. With correct settings, you can keep the same sensitivity for aiming, while using mouse acceleration only when you make quick flicks.

How To Set Up RawAccel

• First go to the RawAccel installation page, and make sure these are installed beforehand:

• Go to the RawAccel download page. The download link is here:

• When download is complete, run installer.exe as administrator. After it’s been installed, you can open RawAccel by opening rawaccel.exe.

• The blue line is the acceleration rate. A flat line means there is currently no mouse acceleration. The red dot is where the last mouse movement lies on the graph.
• Try playing around with the options on the left side and click “Apply” to try it. You can always click “Enabled” button to disable all RawAccel settings.

• For more details, you can watch this video for in-depth explanation of setting up RawAccel:

How To Turn Off Mouse Acceleration On Mac

1. Open the Terminal.
2. To turn off mouse acceleration, copy and paste this command: defaults write .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling -1
   (You can also use 0-3 to turn it on)
3. To see your current mouse acceleration settings, copy and paste this command: defaults read .GlobalPreferences com.apple.mouse.scaling

How To Turn Off Mouse Software Acceleration

To make sure all mouse accelerations are turned off, you should also check your mouse manufacturer’s software settings.

For example if you have a Logitech G502, you can open Logitech Gaming Software and find “Acceleration” under Pointer Settings:

How To Turn Off In-Game Mouse Acceleration

Some games have in-game mouse acceleration under settings, while others need some research to change mouse acceleration settings.

We’ve researched how to tweak them for popular games here.

Valorant

There is no in-game settings about mouse acceleration in Valorant. To disable mouse acceleration in Valorant, just make sure to turn off Windows’ Enhance pointer precision option.

Counter Strike: Global Offensive

In CSGO, you can turn off mouse acceleration by turning on “Raw Input” under Keyboard & Mouse Settings.

Fortnite

In Fortnite, many users thought mouse acceleration was on because there is a line “bDisableMouseAcceleration=False” in the Fortnite GameUserSettings file. However, that myth was debunked when Michael Noland, the Lead Programmer, announced that there is no mouse acceleration in Fortnite.

If you can’t find info about mouse acceleration in your game, the best way would be to Google it. You can search for something like “how to turn off [game] mouse acceleration”.

Fallout: New Vegas

To disable mouse acceleration in Fallout: New Vegas, you need to go to the installation folder (usually C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\fallout new vegas), and edit “Fallout_default.ini”. Inside the file, look for the text “[CONTROLS]”, and add the following lines below:

fForegroundMouseAccelBase=0
fForegroundMouseAccelTop=0
fForegroundMouseBase=0
fForegroundMouseMult=0

Then, save the file and restart Fallout: New Vegas.

Mouse Acceleration Glossary

Maximum acceleration: the maximum speed at which your mouse can accurately track its movement. It’s measured in gravitational force(G).

If your mouse’ maximum acceleration is too low, it will not read your quick flicks correctly. And if it’s too high, you may lose control when making quick mouse movements.

Do you play games with acceleration on or off? Let us know in the comment section!