eDPI vs cm/360 in Valorant: which one should you use?
eDPI and cm/360 answer the same question — “how fast is this player’s aim?” — from two different directions. One is a quick in-game shorthand, the other is a physical measurement. In Valorant, where sensitivity numbers are small and converted players are everywhere, knowing which one to use when saves you from several classic mistakes.
eDPI: the in-game shorthand
eDPI (effective DPI) = mouse DPI × in-game sensitivity. It exists because raw sensitivity numbers are meaningless on their own: 0.7 at 400 DPI and 0.35 at 800 DPI are exactly the same speed. Multiplying normalises the DPI away — both players above are at 280 eDPI.
eDPI is perfect for comparing Valorant players with each other. Its limit: the number only means something within one game. 280 eDPI in Valorant and 280 eDPI in CS2 are completely different real-world speeds, because each game translates mouse counts into camera degrees with its own constant — 0.07° per count in Valorant, 0.022° in CS2. The same hand speed reads as 280 Valorant eDPI and about 890 CS2 eDPI.
cm/360: the physical measurement
cm/360 is how many centimetres your mouse travels for one full 360° turn. It is what your arm actually experiences, which makes it comparable across games, desks and decades. It also answers practical questions eDPI cannot: does a full turn fit on my mousepad? Do I have room to track a duelist through a wide swing?
In Valorant each mouse count turns the camera 0.07° × sensitivity, so a full turn takes 360 ÷ (0.07 × eDPI) inches, which works out to:
cm/360 = 13062.86 ÷ (DPI × sensitivity) = 13062.86 ÷ eDPILower cm/360 = faster aim. The two numbers are exact inverses of each other — double the eDPI, halve the distance.
Conversion table (Valorant)
| eDPI | sens @ 800 DPI | cm/360 | Feel |
|---|---|---|---|
| 160 | 0.20 | 81.6 cm | extremely low |
| 200 | 0.25 | 65.3 cm | low |
| 240 | 0.30 | 54.4 cm | moderate-low |
| 280 | 0.35 | 46.7 cm | moderate |
| 320 | 0.40 | 40.8 cm | moderate-high |
| 400 | 0.50 | 32.7 cm | high |
| 560 | 0.70 | 23.3 cm | very high |
| 800 | 1.00 | 16.3 cm | extremely high |
Most professional Valorant players sit between roughly 200 and 400 eDPI (about 33–65 cm/360), but the spread inside that range is huge — grip, arm technique and desk space matter more than copying any single pro. Get your exact numbers from the Valorant eDPI calculator or the cm/360 calculator.
Which one should you use?
- Comparing settings with friends or pros (within Valorant): eDPI. Quick, standard, everyone quotes it.
- Coming from CS2, Apex or any other shooter: cm/360. Match the distance, not the numbers — the converter does exactly that (CS2 × 0.3143 = Valorant at the same DPI).
- Buying a mousepad / fixing undershoot from lack of room: cm/360 — your pad’s usable width must comfortably exceed it (see the undershooting guide).
- Tuning sensitivity from measurements: cm/360 again — percentage steps in distance are how AimFinder’s adaptive test converges on your value, and how you should step manually too.
Two Valorant-specific footnotes
- Scoped sensitivity is a separate multiplier applied while zoomed. At 1.0 the zoomed view keeps the same cm/360 per screen distance as hip fire — the usual recommendation, and what makes your ADS flicks feel like your normal ones.
- Three decimals matter. Valorant accepts sensitivity values like 0.347. A change of 0.01 at 800 DPI is about 3% of your cm/360 — roughly the size of the smallest step worth making, so round measured results to two or three decimals, not one.
One warning about chasing numbers
Neither metric says anything about whether a value is right for you — that is what your flick data is for. If your first movements systematically fly past targets, your eDPI is too high no matter how normal it looks on paper (see the overshooting guide). Measure first, then use eDPI and cm/360 to express the answer, not to guess it.