What shaftz0r is basically say, if I understand correctly, is that it’s all about the sensor.
Godly tier’s have the Avago ADNS 3090 and are optical*, whilst not as “accurate” as laser* they benefit from an inherent (i.e. natural not software based) smoothing that eliminates undesirable/uncontrollable micro muscle movements (allegedly). There was also a problem with high end laser* sensors having positive/negative acceleration, which the 3090 doesn’t suffer from, so at the time this godly list was created the 3090 was the best choice.
On the other side of the fence in the laser* camp the Avago ADNS 9800 sensor is currently the best choice. Early version of this sensor, or at least implementations from mouse manufacturers, suffered from the positive/negative acceleration issue, giving it a bad name and allowing the 3090 to claim all the glory. However newer versions/implementations have fixed the acceleration issue, the problem is it’s hard to know if the mouse you’re getting has the fixed sensor or not, the best way is to research, or if it’s a decent manufacturer they should know the answer if you ask them directly.
So in the end it’s down to personal preference, if you want optical get the 3090, if you want laser get the 9800 but make sure it’s the fixed version (I think all launched in 2013 or newer are fine, but best to check).
With regards DPI again it’s a marketing gimmick, what is important is having a high enough DPI to avoid pixel skipping, what I like to call to as pixel perfect aim. So it’s all about number of pixels, or screen resolution, IIRC correctly the theoretical minimum DPI to have pixel perfect aim on standard gaming monitors (1920 in width) is around 650, more is fine, less is not, so get a mouse with at least 800 DPI and you’ll be fine.
What I did was to choose if I wanted optical or laser, then picked a handful of mice that I liked the look, feel and features of, then narrowed it down based on sensor and then bought the Mionix 8200.
I’m not an expert on the subject, this is just my understanding/research on the subject.
- Obviously a laser sensor is also optical, but I refer to how such devices are generally marketed and how people have come to know them to be called