How to Change the Deadzone on a PS5 Controller on PC

A PS5 controller has no deadzone setting of its own on a PC, so you change it in whatever sits between the DualSense and the game. In order of preference: the game's own controller options, then Steam Input (one global slider plus one per game), then a remapper such as DS4Windows or DSX for games outside Steam. Set the smallest value that stops your drift, and only in one of those places.

Measure the drift before you change anything.

Why measure before you set a deadzone

A deadzone is a circle around the stick's centre inside which the game is told "no input". Too small and the drift leaks through; too big and the first part of every movement is dead, which you feel most when aiming. The only way to get it right first time is to know how far off centre your stick rests.

Our deadzone test shows the raw position and the corrected one next to each other while you drag a deadzone value, so you can see where the creep stops. Write that percentage down and add a point or two of margin, because drift wanders a little with temperature and with how the stick was last released. If the stick drift test reports more than about 10 %, a deadzone is the wrong tool: you'd lose too much travel, and the PS5 drift page covers cleaning, recentring and replacement instead.

Two reference points help when you translate percentages into the numbers some tools show. Steam and XInput both use a 0 to 32,767 scale per axis. Microsoft's XInput guide puts its suggested left-stick value at 7,849 on that scale, about 24 % of travel, which is much larger than a healthy stick needs; a Valve engineer replying on Steam’s beta forum calls roughly 8,000 the Microsoft recommendation for games.

Where you can set it on a PC

Place	What it affects	Good for	Watch out for
Game's own controller settings	That game only	Anything the game offers it for	Many games label it "inner deadzone" or bury it under advanced stick settings
Steam, global	Every Steam game with Steam Input on	One stick that drifts in every game	Applies to the controller, not one title; reported minimum around 2,000 of 32,767
Steam, per game	One game's controller layout	Fixing a single title without touching others	Only works when the game runs through Steam Input
DS4Windows	Games that see its virtual Xbox 360 or DS4 pad	Non-Steam games, emulators	No longer maintained as of 2026; double input if the real pad is still visible
DSX	Games that see its virtual controller	PlayStation-specific features on PC	Deadzone options vary by version
DualSense Edge profile	Set on a PS5, stored on the controller	Edge owners	Sony documents it for the PS5, not for PC games

Neither a regular DualSense nor Windows offers a stick deadzone of its own. The Game Controllers panel (joy.cpl) can calibrate DirectInput devices, but it has no deadzone, and games that use Steam Input or a virtual Xbox pad never see that calibration anyway. Our calibration guide explains those layers if you want to recentre rather than hide the drift.

In the game: try this first

If the game has a deadzone option, use it and leave everything else at default. The game knows how it reads the stick, and its slider is usually labelled in the same units as its other aim settings, so you can line them up. Shooters tend to split it into "inner" (the circle you want) and "outer" (how far you have to push before the game counts it as full tilt). Change only the inner one for drift.

Set it to the percentage you measured plus a little margin, play for ten minutes, and check menus and the camera at rest. If the view still creeps, go up by one step at a time.

In Steam: global or per game

Steam can take over the DualSense for any game launched through it. A Valve staff reply on Steam's beta forum points to two places for joystick deadzones: the game's own controller configuration, and Settings › Controller › Calibration & Advanced Settings for a setting that applies everywhere.

The global value is the quick fix when one stick drifts in everything you play. Owners report it won't go below about 2,000 on Steam's scale, around 6 %, and Valve's reply in that thread says 2,000 units is already smaller than you'd want on real hardware. So if your drift is tiny, a game's own slider may let you go lower than Steam will.

The per-game value lives in the controller layout for that title. Open the game in your library, open its controller settings, edit the layout and pick the stick. That layout also offers an anti-deadzone, which pushes the output away from zero so a game with a big built-in deadzone reacts sooner. Leave it off while you're fighting drift: Valve's own reply in the same thread suggests anti-deadzone can put a constant bit of output on a direction — on a drifting stick that's the last thing you want.

Steam settings only work while Steam Input is active for that game. If nothing changes, check that the PlayStation configuration support box is on in Steam's controller settings and that the game's own Steam Input option isn't set to off.

In DS4Windows

DS4Windows reads the DualSense and hands games a virtual Xbox 360 controller in its place (or, if you choose, a DualShock 4), using the ViGEmBus driver it installs for you. That's useful for games outside Steam and for emulators that expect an Xbox pad. Its user guide puts stick settings in the profile editor's Axis Config tab, where you adjust the deadzone and sensitivity per stick.

The project has changed hands twice: the fork most people link to says Ryochan7 stopped maintaining the original, and that fork itself was archived on March 5, 2026, with its author announcing they'd stopped working on it. It still runs for many people, but nobody is fixing new problems. Also, if a game can see the physical DualSense alongside the virtual pad, you get double input, and the deadzone you set seems to do nothing because the game is reading the other device. Hiding the real controller from the game, or letting Steam Input handle it instead, solves that.

In DSX

DSX by Paliverse is an app sold through Steam since June 2022, built around PlayStation controllers on PC: adaptive triggers, lighting, haptics, button remapping and profiles. Its store page talks about personalising input response but doesn't promise a specific deadzone control, and the options have changed between versions. If you already use it for triggers or haptics, look in its stick settings before adding a second tool. Running DSX, DS4Windows and Steam Input together usually means three deadzones and two virtual pads, so pick one.

DualSense Edge owners

An Edge stores per-stick sensitivity curves and a deadzone in its custom profiles, set up on a PS5 under the controller's settings. Sony's own example uses a 10 % deadzone, and the profile is saved in the controller itself. Sony documents those profiles for PS5 games; it says nothing about how a PC game treats them, so if you play on both, set the deadzone in the PC game or in Steam as well and check the result with the test.

Why two deadzones add up

Each layer applies its own circle to whatever the previous layer hands it. If Steam already zeroes the first 6 % of travel and rescales the rest, the game's own 10 % then cuts into what Steam passes on, and the effective dead circle ends up bigger than either number on its own. Forum threads about a 5 % deadzone that feels like 15 % usually turn out to have two or three of them stacked.

Pick one place, set the value there, and put the others back to default or zero. Then measure again with the deadzone test through the same path the game uses.

When it still drifts after you set it

• The setting isn't in the path. A Steam deadzone does nothing for a game launched outside Steam, and a DS4Windows profile does nothing if the game reads the real DualSense.
• The drift grew. Retest. Drift on a worn potentiometer stick gets worse over months, so last spring's 4 % may be 9 % now.
• It's not drift. If the stick is noisy rather than off centre, the reading jumps around instead of sitting still. A deadzone covers an offset at rest, but it can't smooth a rough track; the stick drift guide explains the difference.
• Only one game does it. That game probably has its own deadzone set to zero or a very small value. Change it there.

For recentring the DualSense with a calibration tool, or replacing the stick module, see the PS5 drift page.