Objective To analyze the value of magnetic resonance (MR) diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) in the differential diagnosis of intracranial tumors. Methods Seventy patients with intracranial tumors confirmed by pathological examination were selected from the 73rd Group Army Hospital of the Army between May 2023 and May 2024. Routine MR and DTI scans were performed to evaluate the specific efficacy of the following indicators in distinguishing benign and malignant tumors and diagnosing different grades of gliomas: Relative apparent diffusion coefficient (rADC). Anisotropy score (FA). Automatically generate apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC). Relative anisotropy score (rFA). Results Among the 70 patients, there were 30 benign and 40 malignant cases, with 13 and 27 cases of high-grade and low-grade gliomas, respectively. The rFA, FA, and ADC values in patients with malignant tumors were lower than those in the benign group (P<0.05). Drawing the Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) curve, it was found that the area under the curve (AUC) of rFA+FA+ADC for diagnosing malignant tumors was 0.986, which was higher than that of a single indicator; And the AUC for diagnosing high-grade gliomas is 0.907, which is also higher than the detection of single indicators and has higher diagnostic value. Conclusions MR DTI has good application value in the differential diagnosis of benign and malignant intracranial tumors and the pathological grading of gliomas.