# How to turn on Hardware Acceleration By [Worldwide Webb News](https://paragraph.com/@worldwidewebb) · 2023-03-06 --- For Worldwide Webb to run smoothly in your browser, we need to make use of the browser’s best graphical processing abilities. On desktops and laptops, browsers have a setting to turn on and off to make use of graphics processing hardware that may be present on the machine. These settings are usually turned on by default, but occasionally may have been turned off. This post describes how to check and turn the setting on. For laptops that have a dedicated graphics card, it is also possible for the browser to default to the weaker integrated graphics, and not give you the full capabilities of your machine. At the bottom of this post are instructions for how to check for this and fix it on Windows 11 Chrome ------ ### How to check for Hardware Acceleration in Chrome Type `chrome://gpu` into the URL bar. This will bring up a page that displays the hardware acceleration status of the machine. The following screenshot is an example of what the page looks like when hardware acceleration is **off**, and would indicate that it needs to be turned on ![Chrome, if hardware acceleration is off](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/161fef7cce580e588c9a0e51abe5f2c562d98ec47c94b1d73e352f801a75e93c.png) Chrome, if hardware acceleration is off The following screenshot is an example of what the page looks like when hardware acceleration is **on**, if yours looks something like this, then you don’t need to adjust hardware acceleration settings ![Chrome, if hardware acceleration is on](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/930a4a5a9c262db7f2190e0c615be6f47e81e2f3aa62b0b92ec2249d8f83140d.png) Chrome, if hardware acceleration is on ### How to turn on Hardware Acceleration in Chrome Go to “System” in the Chrome settings, and make sure “Use Hardware acceleration when available” is checked. You can also get to this setting by searching settings for “hardware acceleration”. Relaunch the browser. ![Where to find the Hardware Acceleration setting in Chrome](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/9ba211db2bf28a669198012a36247de238207e80161a0c0f22e97cae5599e939.png) Where to find the Hardware Acceleration setting in Chrome Brave ----- ### How to check for Hardware Acceleration in Brave Type `brave://gpu` into the URL bar. This will bring up a page that displays the hardware acceleration status of the machine. This looks the same as Chrome, so see the section above for more information. ### How to turn on Hardware Acceleration in Brave In the Browser settings. Go to the System settings, where you will find “Use Hardware acceleration when available”. Make sure this option is checked, then relaunch the browser. ![Where to find the Hardware Acceleration settings in Brave](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/ad7f4a955f5305a4fc7a3b93c6108ba9bf864687ced0803e0bb0d2804cf1db58.png) Where to find the Hardware Acceleration settings in Brave Opera and Opera GX ------------------ ### How to check for Hardware Acceleration in Opera and Opera GX Type `opera://gpu` into the URL bar. This will bring up a page that displays the hardware acceleration status of the machine. This looks the same as Chrome, so see the section above for more information. ### How to turn on Hardware Acceleration in Opera GX In the Browser full settings (Alt+P on Windows, or via the top-left O menu, or via the last “Go to full browser settings” in the top-right Easy Settings menu). Go to the Browser settings, and scroll down to System, where you will find “Use Hardware acceleration when available”. You can also get to this setting by searching settings for “hardware acceleration”. Make sure this option is checked. ![Where to find the Hardware Acceleration setting in Opera GX](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/42f91277406a09178ca6977283e41e1a8bc6c32e1b939d37ef35b546c64d8e15.png) Where to find the Hardware Acceleration setting in Opera GX Edge ---- ### How to check for Hardware Acceleration in Edge Type `edge://gpu` into the URL bar. This will bring up a page that displays the hardware acceleration status of the machine. This looks the same as Chrome, so see the section above for more information. ### How to turn on Hardware Acceleration in Edge In the Browser full settings (Alt+P on Windows, or via the top-left O menu, or via the last “Go to full browser settings” in the top-right Easy Settings menu). Go to the Browser settings, and scroll down to System, where you will find “Use Hardware acceleration when available”. You can also get to this setting by searching settings for “hardware acceleration”. Make sure this option is checked. ![Where to find the Hardware Acceleration setting in Edge](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/eb84fa0ae0fb04eb26d42c3be6ccdb33eb1e71e29cc017baa63233ad9564c6d2.png) Where to find the Hardware Acceleration setting in Edge Firefox ------- ### How to check for Hardware Acceleration in Firefox Type `about:support` into the URL bar. Scroll down to the “Graphics” section, and look for “WebRender”. If it says “WebRender (Software)” then the hardware acceleration is turned off: ![Firefox, if hardware acceleration is turned off](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/6b583c8176c91f327f6240ee13012e6bd4e9d5f2c87672be1c7e63c936d4960c.png) Firefox, if hardware acceleration is turned off If hardware acceleration is turned on, it will just say “WebRender” ![Firefox, if hardware acceleration is turned on](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/e0d8cc77ad3339ea9aa8b7082de44f34491e0db878dd556a7820f026b85547cf.png) Firefox, if hardware acceleration is turned on ### How to turn on Hardware Acceleration in Firefox In the settings, settings, in the Performance section, ensure “Use recommended performance settings” is checked. OR ensure “Use hardware acceleration when available” is checked if you don’t wish to use recommended performance settings. Restart the browser after changing this setting. ![Ideally leave this checked](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/3f8e10ca1ab86049ada4b854a17c230df6ee91d1b08d5dbbb602ecef14f91a2e.png) Ideally leave this checked ![This is also acceptable](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/de230cadd1178b93910bb3c2578938ec99feda6440b78a7968fbb3fffda4990f.png) This is also acceptable Laptops with discrete GPUs, or eGPUs ------------------------------------ There are some situations where a machine with both discrete and integrated GPUs, such as Laptops that have discrete GPUs (e.g. if your laptop has an additional Nvidia or Radeon graphics card), or machines with external GPUs, where the OS decides to use the weaker integrated GPU for the browser, rather than the more powerful discrete GPU. On Windows, you will be able to tell if you have both discrete and integrated GPUs if your Task Manager shows two GPUs. ![Windows 11 Task Manager if two GPUs are available](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/b1ba37463438cd855d9ba06758d5b36894ecda4da5fed8619fbd66ae3a0eda62.png) Windows 11 Task Manager if two GPUs are available Also in Task Manager, you can usually see which GPU is being used by the browser. In the below screenshot, Chrome can be seen using GPU 0, which on this machine is the integrated Intel Iris graphics, which is far weaker than the available nVidia 3060 RTX card available at GPU 1. ![Example of Google Chrome running on the weaker GPU](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/c5839a8177ddd7b09434095f294978355b91847eea5011bf6561b9575e476830.png) Example of Google Chrome running on the weaker GPU On Windows 11, it is possible to set a preference for which GPU is used. The menu is in Windows Settings > System > Display > Graphics: ![How to get to the Graphics settings in Windows](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/33de27f4ded54f29fbb550d53fa94f33e34c05473ee5b450eb8e4e901b84bc57.png) How to get to the Graphics settings in Windows In the “Custom options for Apps” section, click “Browse” ![Click on "Browse"](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/c2c1dc368327d2850bd73447e49096df6fde456e4e522e6ac9a2d44bd0bcf0e3.png) Click on "Browse" Navigate to the executable for your browser. For example, Chrome is often installed at `C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe`, but other browsers and other installations may vary. This adds a Google Chrome option to the app list. Click on Options ![Click on "Options"](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/095e554a7874de5e2ca126edfc5bc3db8e1cf881f9c918b0adc6c6c2e6fabab9.png) Click on "Options" This brings up the Graphics preferences for the browser, where you can select to use the “High performance” GPU ![Select "High performance"](https://storage.googleapis.com/papyrus_images/40fc8f18c981dd688ce94053fe5ee70c85feef481846f4d0c96af54c414b9ca8.png) Select "High performance" Once this is selected, restart the browser. --- *Originally published on [Worldwide Webb News](https://paragraph.com/@worldwidewebb/how-to-turn-on-hardware-acceleration)*