- To disable Chrome’s hardware acceleration, Google Chrome > Settings > System and turn off the “Use hardware acceleration when available” toggle switch.
- You can turn on the toggle switch to re-enable the feature at any time.
On Google Chrome, hardware acceleration is a feature that allows the browser to access the device’s graphics card to speed up certain processes, thus improving the overall user experience when surfing the internet on Windows 11, 10, macOS, or Linux.
However, depending on your device configuration, hardware acceleration can negatively affect your experience by preventing visual elements from displaying correctly on the screen.
Disabling hardware acceleration can fix this issue if menus and dialog boxes are not rendering as expected.
In this guide, I will teach you the steps to turn off hardware acceleration in Chrome. (If you use Microsoft Edge, you can disable access to the graphics card with these instructions.)
Disable hardware acceleration on Chrome
To turn off hardware acceleration in Google Chrome, use these steps:
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Open Chrome.
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Click the horizontal ellipsis menu button in the top-right corner and click on Settings.
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Click on System.
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Turn off the “Use hardware acceleration when available” toggle switch under the “System” section.
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Click the Relaunch button.
Once you complete the steps, menus and visual elements should render correctly on Chrome.
Enable hardware acceleration on Chrome
To enable hardware acceleration on Google Chrome, use these steps:
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Open Google Chrome.
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Click the Settings and More (three-dotted) button on the top-right corner.
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Click on Settings.
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Click on System.
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Turn on the “Use graphics acceleration when available” toggle switch under the “System” section to enable hardware acceleration.
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Click the Relaunch button.
After you complete the steps, the browser will offload some processes to the graphics card instead of using the processor exclusively.
Update July 15, 2024: This guide has been updated to ensure accuracy and reflect changes to the process.
Mauro Huculak is a Windows How-To Expert who started Pureinfotech in 2010 as an independent online publication. He has also been a Windows Central contributor for nearly a decade. Mauro has over 15 years of experience writing comprehensive guides and creating professional videos about Windows and software, including Android and Linux. Before becoming a technology writer, he was an IT administrator for seven years. In total, Mauro has over 21 years of combined experience in technology. Throughout his career, he achieved different professional certifications from Microsoft (MSCA), Cisco (CCNP), VMware (VCP), and CompTIA (A+ and Network+), and he has been recognized as a Microsoft MVP for many years. You can follow him on X (Twitter), YouTube, LinkedIn and About.me. Email him at [email protected].