How To Enable Or Disable Graphics Hardware Acceleration In Google Chrome [2026 Guide]

I’m going to teach you how to enable or disable graphics hardware acceleration in Google Chrome. Graphics hardware acceleration can enhance your browsing experience by offloading graphic rendering tasks from the CPU to the GPU.

In many cases this makes for smoother and faster performance. In some situations it can also cause glitches or issues, particularly on older hardware.

Knowing how to toggle it can be quite handy. For a related privacy setting, see HTTPS mode.

Enable Or Disable Graphics Hardware Acceleration in Google Chrome [2026 Guide]

Open your Google Chrome browser.

Click the three-dot menu at the top right and select Settings.

In the left sidebar, scroll down to System and click it.

This section contains options that control how Chrome uses your computer's resources, including the graphics hardware acceleration setting.

Enable in Chrome

Find the option that says Use hardware acceleration when available.

Use hardware acceleration when available

Turn this switch to the on position to enable graphics hardware acceleration. Enabling this feature can provide a noticeable increase in performance, especially for graphics heavy tasks like video playback or online gaming.

Disable in Chrome

If you're experiencing issues with Chrome, such as visual glitches or lag, disabling hardware acceleration might help resolve these problems. To disable it, turn the switch to the off position.

This action will cause Chrome to handle all graphics rendering tasks using your CPU, which can be useful for pinpointing if the GPU was the source of your issues. For a focused walkthrough, see turn off.

Relaunch to apply

After you toggle the switch, Chrome will notify you that a relaunch is required for the changes to take effect. Click Relaunch.

Chrome will close and restart automatically, preserving all your open tabs. Once it reopens, the changes you made will be in effect, and you can continue browsing with your new hardware acceleration setting.

Final thoughts

That’s all there is to it. If you choose to enable or disable graphics hardware acceleration, knowing how to access and adjust this setting can be useful for customizing your browsing experience in Google Chrome.

For more Chrome tuning, you can also manage extensions like an ad blocker.