How to change Windows 10 hardware acceleration (2024)

How to change Windows 10 hardware acceleration (1)

Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration helps users in boosting Windows OS performance and run the applications hang-free. When it is enabled, certain tasks, especially heavy tasks like video rendering and game loading, works comparatively better and faster. Although it is an excellent feature to have on your computer, it is not always necessary to keep it turned ON.

What is Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration?

When you run any application on Windows 10 system, it requires a certain amount of CPU power to open and function properly. However, several applications like Google Chrome, high-graphic games, video editing, rendering applications, etc., need more power than usual to operate that CPU might not be able to provide and thus deteriorates the device performance. This is where Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration comes into effect.

Windows 10 comes with various dedicated hardware components for different work, such as Sound card, Video card, GPU, and more. Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration combines the power of such hardware components with the CPU power to run the heavy applications.

For instance, if applications like high graphics games need more than usual graphical power, the CPU would offload some visual work to the graphic card, making it efficient to run the application smoothly, lag-free. Similarly, while running Google Chrome or some other heavy applications, the CPU will lend some work to GPU so that the system remains undisturbed and applications run smoothly.

Should I turn on Hardware Acceleration?

While launching certain games or any other application, you might have got a prompt to enable the Hardware Acceleration. If you wonder whether to allow it or not, you must not think much and simply allow it, especially if you are a multitasker and simultaneously run multiple applications together. The Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration would ensure that the workload is distributed among the CPU and GPU, and therefore, all applications run smoothly. Hardware Acceleration is essential for gamers unless they play the pre-HD era games. With it enabled, the game would run at a higher framerate, the 3D rendering becomes slick, and game effects would be more precise.

Apart from that, if you visit any website containing a lot of video clips and graphics-related content, the Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration would ensure that the page loads smoothly. If not, the page loading time would be high, and the website would load poorly without the graphic content.

How to enable/disable Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration?

If you want to enable or disable the Hardware Acceleration in Windows 10, here are the steps for that:

  1. On your Windows 10 desktop, right-click on the empty space and select Display settings.
  2. Under the Display Settings page, scroll down and click on Advanced display settings.
  3. Now, click on the Display adapter properties for display 1.
  4. On the Graphic properties window, switch to Troubleshoot tab. If the Troubleshoot tab is not there, STOP! Your PC hardware does not support hardware acceleration.
  5. Next, click on Change Settings. If the Change Settings option in step 5 is greyed out STOP! Your PC hardware may not support hardware acceleration.
  6. In the Display Adapter Troubleshooter bar, toggle the button to disable or enable the Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration.
  7. Click OK to save your settings.

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How to change Windows 10 hardware acceleration (2024)

FAQs

Is it good to turn on hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling? ›

Most of the time, GPU hardware scheduling is worth turning on in Windows, especially if your computer isn't equipped with one of the latest GPU models. But enabling the GPU scheduling feature can also backfire, and have a negative impact on your computer's performance.

Does hardware acceleration improve performance? ›

Hardware acceleration offloads certain tasks from the CPU to the GPU or any other specialized hardware that can do it more efficiently, resulting in faster processing times and longer-lasting batteries.

How do you solve hardware acceleration? ›

Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling in Windows

Using the Settings app, navigate to System and then to Display. Click the Graphics settings option after selecting the Display menu. This can be found in Windows 10 under Multiple Displays. In Windows 11, just navigate down and select the Graphics option.

How to change hardware acceleration in Windows 10? ›

Graphics: Right-click the desktop, go to "Display Settings" > "Graphics" > "Change default settings", then turn off "hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling". Audio: Go to "Settings" > "System" > "Sound" > "More sound settings" > your audio device > "Properties" > "Advanced", and uncheck "Allow hardware acceleration."

What does disabling hardware acceleration do? ›

If your computer has slow response times for Microsoft Office or web browsers, disabling hardware acceleration may speed up your system. The setting can be draining on computer systems, which can affect response times.

How do I adjust hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling? ›

Click on Start > Settings > System > Display. Scroll down on the right, and click on Graphics for Windows 11 or Graphic settings for Windows 10. Windows 11 users need to next click on Change default graphics settings. Toggle the Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling option on or off.

Does hardware acceleration reduce quality? ›

Just a reminder that hardware acceleration may lower your quality much more than you might expect.

Should you leave hardware acceleration? ›

Yes hardware acceleration is necessary. While not too much for audio, videos definitely. Most streamed video uses the 254 or 255 codec, which are virtually impossible to fully decode without video card support in HD.

How much faster is hardware acceleration? ›

All three hardware acceleration solutions provide a 2x to 3x speed boost. NVIDIA and AMD are faster for videos within the GPU's processing capabilities. Intel QSV has an edge for larger videos like 4K Ultra HD or 3D videos.

How do I set hardware acceleration to full? ›

Launch Chrome, then select “Menu” > “Settings“. Scroll down to the bottom and select the “Advanced” option. Scroll to the “System” section and toggle “Use hardware acceleration when available” on or off as desired.

What applications use hardware acceleration? ›

AI hardware acceleration is designed for such applications as artificial neural networks, machine vision, and machine learning hardware acceleration, often found in the fields of robotics and the Internet of Things. Systems often provide the option to enable or disable hardware acceleration.

What does hardware acceleration do in Windows 10? ›

Windows 10 Hardware Acceleration helps users in boosting Windows OS performance and run the applications hang-free. When it is enabled, certain tasks, especially heavy tasks like video rendering and game loading, works comparatively better and faster.

How do I change Windows performance? ›

In the search box on the taskbar, type performance, then select Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows in the list of results. On the Visual Effects tab, select Adjust for best performance > Apply.

Did Google remove hardware acceleration? ›

By default, hardware acceleration is enabled on Google Chrome. So you will need to manually disable hardware acceleration on your browser. Open your browser and select Menu (the three vertical dots on the far-right side of the search bar). In the dropdown menu that opens, select Settings.

Does hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling hurt performance? ›

Enabling Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling has little to no impact on performance in most content creation applications, with most of our tests returning results within the margin of error. The largest difference observed was a 10% increase in performance from enabling the feature in After Effects.

Is hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling good for OBS? ›

HAGS may cause performance issues and failures with OBS and hardware encoders. It is recommended to be disabled while using OBS to avoid stability issues.

Should I turn on hardware-accelerated GPU Discord? ›

Overall, hardware acceleration in Discord can help improve performance and image quality but may cause some stability issues. It would be best if you experimented with this setting to see what works best for you and your system.

Should hardware acceleration be on or off Discord? ›

Hardware Acceleration (General)

Turns on Hardware Acceleration, which uses your GPU to make Discord smoother. Turn this off if you are experiencing frame drops. [Not to be confused with Hardware Acceleration (Streaming) in the Voice and Video settings.]

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