How to Enable GPU Acceleration in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari
A guide to running videos and basic games in your browser!
Enabling GPU acceleration (hardware acceleration) in modern browsers can significantly boost visual performance, video playback, and web application responsiveness by leveraging the system’s graphics card instead of just the CPU. Here’s a detailed guide on how to enable GPU acceleration in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari with practical steps and important notes for each.
Chrome: Enabling GPU Acceleration
Navigate to Settings via the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner.
On the left sidebar, go to System.
Locate Use hardware acceleration when available and turn the toggle ON.
Click Relaunch for Chrome to restart and apply the change.
To verify if GPU acceleration is working, enter
chrome://gpuin the address bar—look for “Hardware accelerated” status in relevant sections.
Firefox: Enabling GPU Acceleration
Open the main menu (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
Go to the General tab.
Scroll down to the Performance section.
Uncheck Use recommended performance settings to reveal more options.
Ensure Use hardware acceleration when available is checked.
Changes take effect after restarting the browser.
For advanced users (Linux): Visit
about:config, setgfx.webrender.alltotruefor full WebRender GPU utilization.
Safari: Enabling GPU Acceleration
On macOS Catalina (10.15) and later, GPU acceleration is always enabled automatically with no manual toggle in Safari preferences; the feature can’t be turned off or on directly.
For developers, the Develop menu (enabled in Safari > Preferences > Advanced) gives access to additional experimental GPU and web rendering features in the Experimental Features section.
On older macOS versions, look for an option in Settings > Advanced to enable hardware acceleration, if available.
For most users on modern Mac systems, no action is required—hardware acceleration “just works” in Safari.
Key Notes and Troubleshooting
Enabling GPU acceleration can improve overall browser responsiveness but may cause issues on some systems (e.g., driver bugs, website glitches). If you experience instability, try toggling the feature OFF to compare performance.
Always update your graphics drivers and browser to the latest versions for optimal compatibility.
Advanced users can inspect GPU usage and testing via internal browser URLs (such as
chrome://gpufor Chrome andabout:supportfor Firefox).