What is Hardware Acceleration?
Hardware acceleration is the process which transfers computing tasks on your computer from software to hardware components. This can improve the speed or efficiency of an application, and most often both. Hardware acceleration performs a complicated task that would otherwise require your CPU and delegates it to a hardware component that’s a jack of one trade but excels at it that can in turn reduce processing time and improve performance.
For instance, in video editing/rendering programs hardware acceleration is employed to delegate complex processes like 3D rendering and complex animation from the central processor to an individual graphics processor. This allows the GPU perform these tasks more quickly and efficiently than the CPU. Overall program performance is enhanced.
This same concept is also utilized in web browsers with the majority currently using hardware acceleration by default. This allows for better loading times of pages, smoother animations and higher framerates in games. In turn, it decreases the usage of CPUs and also saves energy on mobile devices.
However, this may have its own drawbacks too. If your computer is not handling the hardware acceleration (often known as lag) it is possible to turn it off. Open Chrome and type chrome://flags in your address bar. Then, move the Override software rendering slider entirely towards None. You might be asked to restart your browser. Daisy is the Senior Editor of EaseUS’ writing team and has been writing for more than 10 years.
