Guide · Performance

Game stuttering? Turn on graphics acceleration

3D games need your graphics card. With graphics acceleration off, your browser draws everything with the processor: a few frames per second, stutters, choppy sound. Turning it back on takes a minute.

Checking your browser

Checking…

Graphics card detected:

Turn on graphics acceleration

Chrome

Open a new tab and paste chrome://settings/system into the address bar (or ⋮ → Settings → System).
Turn on Use graphics acceleration when available.
Click the Relaunch button that appears. Your tabs reopen automatically.

Edge

Paste edge://settings/system into the address bar (or … → Settings → System and performance).
Turn on Use graphics acceleration when available.
Click Restart.

Firefox

Paste about:preferences into the address bar (or ☰ → Settings), then scroll down to Performance.
Untick Use recommended performance settings to reveal the next option.
Tick Use hardware acceleration when available, then close and reopen Firefox.

Opera / GX

Paste opera://settings/system into the address bar (Opera GX: Settings → Advanced → Browser → System).
Turn on Use hardware acceleration when available.
Click Relaunch.

Brave

Paste brave://settings/system into the address bar.
Turn on Use graphics acceleration when available.
Click Relaunch.

Safari

On Mac, iPhone and iPad, Safari always uses the graphics card: there is no switch.
If a game stutters, update macOS or iOS (Safari updates with the system).
Close other tabs and heavy apps, then reload the game.

Paste the address into the address bar and press Enter (browsers block these links from websites).

Check that it works

Easiest: reload this page, the check at the top should turn green. For more detail:

Chrome, Edge, Opera, Brave: paste chrome://gpu (or edge://gpu, opera://gpu, brave://gpu). The Canvas and WebGL lines should say “Hardware accelerated”.
Firefox: paste about:support and look for Compositing: it should say “WebRender”, not “WebRender (Software)”.

Still stuttering? Other causes

Plug in your laptop
On battery, Windows and the browser cut power. Plug in the charger and turn off Windows Battery saver and the browser's Energy saver (chrome://settings/performance).
Pick the powerful graphics card
On a laptop with two graphics chips: Windows → Settings → System → Display → Graphics, pick your browser → Options → High performance. Relaunch the browser.
Update your graphics drivers
An outdated driver can be blocked by the browser. Get the latest driver from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel, or through Windows Update.
Lighten your browser
Close unused tabs (especially videos) and disable heavy extensions. Fullscreen mode helps too.
Lower the game's graphics
On a Chromebook or an older PC, pick “Low” quality in the game's options when there are any.

Questions

Is it risky to turn on graphics acceleration?

No. It's the default setting in every browser: it was just switched off on your computer (by you, an extension, some software or after a crash).

The option is already on but the check stays orange?

Your graphics driver is probably blocked by the browser. Update it (tip 3), then relaunch the browser.

I'm on a school or work computer?

The setting may be locked by the administrator. If so, only “Lighten your browser” and “Lower the game's graphics” can help.

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