How to make Chrome Use GPU

Hey all,

Table of Contents Show

How to Turn Hardware Acceleration On or Off
Can Chrome run on GPU?
Why isn t Chrome using my GPU?
How do I know if Chrome is using my GPU?
How do I make my browser use a dedicated GPU?

I have a dual Nvidia GPU system and I need to force chrome.exe to use a specific GPU for all of it's GPU-related tasks (3D, video decoding, memory, etc). Any idea how to do this?

I've tried the following:

Put Chrome on the proper monitor connected to the desired GPU. No affect, still renders Video Decode on wrong GPU.
Inside Nvidia Control Panel -> Manage 3D settings -> Program Settings -> Chrome.exe both"CUDA-GPUs" and "Open GL Rendering GPU" were set to the proper GPU and this had no affect and still renders on the wrong GPU
Right click on chrome.exe -> Render OpenGL on -> Selecting proper GPU has no affect and still renders on the wrong GPU
Gathered my vendor ID/device ID via chrome://gpu
--- Found the proper GPU IDs + ensured Chrome is on the desktop monitor that is plugged into the proper GPU
Ran chrome.exe --gpu-active-vendor-id=0x1e07 --gpu-active-device-id=0x1e07
--- Tested on Twitch stream for example, found it still uses the wrong GPU ID
Tried --supports-dual-gpus to no affect

Chrome's chrome://gpu states "GL_RENDERER" as pointing to the GPU set as Windows desktop "main", which is the not the one I want to use. Any idea how to change the "GL_RENDERER"?

Note: I need everything to stay as-is except Chrome, meaning the main desktop needs to stay as-is on the proper GPU, with the only thing changing is Chrome using the secondary (weaker) GPU. Switching GPUs/Monitors "main" setting is not an option.

Any guidance is much appreciated!

Thanks!

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To turn hardware acceleration on or off, open Google Chrome, then navigate to Settings > System. Use the toggle next to “Use Hardware Acceleration When Available” to control Google Chrome’s hardware acceleration.

Google Chrome comes equipped with hardware acceleration, a feature which takes advantage of your computer’s GPU to speed up processes and free vital CPU time. However, sometimes driver incompatibilities can cause this feature to misbehave and disabling it could save you a few headaches.

Hardware acceleration refers to when a program uses a computer’s hardware in support to perform some functions more efficiently than capable in the software. The hardware was designed to perform some functions faster than software running on the CPU alone.

In Chrome, hardware acceleration utilizes your computer’s graphics processing unit (GPU) to tackle graphics-intensive tasks, like playing videos, games, or anything that requires faster mathematical calculations. Passing off specific tasks gives your CPU a chance to work tirelessly on everything else, while the GPU handles processes that it was designed to run.

While this does sound great in most cases, sometimes hardware acceleration can cause Chrome to lag, freeze, or crash—it could even cause your laptop’s battery to drain a lot faster. As everyone’s computer is slightly different, the issue could lie in the GPU or driver associated with it. If you suspect hardware acceleration is the culprit, the best thing to do is to disable it and see if that fixes the problem.

How to Turn Hardware Acceleration On or Off

By default, hardware acceleration is enabled on Chrome, so let’s look at disabling it first.

Fire up Chrome, click the menu icon, and then click on “Settings.” Alternatively, you can type chrome://settings/ into the Omnibox to go directly there.

In the Settings menu, expand the “Advanced” drop-down section found in the left sidebar and then select “System.”

Find the “Use hardware acceleration when available” setting. Toggle the switch to the “Off” position and then click “Relaunch” to apply the changes.

Warning: Make sure you save anything you’re working on. Chrome reopens the tabs that were opened before the relaunch but doesn’t save any of the data contained in them.

If you’d rather wait to restart Chrome and finish up anything you’re working on, just close the tab. Chrome will apply the change the next time you close and reopen it.

To confirm it has been fully disabled, type chrome://gpu/ into the Omnibox and hit Enter. When hardware acceleration has been disabled, a majority of the items under “Graphics Feature Status” will read “Software only, hardware acceleration disabled.”

If you’re looking to enable—or re-enable—hardware acceleration, head back to chrome://settings/system and toggle “Use hardware acceleration when available” setting to the “On” position. Then, click “Relaunch” to apply the change.

Can Chrome run on GPU?

The hardware acceleration feature in Google Chrome uses your computer's GPU to accelerate the operations and liberate the crucial CPU time.

Why isn t Chrome using my GPU?

According to NVIDIA, chrome and firefox both have been disabled from using the Nvidia GPU by design.

How do I know if Chrome is using my GPU?

If you press Shift + Esc while in the browser it will bring up Google Chrome's internal Task Manager. If there is a process titled GPU Process, then that means Chrome is using hardware/GPU acceleration in order to display/render a particular page. Save this answer.