Hardware acceleration is a method that offloads a computing task on your computer from software to hardware components. The purpose of this is to improve either speed or performance, generally both, of the application in question. Hardware acceleration takes a complex task that would otherwise require your CPU and delegates it to an hardware component that is a skilled worker but can do it with ease that can in turn reduce processing time and increase performance.
Hardware acceleration is utilized in video editing/rendering software to offload complex processes like 3D rendering and complex animations from the central processor to dedicated graphics processors. This allows the GPU to perform these tasks more quickly and efficient than the CPU, increasing overall performance of the program.
The same idea is employed in web browsers with the majority now utilizing hardware acceleration as default. This results in faster page loading speeds, smoother animations, and higher frame rates for games. This reduces CPU usage and saves power on mobile devices.
This can also have some disadvantages. If your computer is struggling with handling the hardware acceleration (often referred to as lag) you may want to disable it. To do this, open Chrome and type chrome://flags into your address bar. Then you must move the Override software rendering slider completely towards None. You might be asked to restart your browser. Daisy is the Senior Editor hardware acceleration of EaseUS the writing team and has been a writer for more than ten years.