Hardware Acceleration in Opera Browser: How to Turn It Off/On

Opera browser hardware acceleration is a feature that uses your computer’s GPU to handle graphics-heavy tasks like video rendering or animations. This reduces the load on your CPU and can improve performance. However, it may cause problems on older systems or with certain graphics drivers.

If Opera is lagging, freezing, or displaying visual glitches, you can disable hardware acceleration to troubleshoot the issue. Here’s all you need to know about disabling/ enabling it.

How to disable and enable hardware acceleration in Opera GX

How to Turn Off or On Hardware Acceleration in Opera

1. Open Opera Settings

• Click the Opera icon in the top-left corner of the window.
• Select Settings, or press Alt + P on your keyboard.

2. Go to the System Section

• Scroll down and expand the Advanced settings.
• Find the System category.

3. Disable/Enable Hardware Acceleration

• Toggle off/on Use hardware acceleration when available.
• Click Relaunch when prompted to restart Opera with the setting applied.

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How to Disable/ Enable Hardware Acceleration in Opera GX

1. Open Opera GX Settings

• Click the GX Control sidebar icon or press Alt + P.

2. Find the System Option

• Expand the Advanced menu and scroll to System.

3. Turn Off/On the Setting

• Switch off/on Use hardware acceleration when available.
• Restart Opera GX for the change to take effect.

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Why You Might Disable Hardware Acceleration

• Video playback stutters or becomes unresponsive
• The browser UI is laggy or slow
• You see black screens during streaming
• Compatibility issues with older or unsupported GPUs

Disabling hardware acceleration is a common fix when these symptoms appear during regular browsing.

Is hardware acceleration good for browsers?

Yes, hardware acceleration is good for browsers. It makes them faster by using the GPU. As a result, you get quicker page loads and smoother video.

However, it may cause screen glitches, black screen, video issues, and slower performance on PCs with old or incompatible graphics drivers. In that case, you’d be better off not using the feature.

Why does Opera GX take so much CPU?

Opera usually takes up too much GPU, up to 100% when you don’t have hardware acceleration enabled, or when you have way too many active tabs open. It could also happen when you use certain add-ons or you haven’t cleaned up your cache in a while.

Read more about this topic

• GX Quick Settings Button in Opera GX: How to Use it
• Manage & Create Profiles in Opera GX: How to do it

Browsers like Opera and Chrome and even streaming apps like Twitch include hardware acceleration to let you adjust your browser for best performance. Moreover, if you want to know how to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox, we’ve got you covered.

This built-in feature can improve your experience and as you can see in the guidelines above, enabling and disabling it in Opera is easy.

If you have any questions or need more help, drop a comment below.