The Microsoft Edge browser uses the system memory to render and display the web pages in the viewport. When the system is running on low memory and not enough for Edge to execute the process, it utilizes the system hardware to complete, known as hardware acceleration.
Using the hardware acceleration feature Edge delegates a few specific requests to hardware like Graphical Processing Unit (GPU) to run the graphical intensive task helping in 3D elements rendering. Edge also supports the Efficiency Mode in Windows PC, which helps regain the processing power from background tasks.
While hardware acceleration can be seen as an optimization technique for Edge, it occasionally leads to issues related to memory issues like the page unresponding, Edge keeps crashing, etc.
The guide will help you to manage and customize the hardware acceleration feature in Edge on the computer browser. Turning Off or On the feature can also help in troubleshooting browser issues.
Manage Hardware Acceleration in Edge
As mentioned earlier, hardware acceleration uses the system’s hardware to improve performance, and it’s only available on the computer device type. You will not find the option to manage it on phone or tablet devices.
Here are the steps to customize the hardware acceleration in Edge on your computer:
- Launch the Microsoft Edge on your computer.
- Click on the More
menu and select the Settings menu.
- Switch to the System and Performance tab in the left side pane.
- Toggle switch for Use hardware acceleration when available option to Turn On or Off on hardware acceleration in Edge browser.
- Click on the button to make changes effective.
The hardware acceleration is enabled by default on your browser. However, you can use this toggle switch to stop using the feature from System and Performance settings menu.
Bottom Line
Edge browsers use computer memory for rendering the site; however, with hardware acceleration enabled, it also uses other computer hardware like GPU to process a few requests.
While the option is enabled by default, it does not engage with the hardware for all the processes or run all the time. It is used for heavy rending like graphic intensive tasks or when the system runs on low memory.
Hardware acceleration leads to browser issues like the page not loading or responding, browser lagging, etc. In such cases, we can turn the acceleration toggle switch on or off to verify the issue during troubleshooting.
The hardware acceleration option is available on other Chromium-based browsers like Google Chrome, Opera, Brave, etc.
Lastly, if you've any thoughts or feedback on How to Enable or Disable Hardware Acceleration in Microsoft Edge, then feel free to drop in below comment box. You can also report the outdated information.
