Hardware acceleration is a process that transfers a computation task on your computer from software to hardware components. The intention behind this is to increase either speed or performance, usually both, of the application. Hardware acceleration can delegate a complex task to a hardware component who is a pro at one thing. This can reduce processing time and improve the performance.
Hardware acceleration is used in software for editing or rendering videos to shift complicated 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 efficiently than the CPU, which improves overall performance of the program.
The same idea is used in web browsers. Most of them use hardware acceleration as a default. This enables faster loading times for pages, smoother animations and higher framerates in games. It also reduces the CPU usage on mobile devices and saves energy.
However, this may be a disadvantage too. If your computer is struggling with processing the hardware acceleration (often referred to as lag) you may want to disable it. To do so, open Chrome and type chrome://flags in your address bar. Then you must move the Override software rendering slider entirely towards None. You may be prompted to restart your browser. Daisy is a Senior Editor at EaseUS and has been writing for more than 10 years.