How to turn off hardware acceleration on Discord in 4 easy steps (with pictures)

Our step-by-step guide

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Wondering how to disable hardware acceleration on Discord? We’ve got you covered. If your CPU usage is high while using Discord, turning off hardware acceleration could be the handy quick fix you need. Completing this task involves four simple steps, which can be done in the Discord desktop app on Windows or Mac.

When hardware acceleration is used it means that Discord is offloading tasks to the hardware in your PC or laptop, which means it will increase the performance and speed of said task. However, this can cause your processor to be overworked, meaning you might want to find ways to reduce Discord CPU usage.

Turning off hardware acceleration is a common solution to this, and making sure your PC or laptop is running optimally for other uses too. Here’s our easy-to-follow guide that will take you through the process, and get you back to chatting with friends in no time.

Quick Answer

To turn off hardware acceleration in Discord on your PC or Laptop, go to the App > Settings > App Settings > Advanced > Hardware Acceleration > press ‘okay’

How to turn off hardware acceleration on Discord

Follow the steps below to turn off hardware acceleration in Discord on your PC or laptop.

Step

1

Open Discord and go to settings

Open Discord in the app. Then find and select the settings icon in the bottom left corner.

Step

2

Select ‘Advanced’ option

Scroll down the settings menu until you see the App settings section. Find and select the ‘Advanced’ option.

Step

3

Select the ‘Hardware Acceleration’ toggle

Locate and select the ‘Hardware Acceleration’ toggle.

Step

4

Select ‘Okay’

A pop up message stating ‘Change Hardware Acceleration’ will appear, from there you can select ‘Okay’. Discord will then restart and take you back to the home page.

How do you turn on hardware acceleration?

Turning Hardware acceleration on in Discord is a simple process that involves following the same steps listed above and ensuring that the hardware acceleration toggle is switched to on. When hardware acceleration is on the toggle should turn green and show a green tick.

Should you turn off hardware acceleration in Discord?

Having hardware acceleration turned on in Discord can make the app smoother and enhance your performance. However, if you’re noticing freezing and high CPU usage then you can disable this option. The app will then restart and you should see an improvement. Having hardware acceleration turned off in Discord saves you from the risk of high CPU usage but means you may not have optimal performance consistently.

Wrapping up

Turning off hardware acceleration in Discord can be a great tool if you are experiencing freezing while using the app. Switching the hardware acceleration toggle is a great way to troubleshoot issues that you’re having. By following the simple steps outlined above, you’ll be able to turn off hardware acceleration, in no time.

Eve is a writer and copy editor at PC Guide, who focuses on a broad range of topics but main interest lies in the development of AI technology.