Restore smooth scrolling and page rendering in Chrome, Edge and Firefox after a Windows 11 update by re-enabling hardware acceleration and clearing GPU caches.
A Windows update often resets **browser hardware acceleration** or breaks the **GPU process** fallback. Re-enabling GPU rendering and clearing the browser's GPU shader cache restores scroll smoothness in most cases.
Open a scroll-heavy page (a long Wikipedia article or a Reddit infinite scroll). Scroll continuously for 10 seconds and note whether it feels smooth or stepped. Then open the browser's internal GPU page in a new tab.
chrome://gpu
edge://gpu
about:supportOn the GPU page, look for **Canvas: Hardware accelerated** and **Compositing: Hardware accelerated**. If any key feature shows **Software only, hardware acceleration unavailable**, Windows reset the browser's GPU process after the update.
In Chrome: **Settings → System → Use graphics acceleration when available** → **On**. In Edge: **Settings → System and performance → Use hardware acceleration when available** → **On**. In Firefox: **Settings → General → Performance → Use recommended performance settings** → **On**. Restart the browser.
A stale shader cache from before the update can slow page compositing. Close the browser, then delete the GPUCache folder for your profile.
rmdir /s /q "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\GPUCache"
rmdir /s /q "%LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\Edge\User Data\Default\GPUCache"Open **Device Manager → Display adapters → your GPU → Properties → Driver**. Compare the driver version to the one on the vendor's site (NVIDIA, AMD, Intel). A feature update sometimes replaces a vendor driver with a generic Microsoft one - reinstall from the vendor if so.
Ad blockers, DRM helpers and theme extensions can slow rendering after an engine update. Open **Settings → Extensions**, disable them all, retest the scroll, then re-enable them one at a time until the slow one is found.
Reopen the same long page used in step 1. Scroll for 10 seconds. If scrolling is smooth and the GPU page now shows Hardware accelerated for Canvas and Compositing, the fix held.
Launch the browser once with the --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds flag removed and relaunch normally; also confirm the GPU driver date is current.
Create a fresh user profile from the browser's profile menu. The old profile may have corrupted preferences that reference the deleted cache.
Each browser maintains its own GPU cache and settings. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for the browser that is still slow.
Slightly on light pages, but it saves battery on video playback by offloading decode to the GPU. Keep it on.
On integrated graphics older than Intel UHD 620 and AMD Vega, software rendering can be smoother. Try both and keep whichever feels better.
Pages heavy in CSS backdrop-filter, large animated SVGs or video ads stress the compositor more than text-only pages.
Toggle hardware acceleration back off in each browser's settings (Chrome Settings → System, Edge Settings → System and performance, Firefox Settings → General → Performance). The GPUCache folder rebuilds itself on next launch. Re-enable any extensions you disabled from Settings → Extensions.
Free · no account needed · tracks your progress