Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling: should you turn it on?

What it does

For every frame, the processor hands the graphics card a queue of work. Windows used to manage that queue on the processor. With hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling, a scheduler on the graphics card manages it instead, which takes a little work off the processor and can make frames arrive a little more evenly.

It arrived in Windows 10 version 2004, in 2020, and needs a graphics card and driver that support it. Most cards from the last several years do. It is often already on — but a Windows upgrade, a driver reinstall or a tweaking tool can leave it off without anyone noticing.

Does it make games faster?

Usually only a little. In most games the frame rate moves by a few percent at most, in either direction. The case where it matters a great deal is frame generation: NVIDIA’s DLSS Frame Generation, on RTX 40 and 50 series cards, requires it. With the setting off, the option is unavailable in games, and the card’s largest frame rate feature goes unused.

If a particular game or program behaves worse with it on — more stutter, or trouble with capture software — turn it off to compare. It is just as easy to change back.

Turn it on in Windows 11

1. Open Settings → System → Display → Graphics.
2. Select Advanced graphics settings, called Change default graphics settings on some versions of Windows 11.
3. Turn on Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.
4. Restart the PC. The change takes effect only after a restart.

Turn it on in Windows 10

Open Settings → System → Display, select Graphics settings near the bottom, turn on Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling, and restart the PC.

If the switch is missing

• Install the current graphics driver from NVIDIA, AMD or Intel. The switch appears only when the driver supports it.
• Older graphics cards, and some integrated graphics, do not support it at all.
• For administrators: Windows keeps the setting as HwSchMode under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers, where 2 is on and 1 is off. Use the Settings switch wherever you can; a value the driver does not support does nothing.

Two neighbours on the same page

Windows 11 keeps two related settings beside it, both worth turning on for games:

• Optimizations for windowed games lowers latency for DirectX 10 and 11 games running in a window or borderless window, and lets them use Auto HDR and variable refresh rate.
• Variable refresh rate lets a G-SYNC or FreeSync monitor vary its refresh rate in games that do not support it themselves.

How Bottleneck checks this

On PCs with a separate graphics card, Bottleneck reads the setting and flags it when it is off — as a serious finding on cards with frame generation, where it costs the most. It also checks the other settings that quietly hold a graphics card back: a monitor below its best refresh rate, a monitor plugged into the motherboard, Resizable BAR switched off, and a graphics driver several months old.

With Pro, the fix is one click. Bottleneck turns the setting on, using the same switch as Settings, records the change so it can be undone, and tells you to restart.