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Chrome Dev Channel Tests GPU Accelerated Features

And you thought Chrome was fast before!

By Wesley Fenlon  |  Aug. 31, 2010

Chrome’s beta channel is a great way to stay on the cutting-edge of Google’s browser technology, but here’s one feature that’s still a ways off: GPU-accelerated graphics. Like the new browsers coming from Microsoft and Mozilla, a future version of Chrome will be able to offload work to the GPU, lightening the load for the primary processor. Ideally, hardware acceleration will speed up Google’s already speedy browser.

Chrome 6 is currently available in the beta channel, while Chrome 7--with GPU support--can only be downloaded through the dev channel. Google hasn’t announced a release date for either version of the browser, but we can tell you how to try out hardware right now. Are you a bad enough dude to run a developer build of Chrome?

By running Google from the command line and following the executable with the flag “--enable-accelerated-compositing” GPU-acceleartion is yours! There are actually tons of flags available for Chrome, if you’re into this sort of thing. Sadly, this only works in the Windows version of Chrome 7, but you Mac users have something else to play around with.

The Mac version has Tabpose, which is basically like Firefox’s new Panorama...without all the features. Actually, it doesn’t even have thumbnails. But hey, it’s an early build. Eventually it will be a nice way to look at a group of tabs, all arranged in small windows. On either the Mac or Windows version of Chrome 7, type about:labs in the address bar to see the launching page for all the special features the browser could eventually incorporate.
 
Image credit: Arstechnica, Google
10 Comments
Fripplebubbyon Aug. 31, 2010 at 7:43 a.m.
I have Dev build 7.???, but what's this nonsense about flags? How do I make this work?
WesleyFenlon staff on Aug. 31, 2010 at 8:19 a.m.
@Fripplebubby said:

" I have Dev build 7.???, but what's this nonsense about flags? How do I make this work? "

Open up your command line in Windows (in Win7 or Vista, it should be as simple as typing cmd in the start menu search bar), then navigate to wherever Chrome is installed, and type in "chrome.exe  --enable-accelerated-compositing "
Meteoraon Aug. 31, 2010 at 9:18 a.m.
So would this mean having a faster GPU would speed my internet up indefinitely; or is there some kinda cap limit on how much more performance gains I would get? Because this would seem to benefit A LOT of gamers and video editors.
michaelhon Aug. 31, 2010 at 9:26 a.m.
Aside from netbook users, does anybody really need GPU acceleration for web browsing? Personally, I'd rather keep my GPU running quietly until I need it for gaming  - not having it ramp up to perform tasks the CPU can easily do.
Meteoraon Aug. 31, 2010 at 12:24 p.m.
@michaelh: Well, it depends. I'm pretty open to letting the GPU run through for acceleration, its not like its going to be a heavy burden on your computer unless you're streaming 1080p content; and even then I have a hard time imagining that the GPU would be strained as much than a game. At least with browsers most of the time its just short bursts of workload and doesn't need to constantly ramp up for performance.
 
Or so that's what I think.
michaelhon Aug. 31, 2010 at 3:03 p.m.
@Meteora:   Video acceleration seems like a practical application, but if we're talking about accelerating page decoding and display, it seems like overkill.  It's not going to stress the GPU in terms of heat or anything but my GPU fan seems to be idle or full with little gradation when it comes to any CUDA-enabled applications.  My i7 920's peak consumption is around 130W.  With Win7 Aero enabled, the GPU's already using around 200W at idle. Gaming peaks it out around 300W, so you figure even moderate use for web acceleration's gonna consume - what - 225-250? Seems the less efficient of the two processing methods, but I suppose having the option is never a bad thing.
Scrawntoon Aug. 31, 2010 at 4:19 p.m.
@Fripplebubby: You can also add the flags by right-clicking on the shortcut, going to properties, and adding them to the end of the target line.
Meteoraon Aug. 31, 2010 at 6:15 p.m.
@michaelh said:
" @Meteora:   Video acceleration seems like a practical application, but if we're talking about accelerating page decoding and display, it seems like overkill.  It's not going to stress the GPU in terms of heat or anything but my GPU fan seems to be idle or full with little gradation when it comes to any CUDA-enabled applications.  My i7 920's peak consumption is around 130W.  With Win7 Aero enabled, the GPU's already using around 200W at idle. Gaming peaks it out around 300W, so you figure even moderate use for web acceleration's gonna consume - what - 225-250? Seems the less efficient of the two processing methods, but I suppose having the option is never a bad thing. "
Hey, if it makes browsing faster, then you'll spend less time on the internet reading all the updates, maybe that means it'll save you more energy in the long run. =P 
 
I don't know. I'm fairly interested and I don't particularly care about power consumption too much, its only 50-100 watts increase. A light bulb uses just as much energy. >_>
Spicy_Jasonatoron Aug. 31, 2010 at 7:34 p.m.
@michaelh: People who still have a pentium 4 in their desktop could use a little gpu help.
michaelhon Aug. 31, 2010 at 8:35 p.m.
They probably could but internet browsing navigation speed is a result of your internet connection speed, your gateway speed and your PC connection - everything else is negligible.  If you're really into the idea of a page displaying more quickly change your cache file to a RAMdrive, or drop more RAM in your system.  
All I'm saying is that if the acceleration is of stuff like AJAX, Java or flash it'll help with all the gimmicky stuff out there.  For a GPU to be used for interpreting the minute amount of code needed to display a forum with text and some avatar pictures - it's pointless, even for a P4 machine. It's all about the bandwidth.
 
Now I just feel like I'm being a stick-in-the-mud curmudgeon, made worse by the fact that I used the word and spelled it right.  I'm all for progress, really. I enabled GPU acceleration for VLC even thought 1080p's nothing for a Core i7.
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