Sublime Forum

Should we enable GPU rendering on Windows 10?

#1

Hi all – So I just got the Sublime Text 4 update, and I noticed that the Release Notes said GPU Rendering was enabled by default for macOS. Is there any particular reason it’s not enabled by default on Windows 10? Do you expect any problems or bugginess there?

I’m on the latest public build of Windows 10 Pro 21H1, 64-bit. On one system I have Intel integrated graphics, an HD 530 from Skylake, and on the other I have two GPUs: an Intel 620 from Coffee Lake, and some low powered Nvidia MX250 or MX350. Intel supports OpenGL 4.5 or 4.6 on the latest drivers for those iGPUs, and I have the latest drivers. I’m not sure about Nvidia, but their OpenGL support is surely well past 4.1, even if they don’t like it as much as AMD does.

By the way, which GPU will ST4 use when you have two? I didn’t see a setting for choosing a specific GPU, the way Chrome flags lets you.

Thanks.

0 Likes
#2

Historically, all versions of Sublime would composite updates in software and then ship that off to the screen. Only MacOS supported GPU acceleration at the time because it’s ability to shuffle vast quantities of pixel data to the screen using software was suboptimal (possibly due the higher resolution imposed by retina?).

Now GPU acceleration is available everywhere but only enabled for MacOS. Part of the reason for that is likely the above. The other part is that graphics drivers (particularly for Intel integrated adapters if I’m recalling correctly but I may not be) can be a little buggy and cause issues, so it’s off by default to allow people to enable it on their own.

So in all, I would say enable it and see; worst case scenario you turn it off if something doesn’t display correctly, but the only way to know is to try.

Regarding the last bit, which adapter is uses on Windows depends on Windows itself; there’s usually an option (for example in the NVidia Control Panel) that controls which GPU is used for different applications. The very top of the Sublime console (View > Show Console) will tell you what adapter was used.

0 Likes
#3

I don’t see any real benefits from using OpenGL on Windows. CPU and GPU loads are 50% higher via opengl compared to software rendering. Maybe it’s needed with 8K screens, but not up to 4K.

The only reason I enabled it is NVidia and or Microsoft having broken their drivers and/or graphics API, which causes heavy tearing while scrolling. Maybe it’s a vsync issue or so, don’t know. Many applications now suffer this issue.

0 Likes
#4

You enabled GPU acceleration because Nvidia or Microsoft have broken drivers? Am I reading that right? Drivers for what? I thought people disabled GPU acceleration for applications (typically browsers) when they had GPU driver issues. Are you talking about OpenGL GPU drivers or some other driver?

0 Likes
#5

It’s not about OpenGL driver issues. It’s a vsync issue, maybe - not sure though. Most modern applications suffer the issue of very wonky scrolling experience. Just consider an application to render itself in squares of 300x300px each of them moving independendly, when scrolling. Some pieces of text are stretched or shrinked while scrolling. Terrible.

0 Likes