How to enable hardware acceleration for web browser

Solution 1:

After trying it multiple times I found out that the guide How To Enable Hardware Acceleration In Chromium On Ubuntu Or Linux Mint (VA-API Patched PPA Builds actually works. Pay close attention to Step n.7 and it should work fine.

To check if it works for you:

1. Go on Youtube and start a video.
2. Go inside chrome://media-internals and look for the tab that has (kPlay) under it. It represents the video that is currently playing. Click on it.
3. Look for kVideoDecoderName. If it is "FFmpegVideoDecoder", the Hardware Acceleration is not working. If it is MojoVideoDecoder, you're using Hardware Acceleration.

Another way to check if it works is to open Chrome and Chromium on the same Youtube video. Play them one at a time and check your CPU usage. If you did everything right Chromium should have a considerably lower CPU usage. (Just so you can get the idea, for me Chromium with Hardware Acceleration was using around 18%-20% of CPU, while Chrome without Hardware Acceleration was using around 40%-45%, sometimes with peaks of 60%).

Just as a precaution I suggest to also follow this guide How to Turn Hardware Acceleration On and Off in Chrome. I know it is for Chrome, but it should work the same on Chromium.