Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling, often shortened to HAGS, is a Windows graphics setting that most people never touch. You don’t need it for most games, but one popular feature, NVIDIA’s DLSS Frame Generation, won’t work without it. Here’s what it does and how to switch it on.

This is one step in our process for tuning a gaming PC.

What it does

Your CPU and graphics card constantly hand work back and forth. Normally Windows schedules that GPU work using a high-priority thread on the CPU. Microsoft says this approach has limits in both overhead and the time it takes work to reach the GPU.

With HAGS turned on, most of that scheduling moves to a dedicated scheduling processor on the graphics card. Windows still decides which apps get priority, but the GPU handles the frequent, low-level scheduling itself.

Will it make games faster?

Probably not by much on its own. When Microsoft introduced the feature, it said it didn’t expect people to see performance regressions, and that the change should be transparent, without significant changes for most users. Don’t expect a big FPS jump.

The real reason gamers turn it on is frame generation. NVIDIA’s developer guide for DLSS Frame Generation lists hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling as a requirement. If it’s off, the frame generation option is unavailable in games. Frame generation itself also needs a GeForce RTX 40 or 50 Series card; see DLSS vs FSR vs XeSS for the details.

What you need

  • Windows 10 version 2004 (May 2020 Update) or newer, including Windows 11.
  • A graphics card that supports it.
  • A driver that exposes it to Windows (WDDM 2.7 or newer). Update your graphics driver first.

The setting only appears in Windows when both the card and its driver support it.

How to turn it on

  1. Open Start > Settings > System > Display.
  2. Scroll down and select Graphics.
  3. Find Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling.
    • On newer versions of Windows 11, it’s under Advanced graphics settings on the Graphics page.
    • On older versions, select Change default graphics settings to find it.
  4. Turn it On.
  5. Restart your PC. The change doesn’t take effect until you do.

To turn it off again, follow the same steps, switch it off and restart.

The option isn’t there

  • Update your graphics driver. An older driver may not expose the feature.
  • Check which GPU Windows is using. On a laptop with integrated and dedicated graphics, see how to make a game use your graphics card.
  • Older graphics cards may not support it at all. In that case there’s nothing to turn on, and nothing to worry about unless you need frame generation.

If something goes wrong

If a game starts stuttering, crashing or behaving oddly after you turn HAGS on, switch it off, restart and test again. That tells you quickly whether the setting is involved. Our guides to fixing stuttering and crashes on startup cover the other usual causes.

Windows Settings for Gamers Try the Frame Time Calculator