After Effects GPU Acceleration Not Available / Display Acceleration Disabled

How to fix it

Try these in order — the most common fix is first.

1. 1. Re-enable the GPU renderer

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   1. File > Project Settings > Video Rendering and Effects
   2. Pick Mercury GPU Acceleration (CUDA/Metal/OpenCL)
   3. If already set, toggle Software Only then back to GPU
   Did this fix it? Yes No

2. 2. Update or reinstall the driver

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   1. Install the latest Studio/Adobe-recommended driver
   2. Restart and reopen the project
   Did this fix it? Yes No

3. 3. Check support

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   1. Check your GPU against Adobe's system requirements
   2. If unsupported, stay on Mercury Software Only or use an older AE version
   Did this fix it? Yes No

Symptoms

'Display Acceleration Disabled' warning, GPU option greyed out, or the project renders on CPU only.

Why it happens

• Project Settings set to Mercury Software Only
• Outdated or unsupported GPU driver
• GPU not supported by that AE version
• Auto-update left Adobe apps mismatched

This guide also covers

• after effects gpu acceleration not available
• display acceleration disabled after effects
• after effects not using gpu

Other Adobe After Effects errors

• After Effects Preview Not Playing or RAM Preview Slow
• After Effects Render Failed in Media Encoder (Error Compiling Movie)
• After Effects Error: Crash / Can't Continue (GPU or Graphics Driver Issue)
• After Effects Missing Fonts or Missing Effects/Plugins
• After Effects Out of Memory / Unable to Allocate Memory Error
• After Effects Audio Out of Sync After Render
• After Effects Expression Error (Expression Disabled / Object of Type Found)
• After Effects Disk Cache Full or Won't Clear