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Using the GPU

Some types of content in Remotion can benefit from a GPU being available on the machine that is used for rendering. That is:

  • WebGL content (Three.JS, P5.js, Mapbox etc.)
  • 2D Canvas graphics
  • GPU-accelerated CSS properties such as filter: blur()

If a GPU is available, it should be enabled by default while rendering the preview. However, in headless mode, Chromium disables the GPU, leading to a significant slowdown in rendering time.

Using --gl=angle​

Since Chrome 98, the GPU can be used in headless mode. Adding --gl=angle (or {chromiumOptions: {gl: "angle"}} for the Node.JS APIs), we find that a video rendered on a <canvas> on macOS is many times faster.

However, there seems to be memory leakage from Chrome that may kill a long render, therefore we don't set angle as default. We recommend to render long videos that use the GPU in multiple parts.

Considerations​

For rendering content that can benefit from a GPU, you might want to choose a cloud rendering solution to which a GPU can be attached to over AWS Lambda (which does not have a GPU). Most bigger cloud providers have some GPU-enabled VPS offerings. Apple M1 VPS instances might also be able to accelerate graphics rendering and be more economical than VPS instances with desktop graphic cards.

Software emulation​

You can still render all types of content without having a GPU, it will just be slower. The graphics content will be software-emulated using ANGLE or SwiftShader (when using Lambda).

What are your experiences?​

We'd love to learn and document more findings about the GPU. Let us know and we will amend this document!