Why is the New Google Maps Unbearably Slow on My Computer?

The new version of Google Maps is great, but what do you do when it works smoothly for everyone else yet it is unbearably slow on your own computers? Today’s SuperUser Q&A post has an easy solution to help speed things up for a frustrated reader.

Today’s Question & Answer session comes to us courtesy of SuperUser—a subdivision of Stack Exchange, a community-driven grouping of Q&A web sites.

The Question

SuperUser reader Wayne wants to know why the new Google Maps is unbearably slow on his home and work computers:

The new version of Google Maps is unbearably slow for me, both at home and at work.

• Both machines have Windows 7 64-bit installed on them.
• My work colleagues have similar specs and never notice any issues.
• The sluggishness is in both Chrome and Firefox.
• Clearing the cache has no effect.
• Running the new version in Incognito Mode has no effect.
• Disabling my extensions has zero effect (I do not have plugins installed on Firefox since I mostly use Chrome).
• It actually works “kind of OK” in Internet Explorer 11.
• If I switch back to the classic version of Google Maps, then everything is fine.

This has been as ongoing issue for months now. Is there anything that might be causing this?

Is there an easy solution to improve the speed of the new Google Maps on Wayne’s computers?

The Answer

SuperUser contributor weinerk has the answer for us:

It may be related to hardware acceleration issues. For Google Chrome (version 36), try this (no guarantees about older/newer versions):

1. Open Google Chrome and click on the Control Button -> Settings. Alternatively, you can directly access Settings by typing chrome://settings/ in Google Chrome’s address bar.
2. This will open the Settings Page. Scroll down until you see the Show Advanced Settings link and click on it.
3. Scroll down to the bottom and you will see the Use Hardware Acceleration When Available option in the System Section. Deselect the option and restart Google Chrome.

Source: AskVG.

Note from Akemi: You can disable Hardware Acceleration in Firefox via the section shown in the Options Window below.

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