Power Preference

Power Preference

Power Preference and Fallback Adapters

On a dual-GPU laptop, powerPreference: 'low-power' asks for the integrated GPU and 'high-performance' for the discrete one, but only as a hint. A fallback adapter is a software or limited implementation, offered only when you pass forceFallbackAdapter: true and marked by info.isFallbackAdapter.

Asking for a low-power adapter and a forced fallback adapterHTMLLive

<script type="module">
  const { info } = await navigator.gpu.requestAdapter({ powerPreference: 'low-power' });
  console.log(`low-power: ${info.vendor}, ${info.architecture}`);
  const fallback = await navigator.gpu.requestAdapter({ forceFallbackAdapter: true });
  console.log(`forceFallbackAdapter: ${fallback}`);
</script>

The powerPreference option is currently ignored when calling requestAdapter() on Windows.
  See https://crbug.com/369219127
low-power: nvidia, turing
No available adapters.
forceFallbackAdapter: null

Chrome 1 's own warning (wrapped here) explains the first result: on Windows, Chrome 154 ignores the hint ('high-performance' draws the same warning and the same GPU). The fallback request returns null because Dawn 1,149 blocklists this machine's CPU adapters (Backend Translation). Treat a fallback or null adapter as a cue to lower quality or switch to WebGL 2.

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