Alpha version of Opera 12 with full hardware acceleration and WebGL support released and available for download from Opera website. We decided not to review it now, but we did covered about Opera 11.50 build with webGL and Hardware Acceleration in the past. Things pretty clear from Opera, this release uses GPU to full extent when possible to render user interface, full web page and webGL.
Check Your Graphic Card Supports Opera 12 or not
Opera confirms this Opera release currently supports OpenGL and DirectX 9/10 support on Windows is still work in progress. Like other browsers Opera blocklisting graphic cards and drivers that cause Systems to crash. These blocklists located in Program Files\Opera Next\Extra directory.
As we said Opera automatically blocks if old graphic card is detected by checking against their blocklist then Opera falls back to Vega Backend software to render pages. You can check GPU status for Opera by visiting Opera:GPU in your browser. If Vega Backend software is shown, your graphic card is blocked and its confirmed.
Disabling Opera 12 hardware acceleration and WebGL
If you’re using Computer with old graphic card you may experience BSOD, Opera recommends you to update your drivers. Opera 12 alpha is still a test version, still buggy here is how to disable WebGL and hardware acceleration in Opera browser if you experience problems.
To disable Hardware Acceleration,visit “opera:config#UserPrefs|EnableHardwareAcceleration” setting (without quotes) in Opera and set its value to 0. (You can force opera 12 to support HA irrespective of blocked card by setting the value for mentioned setting to 2).
To disable WebGL, visit “opera:config#UserPrefs|EnableWebGL” setting (without quotes) and set its value to 0. (You can force Opera to support WebGL by setting by above mentioned setting value to 2 as well.
You need to restart the Opera browser for changes to take affect.
P.S . We’ve disabled HA and WebGL for Opera 12 as we’re using System with old graphic card.