#### 15.4.8.2 Hardware vs Software Rendering ¶

When using the Windows installer for Octave, the user has the option to select between "System OpenGL" and "Software OpenGL" renderers. The choice between hardware or software rendering affects the OpenGL graphics toolkits (`"qt"` and `"fltk"`) only. Software rendering can be used to avoid rendering and printing issues due to imperfect OpenGL driver implementations for diverse graphic cards from different vendors (notably integrated Intel graphics). The downside is that software rendering may be considerably slower than hardware-accelerated rendering (and it might not work correctly on 32-bit platforms or WoW64). To permanently switch between hardware-accelerated rendering with your graphics card drivers and software rendering, use the "OpenGL Switcher" application from the Start menu while Octave is closed. Alternatively, rename the following file while Octave is closed:

`octave-home\bin\opengl32.dll`
where octave-home is the directory returned by `OCTAVE_HOME`, i.e., the directory in which Octave is installed (the default is `C:\Program Files\GNU Octave\Octave\Octave-version\mingw64`). Change the file extension to `.bak` for hardware rendering or to `.dll` for software rendering.