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[BUG] Claude Desktop (Windows/MSIX): cursor stutter and GPU compositing load on new chat + chat switching — no way to disable hardware acceleration #77857

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[BUG] Claude Desktop (Windows/MSIX): cursor stutter and GPU compositing load on new chat + chat switching — no way to disable hardware acceleration#77857
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invalidIssue doesn't seem to be related to Claude Code

Description

@nullscanner
nullscanner
opened on Jul 15, 2026

Preflight Checklist

  • I have searched existing issues and this hasn't been reported yet
  • This is a single bug report (please file separate reports for different bugs)
  • I am using the latest version of Claude Code

What's Wrong?

[BUG] Claude Desktop (Windows, MSIX): cursor stutter/teleporting and GPU load from Electron compositing — no way to disable hardware acceleration

What's Wrong?

Claude Desktop causes system-wide mouse cursor stuttering/teleporting and sustained GPU load whenever the app window is visible. The cursor skips/jumps intermittently and CPU/GPU fans audibly ramp. The machine is otherwise idle and performs normally when Claude is closed.

The effect is most pronounced when starting a new chat and when switching between existing chats — i.e. on full conversation-view re-renders — which points at the renderer's repaint path rather than at steady-state compositing alone.

Launching the executable directly with --disable-gpu-compositing completely resolves the issue, confirming the cause is Electron's GPU compositing layer interacting with Windows DWM — not the workload, and not local computation (no local model is running; all inference is server-side).

The core problem: there is no supported way to apply this flag. The app is MSIX-packaged, the taskbar/Start entries expose no Properties dialog (no .lnk Target to edit), and there is no hardware acceleration toggle in app settings. The only working workaround is invoking the packaged .exe directly, which loses package identity and breaks the app's disk cache.

Notable: this package was installed via the direct download from anthropic.com, not the Microsoft Store, and is still MSIX. Several existing reports assume MSIX = Store install; it does not. Users who avoid the Store to retain flag control do not actually get it.

Environment

   
Claude Desktop version 1.21459.0.0
PackageFullName Claude_1.21459.0.0_x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc
PackageFamilyName Claude_pzs8sxrjxfjjc
InstallLocation C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Claude_1.21459.0.0_x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc
Install source Direct download from anthropic.com (NOT Microsoft Store)
SignatureKind Developer
OS Windows 11 Pro — build
CPU AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D2 Dual Edition (16C/32T, Zen 5) — includes integrated Radeon Graphics (2 CU @ 2200 MHz)
Discrete GPU NVIDIA RTX 5090
NVIDIA driver
RAM 128 GB DDR5
Motherboard <CONFIRM: ASUS ProArt X870E-CREATOR WiFi?>
Display 1 <FILL IN: model, resolution, refresh rate> — HDMI, connected to RTX 5090
Display 2 <FILL IN: model, resolution, refresh rate> — DisplayPort, connected to RTX 5090
DPI scaling <FILL IN: e.g. 100% / 125% / 150%>
Windows HDR <FILL IN: on/off>

Both displays are connected to the discrete GPU. The iGPU is enabled in BIOS but drives no display.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Install Claude Desktop via the direct download from anthropic.com on Windows 11.
  2. Launch normally (taskbar pin / Start menu).
  3. Move the mouse over the Claude Desktop window. Observe: cursor stutters and briefly teleports; fans ramp; GPU load rises.
  4. Move focus to any other application — the stutter stops.

Strongest trigger — start a new chat, and switch between existing chats. This is where the stutter is most pronounced and most reliably reproducible. Both actions tear down and re-render the full conversation view, and the cursor stutter tracks those transitions directly.

  1. Click "New chat" from within the app. Observe pronounced cursor stutter/teleporting during and immediately after the transition.
  2. Switch between several existing conversations in the sidebar. Observe the same, repeatably.
  3. Let the app sit idle on a single conversation — stutter reduces but does not fully stop while the window is visible.

Steps 5–6 are the reliable repro; step 3 is the ambient background symptom.

Expected Behavior

A text-based chat application should not induce system-wide input stutter or sustained GPU load. Hardware acceleration should be user-disableable, as it is in Chrome, VS Code, Discord, Slack, and effectively every other Electron/Chromium app.

Actual Behavior

Continuous repaint/compositing load whenever the window is visible, causing DWM contention and system-wide cursor stutter.

Diagnostic Data Needed Before Filing

Please fill these in — they're what will make this actionable rather than another "me too":

1. Task Manager → Performance, while wiggling the mouse over the Claude window:

  • RTX 5090 utilization (idle vs. mouse-over): <FILL IN>
  • Radeon iGPU utilization: <FILL IN — expected ~0%, which is the point>
  • DWM GPU utilization: <FILL IN>
  • Claude.exe GPU utilization: <FILL IN>

2. Task Manager → Details: number of Claude.exe processes and total memory: <FILL IN>

3. Optional but valuable — nvidia-smi pmon -c 10 with Claude open and idle, to show non-zero SM usage with no user interaction.

What Was Ruled Out

This is the section that makes the report land — it eliminates the usual triage suggestions:

  • Cross-GPU frame transfer — RULED OUT. Windows Settings → System → Display → Graphics → Claude (Microsoft Store app) → High performance had zero effect. Rendering is not being offloaded to the iGPU; this is not the multi-GPU copy problem described in [BUG] Claude Desktop App — Screen Flickering & Mouse Lag on Windows #56805. Both displays are already on the discrete GPU.
  • Hardware/build issue — RULED OUT. New machine, no stutter with any other application, including GPU-heavy ones. Symptom appears and disappears strictly with Claude Desktop window visibility.
  • Local model computation — N/A. No local inference running.
  • Mouse/USB — RULED OUT. Symptom is bound to Claude window visibility, not to any input device state.

Workaround (and why it isn't acceptable)

Only working invocation:

& "C:\Program Files\WindowsApps\Claude_1.21459.0.0_x64__pzs8sxrjxfjjc\app\Claude.exe" --disable-gpu-compositing

This fixes the stutter completely, with no perceptible downside to app responsiveness on this CPU.

But it breaks the app. Because the process is launched from the package directory without package identity:

[ERROR:net\disk_cache\cache_util_win.cc:25] Unable to move the cache: Access is denied. (0x5)
[ERROR:net\disk_cache\disk_cache.cc:284] Unable to create cache

Also observed on launch:

Error occurred in handler for '$eipc_message$_..._$_claude.buddy_$_BuddyBleTransport_$_reportState':
Error: No handler registered for '$eipc_message$_..._$_claude.buddy_$_BuddyBleTransport_$_reportState'
    at Session.<anonymous> (node:electron/js2c/browser_init:2:114253)
    at Session.emit (node:events:509:28)

Additional problems with this workaround:

Requested Fix

  1. Add a "Disable hardware acceleration" / "Disable GPU compositing" toggle in Settings. This is the single most-requested item across every related issue below, and it costs one app.disableHardwareAcceleration() call gated on a setting.
  2. Investigate the conversation-view render path. The worst stutter correlates with new-chat creation and chat switching — full view re-renders — which suggests the mount/unmount path is doing far more compositing work than a text view should. Claude Desktop App causes mouse cursor stutter/teleporting when window is visible #45127 additionally reports non-zero nvidia-smi SM usage on a fully idle window, suggesting an unconditional animation/render loop underneath.
  3. Support a supported flag mechanism for MSIX builds, or ship a non-MSIX installer option for the direct download.

Related Issues

This has persisted across many releases — the reports above span versions 1.1.3189 through 1.12603.1, and this report is 1.21459.0.0. The requested toggle has been asked for repeatedly and not shipped.

What Should Happen?

Expected Behavior

A text-based chat application should not induce system-wide input stutter or sustained GPU load. Hardware acceleration should be user-disableable, as it is in Chrome, VS Code, Discord, Slack, and effectively every other Electron/Chromium app.

Error Messages/Logs



Steps to Reproduce


Install Claude Desktop via the direct download from anthropic.com on Windows 11.

Launch normally (taskbar pin / Start menu).

Move the mouse over the Claude Desktop window. Observe: cursor stutters and briefly teleports; fans ramp; GPU load rises.

Move focus to any other application — the stutter stops.


Claude Model


None


Is this a regression?


I don't know


Last Working Version


No response


Claude Code Version


1.21459.0.0


Platform


Anthropic API


Operating System


Windows


Terminal/Shell


PowerShell


Additional Information


No response
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