If you’re using Google Antigravity on macOS and wondering why it feels sluggish despite having an M3 or M4 chip, you’re not alone. The IDE defaults to CPU rendering on some Macs, essentially forcing your GPU to sit idle while the processor does all the heavy lifting. One terminal command fixes this.
The Quick Fix: Force GPU Rendering
Open Terminal and paste this:
open -a "Antigravity" --args --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --ignore-gpu-blacklist --enable-gpu-rasterizationThis forces Antigravity to use GPU rasterization instead of software rendering. The IDE should launch noticeably faster—scrolling becomes smooth, syntax highlighting stops lagging, and agent responses feel more responsive.
What These Flags Actually Do
- –ignore-gpu-blacklist: Antigravity treats certain Mac GPU drivers as “unsupported” and falls back to CPU rendering. This flag overrides that blacklist.
- –disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds: Removes performance throttling applied to “problematic” drivers (which often includes perfectly stable M-series chips).
- –enable-gpu-rasterization: Explicitly turns on GPU-accelerated rendering for all UI elements.
Apple Silicon Optimization: The Zero-Copy Tweak
If you’re on M1/M2/M3/M4, add zero-copy to reduce memory overhead:
open -a "Antigravity" --args --enable-gpu-rasterization --enable-zero-copyZero-copy lets the GPU access system memory directly without duplicating data between CPU and GPU. On Apple Silicon’s unified memory architecture, this eliminates redundant copying and reduces RAM pressure. One user on M4 Max noted: “The zero-copy flag helped, but the ignore-gpu-blacklist was necessary because the current build treats the M4 driver as ‘unsupported’ and falls back to software rendering.”
The Maximum Performance Command
Combine both approaches for best results:
open -a "Antigravity" --args --enable-gpu-rasterization --enable-zero-copy --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --ignore-gpu-blacklistThis works across M1, M2, M3, and M4 chips. Intel Macs should skip --enable-zero-copy (it only benefits unified memory architectures).
The RAM Clog Issue: Accept Changes Regularly
Beyond GPU rendering, Antigravity has a memory leak when suggested changes pile up without acceptance. The Editor View shows pending changes from AI agents—if you let dozens accumulate without clicking “Accept” or “Reject,” RAM usage balloons.
One developer noted: “For some reason this clogged up the RAM/Memory too. Make sure to ‘accept changes’ in the editor view before they stack up too much.” The IDE doesn’t garbage collect pending diffs efficiently, so unresolved suggestions sit in memory indefinitely.
How to Avoid Memory Issues
- Accept or reject agent suggestions within 5-10 iterations (don’t let them accumulate past 20)
- Use the “Accept All” button if you’re confident in batch changes
- Restart Antigravity if RAM usage exceeds 4GB (Activity Monitor will show this)
Why Does Antigravity Default to CPU Rendering?
Antigravity is built on a VS Code fork (specifically, Google acquired the Windsurf team and forked their codebase). VS Code maintains a GPU blacklist to avoid crashes on unstable drivers, but that list hasn’t kept pace with Apple Silicon releases. The M3 and M4 shipped after VS Code’s last major GPU compatibility update, so they’re treated as “unknown” and blacklisted by default.
Google hasn’t patched this in Antigravity yet, leaving users to manually override. Expect a fix in v1.12 or v1.13 based on issue tracker activity.
Making the Fix Permanent
Typing flags every launch is tedious. Create a permanent alias instead:
- Open Terminal and run:
nano ~/.zshrc - Add this line at the bottom:
alias antigravity='open -a "Antigravity" --args --enable-gpu-rasterization --enable-zero-copy --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --ignore-gpu-blacklist'- Save with
Ctrl+O, exit withCtrl+X - Reload your shell:
source ~/.zshrc
Now typing antigravity in Terminal launches the IDE with all performance flags enabled.
Testing the Difference
Want to see if this actually helps? Try this before and after applying the fix:
- Open a large TypeScript file (1000+ lines) and scroll rapidly—CPU rendering stutters, GPU rendering is smooth
- Ask Gemini to generate a React component with 20+ props—watch how fast the diff preview renders
- Enable split-screen editing and drag the divider—GPU mode maintains 60fps, CPU mode drops to 20fps
The most obvious tell: check Activity Monitor while Antigravity is running. Without GPU flags, “Antigravity Helper (Renderer)” consumes 80-120% CPU constantly. With GPU flags, it drops to 5-15% CPU and GPU load shows in the “Window Server” process instead.
Intel Mac Users: Skip Zero-Copy
If you’re on an Intel Mac (2020 or earlier models), use this instead:
open -a "Antigravity" --args --disable-gpu-driver-bug-workarounds --ignore-gpu-blacklist --enable-gpu-rasterizationIntel Macs don’t have unified memory, so --enable-zero-copy provides no benefit and may introduce instability. The base GPU flags still help significantly.
When This Won’t Help
If your Mac has fewer than 8GB RAM, GPU rendering won’t magically fix performance. Antigravity’s AI agents are memory-hungry—Gemini 3 Pro responses alone consume 1-2GB during generation. Upgrading to 16GB or 32GB RAM matters more than GPU tweaks on low-memory systems.
External monitors can also throttle GPU performance. If you’re using a 4K display over USB-C, the GPU splits resources between driving the high-resolution panel and rendering the IDE. Try disconnecting external monitors temporarily to see if performance improves.
Google Antigravity shipped with conservative GPU defaults that cripple performance on modern Macs. One terminal command—or a permanent alias—fixes this. The --ignore-gpu-blacklist flag is critical because Antigravity’s driver blacklist hasn’t updated for M3/M4 chips yet. Add --enable-zero-copy on Apple Silicon for extra memory efficiency.
And remember: accept agent changes regularly. Letting diffs pile up clogs RAM just as badly as CPU rendering kills responsiveness. Between GPU fixes and memory hygiene, Antigravity transforms from sluggish to snappy.
Try the command, relaunch the IDE, and notice the difference. Your M4 Max isn’t slow—Antigravity was just throttling it.
