diff --git a/src/osx/cocoa/glcanvas.mm b/src/osx/cocoa/glcanvas.mm
index 159007a91f..4c933ab8f1 100644
--- a/src/osx/cocoa/glcanvas.mm
+++ b/src/osx/cocoa/glcanvas.mm
@@ -81,28 +81,48 @@ void WXGLDestroyPixelFormat( WXGLPixelFormat pixelFormat )
 WXGLPixelFormat WXGLChoosePixelFormat(const int *attribList)
 {
     NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute data[512];
-    const NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute defaultAttribs[] =
+
+    unsigned p = 0;
+    data[p++] = NSOpenGLPFAMinimumPolicy; // make _SIZE tags behave more like GLX
+
+    // Test if we support hardware acceleration, we always want to use it if it
+    // is available and, apparently, in spite of the Apple docs explicitly
+    // saying the contrary:
+    //
+    //  If present, this attribute indicates that only hardware-accelerated
+    //  renderers are considered. If not present, accelerated renderers are
+    //  still preferred.
+    //
+    // hardware acceleration is not always used without it, so we do need to
+    // specify it. But we shouldn't do it if acceleration is really not
+    // available.
+    const NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute
+        attrsAccel[] = { NSOpenGLPFAAccelerated, 0 };
+    WXGLPixelFormat testFormat = [NSOpenGLPixelFormat alloc];
+    if ( [testFormat initWithAttributes: attrsAccel] )
     {
-        NSOpenGLPFADoubleBuffer,
-        NSOpenGLPFAMinimumPolicy,
-        NSOpenGLPFAColorSize,(NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute)8,
-        NSOpenGLPFAAlphaSize,(NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute)0,
-        NSOpenGLPFADepthSize,(NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute)8,
-        NSOpenGLPFAAccelerated, // use hardware accelerated context
-        0
-    };
+        // Hardware acceleration is available, use it.
+        data[p++] = NSOpenGLPFAAccelerated;
+    }
+
+    [testFormat release];
 
     const NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute *attribs;
     if ( !attribList )
     {
-        attribs = defaultAttribs;
+        // Default attributes
+        data[p++] = NSOpenGLPFADoubleBuffer;
+        data[p++] = NSOpenGLPFAColorSize;
+        data[p++] = (NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute)8;
+        data[p++] = NSOpenGLPFAAlphaSize;
+        data[p++] = (NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute)0;
+        data[p++] = NSOpenGLPFADepthSize;
+        data[p++] = (NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute)8;
+        data[p] = 0;
+        attribs = data;
     }
     else
     {
-        unsigned p = 0;
-        data[p++] = NSOpenGLPFAMinimumPolicy; // make _SIZE tags behave more like GLX
-        data[p++] = NSOpenGLPFAAccelerated; // use hardware accelerated context
-
         for ( unsigned arg = 0; attribList[arg] !=0 && p < WXSIZEOF(data); )
         {
             switch ( attribList[arg++] )