diff --git a/src/osx/cocoa/glcanvas.mm b/src/osx/cocoa/glcanvas.mm
index c1f80b852e..9f73bfec91 100644
--- a/src/osx/cocoa/glcanvas.mm
+++ b/src/osx/cocoa/glcanvas.mm
@@ -88,6 +88,7 @@ WXGLPixelFormat WXGLChoosePixelFormat(const int *attribList)
         NSOpenGLPFAColorSize,(NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute)8,
         NSOpenGLPFAAlphaSize,(NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute)0,
         NSOpenGLPFADepthSize,(NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute)8,
+        NSOpenGLPFAAccelerated, // use hardware accelerated context
         (NSOpenGLPixelFormatAttribute)nil
     };
 
@@ -100,6 +101,7 @@ WXGLPixelFormat WXGLChoosePixelFormat(const int *attribList)
     {
         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); )
         {