Torn-off terminal window shows no text (blank canvas) until GPU acceleration is disabled on Intel Mac

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1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

On macOS Sequoia 15.7.4, moving the integrated terminal to its own window (tear-off / new window) leaves the terminal area empty: no prompt, no output, no visible text. Scroll markers suggest content exists but nothing renders. Setting “terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration”: “off” fixes it.

Hardware / OS
MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019), Intel Core i9 2.3 GHz 8-core, AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 4 GB + Intel UHD Graphics 630, 64 GB RAM, macOS 15.7.4 (Sequoia).

Steps to Reproduce

  • Open a folder in Cursor.
  • Open the integrated terminal in the main window; confirm text is normal.
  • Tear off the terminal into a separate window (or use the command to move terminal into a new window).
  • Observe: terminal chrome appears but no text renders.
  • Open User Settings (JSON), set “terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration”: “off”, restart or open a new terminal in that window.
  • Observe: text renders again.

Expected Behavior

Terminal renders text in tearoff window

Operating System

MacOS

Version Information

Version: 3.2.21 (Universal)
VSCode Version: 1.105.1
Commit: 806df57ed3b6f1ee0175140d38039a38574ec720
Date: 2026-05-03T01:46:14.413Z
Layout: editor
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 39.8.1
Chromium: 142.0.7444.265
Node.js: 22.22.1
V8: 14.2.231.22-electron.0
OS: Darwin x64 24.6.0

For AI issues: which model did you use?

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For AI issues: add Request ID with privacy disabled

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Additional Information

In case it is relevant, my environment is a remote devcontainer over ssh

Does this stop you from using Cursor

No - Cursor works, but with this issue

6

This is a known limitation with GPU-accelerated terminal rendering in detached windows. Your workaround is exactly right:

"terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration": "off"

This switches to the DOM-based renderer, which handles cross-window moves without issue. The tradeoff is slightly higher CPU usage for terminal rendering, but on your hardware it should be negligible.