diff --git a/shaders/cell.v.glsl b/shaders/cell.v.glsl
index 2ee0fd37c..629f1ffb0 100644
--- a/shaders/cell.v.glsl
+++ b/shaders/cell.v.glsl
@@ -35,17 +35,6 @@ layout (location = 5) in vec4 bg_color_in;
 // the entire terminal grid in a single GPU pass.
 layout (location = 6) in uint mode_in;
 
-// The Z-depth. This is between 0.0 and 1.0. This is used to paint newer
-// values on top of older ones to limit the amount of data that needs to
-// be sent to the GPU.
-//
-// 0 is further back/away, 1 is front/near
-//
-// TODO: It would be better to just send the Z value as part of grid_coord
-// and normalize it to NDC and then linearly transform it but this was easy
-// to get going more quickly.
-layout (location = 7) in float grid_z;
-
 // The background or foreground color for the fragment, depending on
 // whether this is a background or foreground pass.
 flat out vec4 color;
@@ -96,7 +85,7 @@ void main() {
     // Our Z value. For now we just use grid_z directly but we pull it
     // out here so the variable name is more uniform to our cell_pos and
     // in case we want to do any other math later.
-    float cell_z = grid_z;
+    float cell_z = 0.0;
 
     // Turn the cell position into a vertex point depending on the
     // gl_VertexID. Since we use instanced drawing, we have 4 vertices
diff --git a/src/Grid.zig b/src/Grid.zig
index 0b72b2a2d..81b76e028 100644
--- a/src/Grid.zig
+++ b/src/Grid.zig
@@ -58,9 +58,6 @@ foreground: terminal.color.RGB,
 /// Default background color
 background: terminal.color.RGB,
 
-/// The current value of the Z buffer.
-cell_z: u16 = 0,
-
 /// Available cursor styles for drawing. The values represents the mode value
 /// in the shader.
 pub const CursorStyle = enum(u8) {
@@ -112,10 +109,6 @@ const GPUCell = struct {
 
     /// uint mode
     mode: u8,
-
-    /// float grid_z. This is normalized to a float by dividing by the
-    /// max int value.
-    grid_z: u16,
 };
 
 pub fn init(alloc: Allocator, config: *const Config) !Grid {
@@ -214,8 +207,6 @@ pub fn init(alloc: Allocator, config: *const Config) !Grid {
     try vbobind.attributeAdvanced(5, 4, gl.c.GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, false, @sizeOf(GPUCell), offset);
     offset += 4 * @sizeOf(u8);
     try vbobind.attributeIAdvanced(6, 1, gl.c.GL_UNSIGNED_BYTE, @sizeOf(GPUCell), offset);
-    offset += 1 * @sizeOf(u8);
-    try vbobind.attributeAdvanced(7, 1, gl.c.GL_UNSIGNED_SHORT, true, @sizeOf(GPUCell), offset);
     try vbobind.enableAttribArray(0);
     try vbobind.enableAttribArray(1);
     try vbobind.enableAttribArray(2);
@@ -223,7 +214,6 @@ pub fn init(alloc: Allocator, config: *const Config) !Grid {
     try vbobind.enableAttribArray(4);
     try vbobind.enableAttribArray(5);
     try vbobind.enableAttribArray(6);
-    try vbobind.enableAttribArray(7);
     try vbobind.attributeDivisor(0, 1);
     try vbobind.attributeDivisor(1, 1);
     try vbobind.attributeDivisor(2, 1);
@@ -231,7 +221,6 @@ pub fn init(alloc: Allocator, config: *const Config) !Grid {
     try vbobind.attributeDivisor(4, 1);
     try vbobind.attributeDivisor(5, 1);
     try vbobind.attributeDivisor(6, 1);
-    try vbobind.attributeDivisor(7, 1);
 
     // Build our texture
     const tex = try gl.Texture.create();
@@ -303,23 +292,18 @@ pub fn rebuildCells(self: *Grid, term: Terminal) !void {
 
         // * 3 for background modes and cursor and underlines
         // + 1 for cursor
-        // * N for cache space for changes
-        ((term.screen.rows * term.screen.cols * 3) + 1) * 10,
+        (term.screen.rows * term.screen.cols * 3) + 1,
     );
 
     // We've written no data to the GPU, refresh it all
     self.gl_cells_written = 0;
 
-    // Reset the Z buffer at the end no matter what since we're fresh.
-    defer self.cell_z = 0;
-
     // Build each cell
     var rowIter = term.screen.rowIterator(.viewport);
     var y: usize = 0;
     while (rowIter.next()) |line| {
         defer y += 1;
         for (line) |cell, x| {
-            self.cell_z = 0;
             assert(try self.updateCell(term, cell, x, y));
         }
     }
@@ -338,9 +322,7 @@ pub fn finalizeCells(self: *Grid, term: Terminal) !void {
         self.addCursor(term);
 
     // If we're out of space or we have no more Z-space, rebuild.
-    if (self.cells.items.len == self.cells.capacity or
-        self.cell_z == std.math.maxInt(@TypeOf(self.cell_z)))
-    {
+    if (self.cells.items.len == self.cells.capacity) {
         log.info("cell cache full, rebuilding from scratch", .{});
         try self.rebuildCells(term);
     }
@@ -349,6 +331,7 @@ pub fn finalizeCells(self: *Grid, term: Terminal) !void {
     if (self.atlas_dirty) {
         log.info("atlas dirty, flushing changes", .{});
         try self.flushAtlas();
+        self.atlas_dirty = false;
     }
 }
 
@@ -367,9 +350,6 @@ fn addCursor(self: *Grid, term: Terminal) void {
             .bg_g = 0xFF,
             .bg_b = 0xFF,
             .bg_a = 255,
-
-            // The cursor is always at the very front
-            .grid_z = 255,
         });
     }
 }
@@ -445,25 +425,12 @@ pub fn updateCell(
     };
     if (self.cells.items.len + needed > self.cells.capacity) return false;
 
-    // Bump our Z value. The "zbump" is the max amount we could increase
-    // the Z value this call. If it could theoretically go over the max
-    // int size of the Z type, then we return false -- we need a rebuild.
-    const zbump = 2;
-    const zmax = std.math.maxInt(@TypeOf(self.cell_z));
-    const zmax_padded = zmax - (zbump * 2);
-    if (self.cell_z > zmax_padded) {
-        self.cell_z = zmax;
-        return false;
-    }
-    self.cell_z += zbump;
-
     // If the cell has a background, we always draw it.
     if (colors.bg) |rgb| {
         self.cells.appendAssumeCapacity(.{
             .mode = 1,
             .grid_col = @intCast(u16, x),
             .grid_row = @intCast(u16, y),
-            .grid_z = self.cell_z,
             .glyph_x = 0,
             .glyph_y = 0,
             .glyph_width = 0,
@@ -502,7 +469,6 @@ pub fn updateCell(
             .mode = 2,
             .grid_col = @intCast(u16, x),
             .grid_row = @intCast(u16, y),
-            .grid_z = self.cell_z + 1,
             .glyph_x = glyph.atlas_x,
             .glyph_y = glyph.atlas_y,
             .glyph_width = glyph.width,
@@ -525,7 +491,6 @@ pub fn updateCell(
             .mode = 6, // underline
             .grid_col = @intCast(u16, x),
             .grid_row = @intCast(u16, y),
-            .grid_z = self.cell_z + 1,
             .glyph_x = 0,
             .glyph_y = 0,
             .glyph_width = 0,
@@ -584,8 +549,6 @@ fn flushAtlas(self: *Grid) !void {
         .UnsignedByte,
         self.font_atlas.atlas.data.ptr,
     );
-
-    self.atlas_dirty = false;
 }
 
 /// Render renders the current cell state. This will not modify any of
diff --git a/src/Window.zig b/src/Window.zig
index 63cf7dc8e..71983b158 100644
--- a/src/Window.zig
+++ b/src/Window.zig
@@ -200,14 +200,6 @@ pub fn create(alloc: Allocator, loop: libuv.Loop, config: *const Config) !*Windo
     gl.c.glEnable(gl.c.GL_BLEND);
     gl.c.glBlendFunc(gl.c.GL_SRC_ALPHA, gl.c.GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);
 
-    // Depth test since we use the Z-buffer as an optimization to send
-    // only changed cells to the GPU. As cells are updated, we bump their
-    // Z value to be closer, so that over time new values are rendered "over"
-    // values (in reality old values are culled by the depth test, so they
-    // aren't ever "rendered").
-    gl.c.glEnable(gl.c.GL_DEPTH_TEST);
-    gl.c.glDepthFunc(gl.c.GL_LESS);
-
     // Create our terminal grid with the initial window size
     const window_size = try window.getSize();
     var grid = try Grid.init(alloc, config);
@@ -968,7 +960,7 @@ fn renderTimerCallback(t: *libuv.Timer) void {
         .a = win.bg_a,
     };
     gl.clearColor(gl_bg.r, gl_bg.g, gl_bg.b, gl_bg.a);
-    gl.clear(gl.c.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT | gl.c.GL_DEPTH_BUFFER_BIT);
+    gl.clear(gl.c.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
 
     // For now, rebuild all cells
     win.grid.rebuildCells(win.terminal) catch |err|