Intel’s “NEO” GPU compute stack has been absorbing defensive mitigations that hinder performance, according to Phoronix. Canonical is planning to enable the NEO_DISABLE_MITIGATIONS flag in future Ubuntu packages, expected to appear in version 25.10, to lift these restrictions.
The mitigations, which add layers of protection to Intel’s OpenCL and Level Zero implementation, have resulted in significant performance losses. However, researchers estimate that users can expect up to a 20% boost in performance by disabling these measures.
Intel and Canonical have signed off on this change, stating that the GPU-level mitigations “no longer offer enough security impact to justify the current performance trade-off.” The shift is currently being tested via a Canonical-hosted PPA, and benchmarks are expected to be released soon.
Source: https://fudzilla.com/news/graphics/61250-canonical-and-intel-scrap-gpu-mitigations