Disabling Intel’s GPU security mitigations in Linux led to notable performance boosts, similar to removing a catalytic converter for speed gains. Canonical considered this step due to the mitigations’ impact on Intel GPU performance. Despite potential risks, the minimal threat and lack of OS execution on GPUs made the trade-off worthwhile.
Years ago, I had a new, turbocharged, beautiful blue Porsche 924. For reasons I no longer recall, I decided to remove the catalytic converter. As a result, I had the fastest turbocharged 924 in the entire Bay Area, which was proven at several red lights.

I was reminded of that when I read Aaron Klotz’s article in Tom’s Hardware about the performance gains Phoronix obtained by disabling Intel’s graphics security mitigations for its OpenCL and Level Zero compute stack in Linux and got a boost in performance of up to 20%.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, has discussed disabling certain security mitigations in its operating system because of the significant performance penalties those mitigations imposed on Intel GPUs. Intel reportedly permitted its GPU compute stack to be built without these safeguards, allowing Canonical to proceed without relying on unofficial methods to deactivate them.
Canonical acknowledged that turning off Intel’s GPU security mitigations could expose systems to potential, unspecified vulnerabilities, despite maintaining proper kernel-level protections. Still, the risk appeared minimal enough that the performance gains from disabling the mitigations justified the decision.
However, since GPUs don’t execute the operating system, making security mitigations on the GPU side is less critical than those on the CPU, particularly in consumer systems. If that weren’t true, Intel and Canonical would likely be much more hesitant to disable them.
About the 924, I sold that car a few years later, and the guy who bought it called me later and said, “Did you know the catalytic converter was missing?” I confessed I did but hadn’t kept it. He said, “No worries—thank you, brother!”
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