GPU acceleration

Linux apps that draw with your device's graphics chip (Pro) on ARM and Intel devices, how Breadstick tests it, and what to do when an app draws wrongly.

Without GPU acceleration, Linux apps in Breadstick draw everything with the processor. With it, they can draw with your device's graphics chip instead. 3D-heavy apps and graphics work gain the most. It works in Desktop and Floating mode.

How it reaches the chip depends on the device. On ARM devices, Linux apps draw through OpenGL 2.1 and OpenGL ES, handed to Breadstick's graphics server, one background process that runs while acceleration is on. On Intel graphics, Linux's own Mesa drives the chip directly, through zink on Intel's Vulkan driver, with no graphics server in between: see Intel graphics.

GPU acceleration is part of Breadstick Pro. Anyone can run Breadstick's test of the graphics chip and see the result before paying for anything.

It tests itself and turns on where it is faster

Graphics chips and their drivers differ from device to device, so Breadstick does not assume anything about yours. It tests the chip: the same scenes are drawn on the graphics chip and on the processor and compared, and light and heavy drawing are timed against the processor.

With Pro, the test runs by itself, once, while Breadstick is open on the screen. From Breadstick 2.0, acceleration turns itself on only where the test shows it is faster than the processor: it has to run stably (no crash, no hang, and a graphics chip that answered), and heavy drawing has to be at least one and a half times as fast as on the processor. A scene that drew slightly differently, or light drawing that was slower, does not keep it off. Where the chip is stable but not that much faster, acceleration stays off, and Graphics shows what the test measured, with the switch to turn it on yourself. If the test crashes or hangs, acceleration stays off and Try again runs it once more; after a second failure you can still turn it on yourself, with a warning that apps may close.

The test needs Breadstick's Linux system to be current. If Graphics says Linux needs an update first, run Breadstick Updates on the Linux desktop, or sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade in the Terminal, and the test follows.

What it measured on ARM devices

Heavy drawing on the graphics chip, against the same drawing on the processor, measured with Breadstick's own test on October 6, 2026:

Light drawing can be slower than the processor on some ARM chips: between 0.4x and 1.2x on the same devices. An app that draws a few simple shapes gains little or nothing, and may lose a little. The gain is in apps that do real 3D work.

GPU acceleration is new, and Breadstick has not yet verified any chip and driver for good, the ones above included. The Graphics settings say so: a pass is this device's own result, and if something draws wrongly or closes, turn acceleration off.

Intel graphics

On an Intel device, such as an Intel Googlebook, GPU acceleration drives the graphics chip directly. The Linux system's own Mesa uses zink, its OpenGL on Vulkan, on Intel's Vulkan driver, so there is no graphics server and nothing in between. Breadstick checks that the chip, its driver and Mesa work together before it uses them, and the test and the one-and-a-half-times rule above apply as everywhere.

Measured on a Lenovo Googlebook 15 (Intel Core Ultra 5 325) with glmark2-es2 at 1280x720, in frames per second, against software rendering on the same device:

Terrain, the heaviest of the three, ran about 19 times as fast. With no graphics server, the graphics server's parts of this page, such as Restart graphics server and the crash rules below, do not apply on Intel graphics. While it is on, Graphics in Settings says that Linux apps draw on the chip directly.

Settings, Graphics

Graphics in Settings holds everything about it:

• GPU acceleration, the switch, with the reason it is on or off underneath
• Test this device, or Test again, and the last test's result: how light and heavy drawing compared with the processor, and the name of the graphics chip
• while the graphics server runs, the apps using it, and Restart graphics server, which says first which apps would lose their graphics and close
• Apps that draw in software, the programs that stay on the processor (below)
• Use the recommended setting, once you have turned the switch on or off yourself, to hand the choice back to Breadstick

While the graphics server runs, the More menu at the top of the Breadstick window also has Draw with the processor, and then Draw with the graphics chip. It decides how apps opened from then on draw, without restarting anything.

Turning it off with apps open lets them finish on the graphics chip; apps you open after that draw with the processor. Restart the desktop to move everything over at once.

What stays on the processor

Some programs draw with the processor even while acceleration is on:

• Web browsers. Chrome, Chromium and Firefox stay on the processor for now. They run as they always have; they just do not use the graphics chip.
• VS Code, for the same reason.
• Programs that need OpenGL 3 or newer, such as Blender, on ARM devices. There the graphics chip is offered to Linux as OpenGL 2.1, and these refuse to start or draw on it, so they get the processor's newer OpenGL instead.
• The desktop itself: the shelf, the window manager and the file manager.
• Programs run with sudo, which draw with the processor.

The list of programs is part of Breadstick's Linux system and updates through apt, so it changes as more of them are tested.

If an app draws wrongly

• One app. If the graphics server drops an app on an ARM device, Breadstick offers Draw app in software, and from then on that app uses the processor while the rest keep the graphics chip. The app is then listed under Apps that draw in software, with Use the graphics chip beside it to undo that.
• Your own choice, by hand. The file ~/.config/breadstick/gpu-apps takes one line per program, software or gpu and then the program's name, such as software gimp. It wins over Breadstick's own list. Apps started after the change follow it.
• Everything. Turn GPU acceleration off under Settings, Graphics.

If it keeps happening, send a diagnostic and say which app it was. The device and its graphics chip are the most useful thing you can tell us.

When Breadstick turns it off by itself

Breadstick goes back to the processor on its own when the graphics chip is not holding up:

• Every desktop start checks it first. If the check fails, that start draws with the processor, and the next one tries again.
• If the graphics server crashes, Breadstick restarts it. Apps that were drawing with it at that moment close, and Breadstick names them: in a banner in Desktop mode, and in a notification in Floating mode, where the Breadstick window is usually out of sight. Apps opened while it restarts draw with the processor.
• Three crashes in ten minutes turn it off for the rest of that session. The next desktop start tries again.
• Two desktop starts in a row that never come up with the GPU turn it off until you choose Try again.

The free version

Free users can run Test this device under Settings, Graphics, and see how their own graphics chip did. Turning acceleration on opens the Pro screen. Nothing else runs on the free version: no graphics server, and no test unless you ask for one.

If Pro ends, acceleration turns off. Apps that were drawing with the graphics chip keep it until you close them.