--- title: Linux 7.4 Networking Brings Hardware Pacing Offload, New... description: Linux 7.4 adds hardware pacing offload support to the core networking code, with a new 'pacing_offload' device attribute and the IDPF driver as the first to... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-4-networking-brings-hardware-pacing-offload-new-drivers-more-performance-a2fl5cd6v twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Linux 7.4 Networking Brings Hardware Pacing Offload, New Drivers & More Performance | daily.dev og:description: Linux 7.4 adds hardware pacing offload support to the core networking code, with a new 'pacing_offload' device attribute and the IDPF driver as the first to... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-4-networking-brings-hardware-pacing-offload-new-drivers-more-performance-a2fl5cd6v og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/A2fL5cD6V.png og:image:alt: Linux 7.4 Networking Brings Hardware Pacing Offload, New Drivers & More Performance og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Linux 7.4 Networking Brings Hardware Pacing Offload, New Drivers & More Performance **[Phoronix](https://daily.dev/sources/phoronix)** · 2 min read · 1 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Linux 7.4 adds hardware pacing offload support to the core networking code, with a new 'pacing_offload' device attribute and the IDPF driver as the first to use it. Mixed BIG TCP and non-BIG TCP code paths gain up to 70% throughput improvements, alongside TCP/IP cache and contention fixes and wireless latency reductions. New drivers include the Nebula Matrix NIC, Meta's second-gen MPNIC, and updates for Qualcomm PPE, Synopsys STMMAC, Realtek PHY and RTW88, and Mediatek/Qualcomm Bluetooth chips. The FBNIC driver adds large IO_uring zero-copy receive buffer support. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What is hardware pacing offload in the Linux 7.4 kernel networking stack? Hardware pacing offload is a new core networking feature in Linux 7.4 that adds a 'pacing_offload' attribute for network devices, letting the NIC or SmartNIC control the timing and spacing of outgoing packets instead of the kernel. The IDPF driver is the first to implement support for this offload capability. _Teams tuning NIC offload features for network-heavy workloads can track kernel networking changes like this on daily.dev._ ### How much do the BIG TCP throughput improvements in Linux 7.4 help performance? Mixed BIG TCP and non-BIG TCP code paths see throughput gains of up to 70% in Linux 7.4, alongside additional TCP/IP performance work focused on more efficient cache usage and reduced lock contention. Wireless networking also gets latency reduction improvements in this release. _Engineers chasing network throughput gains can follow kernel performance changes like these on daily.dev._ ### Which new network and Bluetooth drivers were added in Linux 7.4? Linux 7.4 adds the initial Nebula Matrix NIX driver and Meta Platforms' second-generation MPNIC driver, plus IPQ5424 chipset support in the Qualcomm PPE driver and several new SGMII/EMAC/Bluetooth chipset entries in Synopsys STMMAC, Realtek PHY, Realtek RTW88, Mediatek Bluetooth (MT7928), and Qualcomm Bluetooth (QCC2072). _Driver maintainers tracking new hardware support can follow kernel merge window coverage like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Linux 6.19 Networking Delivers 4x Improvement For Heavy Transfer Workloads, New Hardware](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-6-19-networking-delivers-4x-improvement-for-heavy-transfer-workloads-new-hardware-ddwmjajdd) · Phoronix · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Linux 7.2 Brings More Work Around WiFi Aware, WiFi 8 / UHR & More Networking Hardware](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-2-brings-more-work-around-wifi-aware-wifi-8-uhr-more-networking-hardware-e5jszmref) · Phoronix · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Linux Kernel 7.1 is a Feature Release That Could Be Useful For You](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-kernel-7-1-is-a-feature-release-that-could-be-useful-for-you-77klzz9de) · It's Foss · 3 upvotes · 0 comments - [Linux 7.1 brings new NTFS driver, Steam Deck OLED audio fix \+ more](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-1-brings-new-ntfs-driver-steam-deck-oled-audio-fix-more-jfil3igpw) · omg\! ubuntu\! · 17 upvotes · 1 comments --- Tags: [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#hardware](https://daily.dev/tags/hardware), [#networking](https://daily.dev/tags/networking) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-4-networking-brings-hardware-pacing-offload-new-drivers-more-performance-a2fl5cd6v) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Linux 7.4 Networking Brings Hardware Pacing Offload, New Drivers \u0026 More Performance","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-4-networking-brings-hardware-pacing-offload-new-drivers-more-performance-a2fl5cd6v","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-4-networking-brings-hardware-pacing-offload-new-drivers-more-performance-a2fl5cd6v"},"datePublished":"2026-10-29T13:06:08.044Z","dateModified":"2026-10-29T13:07:28.388Z","description":"Linux 7.4 adds hardware pacing offload support to the core networking code, with a new 'pacing_offload' device attribute and the IDPF driver as the first to...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/eecdf07f4e6f01dd4974bb169f7b9119?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/eecdf07f4e6f01dd4974bb169f7b9119?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Phoronix","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Phoronix","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/6a26ba379dd64932830aa0c9803dd7ee","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/phoronix"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-4-networking-brings-hardware-pacing-offload-new-drivers-more-performance-a2fl5cd6v","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"open-source,linux,hardware,networking","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Phoronix","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/phoronix"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Linux 7.4 Networking Brings Hardware Pacing Offload, New Drivers \u0026 More Performance"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/linux-7-4-networking-brings-hardware-pacing-offload-new-drivers-more-performance-a2fl5cd6v#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"What is hardware pacing offload in the Linux 7.4 kernel networking stack?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Hardware pacing offload is a new core networking feature in Linux 7.4 that adds a 'pacing_offload' attribute for network devices, letting the NIC or SmartNIC control the timing and spacing of outgoing packets instead of the kernel. 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