--- title: Wayland on MALI | daily.dev description: Collabora presents a technical comparison of Wayland versus X11 on ARM Mali hardware, demonstrated at SIGGRAPH on Samsung Chromebook 2 machines with Mali-T628... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/wayland-on-mali-ov5xqmaxd twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Wayland on MALI | daily.dev og:description: Collabora presents a technical comparison of Wayland versus X11 on ARM Mali hardware, demonstrated at SIGGRAPH on Samsung Chromebook 2 machines with Mali-T628... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/wayland-on-mali-ov5xqmaxd og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/oV5xQMaXd.png og:image:alt: Wayland on MALI 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. # Wayland on MALI **[Collabora Blog](https://daily.dev/sources/collabora)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Collabora presents a technical comparison of Wayland versus X11 on ARM Mali hardware, demonstrated at SIGGRAPH on Samsung Chromebook 2 machines with Mali-T628 GPUs. Wayland's buffer-driven model enables zero-copy media playback via DMA-BUF (introduced in Linux 3.16), hardware overlay switching, deep buffer queuing with ahead-of-time frame scheduling, and lower CPU/power usage compared to X11's rendering-command model. The subsurface mechanism lets video and UI content be composited separately, allowing the display controller to choose between power-efficient hardware overlays and the 3D GPU on a per-frame basis. Side-by-side measurements show Wayland delivering significant improvements in power consumption, frame lateness, and CPU usage over X11. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How does Wayland achieve zero-copy video playback compared to X11? Wayland uses a buffer-driven model with DMA-BUF buffer passing, introduced in Linux kernel 3.16, allowing decoded frames to move directly from hardware media engines into either the 3D GPU or display controller without any intermediate copies. X11's rendering-command interface forces a full copy of each decoded frame and cannot use hardware overlays without an additional OpenGL ES blit, consuming extra memory bandwidth and power. _Embedded Linux developers optimizing media pipelines track Wayland and GStreamer developments on daily.dev._ ### What is the Wayland subsurface mechanism and how does it help with video playback? The Wayland subsurface mechanism streams video content separately from UI content, letting the display server decide per-frame whether to present video via power-efficient hardware overlays in the display controller or via the more flexible 3D GPU. It also enables last-minute scaling using high-quality engines inside the display controller, reducing memory bandwidth when upscaling. X11 compositors must combine video and UI on the client side, preventing this optimization. _Graphics engineers choosing between display server architectures for ARM products find relevant comparisons on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Wayland Found To Be "Intrinsically Faster Than X11, But Not Necessarily More Efficient"](https://daily.dev/posts/wayland-found-to-be-intrinsically-faster-than-x11-but-not-necessarily-more-efficient--vysjac0xs) · Phoronix · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Wayland set the Linux Desktop back by 10 years](https://daily.dev/posts/wayland-set-the-linux-desktop-back-by-10-years-bp6wqwoqi) · Hacker News · 57 upvotes · 39 comments - [Can I finally start using Wayland in 2026?](https://daily.dev/posts/can-i-finally-start-using-wayland-in-2026--i3zcmnhze) · Lobsters · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [I held onto X11 longer than I should have, and switching to Wayland fixed these things I didn't know were broken](https://daily.dev/posts/i-held-onto-x11-longer-than-i-should-have-and-switching-to-wayland-fixed-these-things-i-didn-t-know-72cnc7fro) · XDA Developers · 5 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/wayland-on-mali-ov5xqmaxd) ```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":"Wayland on MALI","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/wayland-on-mali-ov5xqmaxd","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/wayland-on-mali-ov5xqmaxd"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T08:57:20.869Z","dateModified":"2026-08-11T09:40:36.779Z","description":"Collabora presents a technical comparison of Wayland versus X11 on ARM Mali hardware, demonstrated at SIGGRAPH on Samsung Chromebook 2 machines with Mali-T628...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--qPvKM23u--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2009","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--qPvKM23u--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2009","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Collabora Blog","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":"Collabora Blog","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZGZ0FjqS--/f_auto,q_auto/v1786438306/logos/collabora?_a=BAMAMicg0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/collabora"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/wayland-on-mali-ov5xqmaxd","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"linux","timeRequired":"PT7M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Collabora Blog","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/collabora"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Wayland on MALI"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/wayland-on-mali-ov5xqmaxd#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How does Wayland achieve zero-copy video playback compared to X11?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Wayland uses a buffer-driven model with DMA-BUF buffer passing, introduced in Linux kernel 3.16, allowing decoded frames to move directly from hardware media engines into either the 3D GPU or display controller without any intermediate copies. 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