# Very bad SDL2 performance on Hyperpixel Square

**URL:** <https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/very-bad-sdl2-performance-on-hyperpixel-square/27391>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [February 27, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/very-bad-sdl2-performance-on-hyperpixel-square/27391 "2025-02-27T21:11:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kanduvisla](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex016/user_avatar/forums.pimoroni.com/kanduvisla/32/11135_2.png) [@kanduvisla](https://forums.pimoroni.com/u/kanduvisla)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2025, 9:11pm UTC](https://forums.pimoroni.com/t/very-bad-sdl2-performance-on-hyperpixel-square/27391/1 "2025-02-27T21:11:18Z")

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I have a hyperpixel square, and want to create an application using SDL2. But the performance is very slow. Even if I don’t draw anything (just a loop that does nothing but clear and present an empty renderer) I can’t even reach the minimum of 20FPS for my program, it’s stuck somewhere around 10-11FPS at best.

Is this a known limitation of this screen? Or am I doing something wrong? I’ve read somewhere that if you use GPIO instead of HDMI you cannot use the hardware acceleration of the GPU. Is this true? Even so: With CPU rendering I still would expect more than 11 FPS.

Can anyone give me some pointers in the right direction?