KDE Plasma 6.7.3 restores NVIDIA triple buffering and patches security flaw

KDE released Plasma 6.7.3 on July 14, 2026 as the third maintenance update of the 6.7 series. The update focuses on stability and quality‑of‑life improvements across the desktop stack.

A key change is the re‑enabling of triple buffering for NVIDIA GPUs in KWin, which smooths rendering when the display cannot keep up with the refresh rate. The release also fixes several display‑wake problems, including DPMS‑related screen wake‑ups and laptop‑lid‑triggered sleep issues. Additional KWin enhancements address Vulkan device detection, EGL context creation, direct scanout, and color‑pipeline handling for AMDGPU systems.

Security‑wise, Plasma 6.7.3 patches a use‑after‑free vulnerability in the shared calendar event plugins. Other fixes include a corrected timezone offset in the Digital Clock widget, improved brightness‑slider behavior, and stability updates to the SDDM login manager, DrKonqi crash reporter, and system monitoring tools. The update is distributed through Linux distribution repositories rather than a universal upgrade button.