diff --git a/doc/guides/nics/sfc_efx.rst b/doc/guides/nics/sfc_efx.rst
index 973a4a0..028b980 100644
--- a/doc/guides/nics/sfc_efx.rst
+++ b/doc/guides/nics/sfc_efx.rst
@@ -245,12 +245,14 @@ boolean parameters value.
   features available and required by the datapath implementation.
   **efx** chooses libefx-based datapath which supports VLAN insertion
   (full-feature firmware variant only), TSO and multi-segment mbufs.
+  Mbuf segments may come from different mempools, and mbuf reference
+  counters are treated responsibly.
   **ef10** chooses EF10 (SFN7xxx, SFN8xxx) native datapath which is
   more efficient than libefx-based but has no VLAN insertion and TSO
   support yet.
   **ef10_simple** chooses EF10 (SFN7xxx, SFN8xxx) native datapath which
   is even more faster then **ef10** but does not support multi-segment
-  mbufs.
+  mbufs, disallows multiple mempools and neglects mbuf reference counters.
 
 - ``perf_profile`` [auto|throughput|low-latency] (default **throughput**)
 
diff --git a/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_dp_tx.h b/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_dp_tx.h
index db2a70b..94d1b10 100644
--- a/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_dp_tx.h
+++ b/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_dp_tx.h
@@ -142,6 +142,8 @@ struct sfc_dp_tx {
 #define SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_TSO		0x2
 #define SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_MULTI_SEG	0x4
 #define SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_MULTI_PROCESS	0x8
+#define SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_MULTI_POOL	0x10
+#define SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_REFCNT		0x20
 	sfc_dp_tx_qcreate_t		*qcreate;
 	sfc_dp_tx_qdestroy_t		*qdestroy;
 	sfc_dp_tx_qstart_t		*qstart;
diff --git a/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_ef10_tx.c b/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_ef10_tx.c
index 5127a7a..9047b3e 100644
--- a/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_ef10_tx.c
+++ b/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_ef10_tx.c
@@ -401,14 +401,25 @@ struct sfc_ef10_txq {
 	pending += sfc_ef10_tx_process_events(txq);
 
 	if (pending != completed) {
+		struct rte_mbuf *bulk[SFC_TX_REAP_BULK_SIZE];
+		unsigned int nb = 0;
+
 		do {
 			struct sfc_ef10_tx_sw_desc *txd;
 
 			txd = &txq->sw_ring[completed & ptr_mask];
 
-			rte_pktmbuf_free_seg(txd->mbuf);
+			if (nb == RTE_DIM(bulk)) {
+				rte_mempool_put_bulk(bulk[0]->pool,
+						     (void *)bulk, nb);
+				nb = 0;
+			}
+
+			bulk[nb++] = txd->mbuf;
 		} while (++completed != pending);
 
+		rte_mempool_put_bulk(bulk[0]->pool, (void *)bulk, nb);
+
 		txq->completed = completed;
 	}
 
@@ -614,6 +625,8 @@ struct sfc_dp_tx sfc_ef10_tx = {
 		.hw_fw_caps	= SFC_DP_HW_FW_CAP_EF10,
 	},
 	.features		= SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_MULTI_SEG |
+				  SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_MULTI_POOL |
+				  SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_REFCNT |
 				  SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_MULTI_PROCESS,
 	.qcreate		= sfc_ef10_tx_qcreate,
 	.qdestroy		= sfc_ef10_tx_qdestroy,
diff --git a/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_ethdev.c b/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_ethdev.c
index 2b037d8..26e8c93 100644
--- a/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_ethdev.c
+++ b/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_ethdev.c
@@ -145,6 +145,12 @@
 	if (~sa->dp_tx->features & SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_MULTI_SEG)
 		dev_info->default_txconf.txq_flags |= ETH_TXQ_FLAGS_NOMULTSEGS;
 
+	if (~sa->dp_tx->features & SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_MULTI_POOL)
+		dev_info->default_txconf.txq_flags |= ETH_TXQ_FLAGS_NOMULTMEMP;
+
+	if (~sa->dp_tx->features & SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_REFCNT)
+		dev_info->default_txconf.txq_flags |= ETH_TXQ_FLAGS_NOREFCOUNT;
+
 #if EFSYS_OPT_RX_SCALE
 	if (sa->rss_support != EFX_RX_SCALE_UNAVAILABLE) {
 		dev_info->reta_size = EFX_RSS_TBL_SIZE;
diff --git a/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_tx.c b/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_tx.c
index bf59601..4ea7bd7 100644
--- a/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_tx.c
+++ b/drivers/net/sfc/sfc_tx.c
@@ -91,6 +91,21 @@
 		rc = EINVAL;
 	}
 
+	if (((flags & ETH_TXQ_FLAGS_NOMULTMEMP) == 0) &&
+	    (~sa->dp_tx->features & SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_MULTI_POOL)) {
+		sfc_err(sa, "multi-mempool is not supported by %s datapath",
+			sa->dp_tx->dp.name);
+		rc = EINVAL;
+	}
+
+	if (((flags & ETH_TXQ_FLAGS_NOREFCOUNT) == 0) &&
+	    (~sa->dp_tx->features & SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_REFCNT)) {
+		sfc_err(sa,
+			"mbuf reference counters are neglected by %s datapath",
+			sa->dp_tx->dp.name);
+		rc = EINVAL;
+	}
+
 	if ((flags & ETH_TXQ_FLAGS_NOVLANOFFL) == 0) {
 		if (!encp->enc_hw_tx_insert_vlan_enabled) {
 			sfc_err(sa, "VLAN offload is not supported");
@@ -1023,6 +1038,8 @@ struct sfc_dp_tx sfc_efx_tx = {
 	},
 	.features		= SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_VLAN_INSERT |
 				  SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_TSO |
+				  SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_MULTI_POOL |
+				  SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_REFCNT |
 				  SFC_DP_TX_FEAT_MULTI_SEG,
 	.qcreate		= sfc_efx_tx_qcreate,
 	.qdestroy		= sfc_efx_tx_qdestroy,
