Over the last few months, Windows 11 has had a really hard time keeping up with Linux in terms of performance.
The story was quite different back in 2021 though when Intel released its 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs that were based on the Performance Hybrid architecture consisting “Big” E-cores and “Bigger” P-cores. Microsoft and Intel worked together to optimize the Windows 11 scheduler for the new kind of architecture. As such, the Intel Core i9-12900K was found to perform significantly better on Windows 11 compared to Linux. Kernel version 5.16 was also found to be not quite ready for the new design, as it was also handily beaten by Windows 11.
However, as mentioned above, things are starting to turn around. Tests conducted back in July found Linux no longer trailing Windows. The comparison was conducted using Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, and it was actually ahead of Windows 11. Using a mobile Alder Lake Core i7-1280P CPU, Microsoft was still ahead, though the performance gap had shrunk significantly. And things may get even worse for Windows as patches reveal further optimizations are being made on Linux for hybrid x86 processors like Alder Lake and its succeeding Intel architectures.
Over on the AMD side too, where hybrid CPU designs have not materialized yet, performance comparisons have found the gap between Windows 11 and Ubuntu to be slim as the two operating systems are seen trading blows with one another.
A few days ago, Phoronix did a follow-up testing using an eight core Ryzen 7 5800X3D, which is AMD"s first processor launched with 3D V-cache on-board. The results are something Windows fans wouldn"t like looking at. In the 89 tests conducted in total, Ubuntu 22.04.1 has won 81 or 91% of the tests. Windows 11 on the other hand has won just 9% or 8 tests.
As you can see above, the biggest performance differences are seen in Renaissance benchmark Instance Metadata Service (IMDS) test, followed by DaCapo Tradesoap. Interestingly, Windows 11 wins the other DaCapo test which is Tradebeans, though by a much smaller margin. Overall, the Geometric Mean reveals Ubuntu was about 10% faster on average, which is pretty impressive considering that there were close to 90 tests in this comparison.
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It will be interesting to see how the performance varies on a non-X3D chip like the Ryzen 7 5800X, or how the two OS would fare in a comparison using the upcoming the Zen 4-based Ryzen 7000 series chips. Reports suggest the Zen4X3D SKUs aren"t too far off either.
Source and images: Phoronix