As part of my ongoing [1]AMD Ryzen 9 9950X Linux testing , last week I provided a look at [2]the AVX-512 benefits to Zen 5 and also the [3]Windows vs. Linux performance for the Ryzen 9 9950X . For sharing today is a look at multiple Linux distributions up and running on the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X (Zen 5) desktop. Among the distributions in the mix are Intel's Clear Linux distribution that is optimally tuned for maximum x86_64 Linux performance and once again even on AMD hardware shows the significant benefits to a well-tuned Linux software stack.

[4]

The Linux distributions for this round of testing on the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X included Arch Linux, CachyOS, Clear Linux, Fedora Workstation 40, Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, and a recent daily snapshot of Ubuntu 24.10 in its current development form.

[5]

Intel's [6]Clear Linux is the one most interesting for looking at on the new AMD Zen 5 hardware. While there hasn't been so much Clear Linux news in recent times, it remains the most well optimized x86_64 Linux distribution out of the box. Clear Linux makes use of compiler function multi versioning, performance-minded defaults, aggressive compiler CFLAGS/CXXFLAGS defaults, optional AVX-512 usage for more libraries, and many other patches and optimizations in the name of delivering the greatest x86_64 Linux performance. And while not Intel's focus, it works typically on AMD hardware too.

[7]

For those unfamiliar with CachyOS, it's an Arch Linux based distribution that is tuned for performance. CachyOS carries some patches from Clear Linux, makes use of x86_64 micro-architecture feature levels, and makes other tuning such as employing the BORE scheduler alongside other extra kernel patches. [8]CachyOS offers packages for x86-64-v3 and x86-64-v4 and is a nice tuned out-of-the-box Arch Linux desktop OS. CachyOS is a community-driven Linux distribution that does quite well for not having the major backing of any large corporations.

[9]

Thus I was eager to see how well Intel's Clear Linux and the Arch Linux powered CachyOS would allow for tapping more performance out of the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X.

Using the same Ryzen 9 9950X system, all of these Linux distributions were tested in their default / out-of-the-box state.



[1] https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-ryzen-9950x-9900x

[2] https://www.phoronix.com/review/amd-zen5-avx-512-9950x

[3] https://www.phoronix.com/review/ryzen-9950x-windows11-ubuntu

[4] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=linux-os-amd-ryzen9-9950x&image=ryzen9950x_linux_5_lrg

[5] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=linux-os-amd-ryzen9-9950x&image=ryzen9950x_linux_1_lrg

[6] https://www.phoronix.com/search/Clear+Linux

[7] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=linux-os-amd-ryzen9-9950x&image=ryzen9950x_linux_2_lrg

[8] https://www.phoronix.com/review/cachyos-x86-64-v3-v4

[9] https://www.phoronix.com/image-viewer.php?id=linux-os-amd-ryzen9-9950x&image=ryzen9950x_linux_3_lrg