A Look At The Linux Kernel Performance From 4.10 To 4.20 Benchmarks

The Hackbench Linux scheduler benchmark has also been slower since Linux 4.15.

Some of the Stress-NG benchmarks are similarly affected since Linux 4.15.

The socket performance in Linux 4.20 appears to be a very nice improvement for this next kernel version.

The boot times reported by systemd have been quite volatile between releases, but at least from Linux 4.10 to 4.20 there isn't any major slowdowns even with all of the code and new features introduced to the kernel.

For this benchmarking on the Intel Core i7 5960X system, the overall AC system power consumption has been effectively these tests going from Linux 4.10 to 4.20 with being a few Watts either way, as measured by a WattsUp Pro power meter interfacing with the Phoronix Test Suite.

While in a number of tests the performance of this Core i7 system has been slower since Linux 4.15 when the Spectre/Meltdown mitigations were initially mainlined, at least compared to Linux 4.10 the 4.20 performance isn't all that in bad shape with the countless kernel improvements made in 2018. Stay tuned for more Linux 4.20 kernel benchmarks as the official release nears around the end of the year. And if you enjoy these kernel benchmarks, go premium this holiday season to help support our testing effort.