Early Linux 2.6.31 Kernel Benchmarks

There was a small drop in the disk performance when it came to Dbench, but not necessarily a cause for concern with the very small difference, but we will keep an eye on its metrics in our future tests.

Using dcraw to convert RAW to PPM image files, the Linux 2.6.30 and 2.6.31-rc2 kernels were a small amount faster in their processing times compared to 2.6.29.

In our final test we looked at the PostgreSQL performance and found very small improvements in performance using the newer kernels, but this was a very small difference.

From these quick tests ran today, there is not too much to say. Not a whole lot has changed when it comes to the Linux desktop performance using the newer 2.6.31 series, at least with the tests that were run in this latest round on this Intel Core 2 Duo system. One area, however, where they may be regressions in the Linux 2.6.31 kernel is with the EXT4 file-system or elsewhere in disk sub-system due to some of the disk performance drops we have encountered and are repeatable using the Phoronix Test Suite.

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