32-bit vs. 64-bit Ubuntu 13.04 Linux Performance

While nearly all modern Intel/AMD x86 hardware is 64-bit capable, among novice Linux users the question commonly is whether to install the 32-bit or 64-bit version of a given distribution. We have previously delivered benchmarks showing Ubuntu 32-bit vs. 64-bit performance while in this article is an updated look in seeing how the 32-bit versus 64-bit binary performance compares when running Ubuntu 13.04 with the Linux 3.8 kernel.

From an older Apple Mac Mini with Intel Core 2 Duo processor this week we delivered LLVM/Clang vs. GCC compiler benchmarks as well as Intel Gallium3D benchmarks. We are using this Mac Mini with 1GB of RAM and Intel T5600 CPU to deliver this latest round of Ubuntu 32-bit vs. 64-bit benchmarking.

This benchmarking is quite straightforward and is simply benchmarking clean installs of Ubuntu 13.04 development snapshots in 32-bit and 64-bit flavors. All benchmarking was handled in a fully automated and reproducible manner using the Phoronix Test Suite benchmarking software.

In past benchmarks when testing the 32-bit version of Ubuntu we tested the generic kernel as well as the PAE (Physical Address Extension) kernel that supports the 32-bit kernel addressing more than 4GB of system memory. With Ubuntu 12.10 and future releases, the generic kernel is PAE-enabled.