Intel Core i5 12600K / Core i9 12900K "Alder Lake" Linux Performance

[yump]

If I'm not mistaken, the benchmarks that have problems with the E-cores are largely the same ones that have problems with cpufreq governors. But unlike switching to "performance", there's no way to work around it without leaving a lot of performance on the table (disabling E-cores), or onerous per-application configuration (taskset).

I'm hoping that Intel comes up with a solution for this soon, and that whatever it is, it also benefits schedutil.

[Spacefish]

Well, stock prices don´t lie. AMD up by 3% (they have ryzen?) INT down 0,5%

The real money is made with hyperscaler / datacenter deals and ADL doesn´t look that promising for that.. performance / watt is too damn low, furthermore intel did not release any "Xeon" part yet based on Golden Cove, it will be called "Sapphire Rapids".
But shortly after Sapphire Rapids releases in 2022 AMD will release their 7xx4 Genoa Zen 4 based Platform/CPUs.

As current rumors Genoa will have
- more memory bandwidth
- more I/O bandwidth

I guess on the performance / watt side Zen 4 on TSMC 5nm will win as well, but we will see.

Intel will have some Sapphire Rapids SKUs with "on processor" HBM memory, that could make a difference performance wise / latency wise, but i guess it won´t negate the suspected performance/watt advantage of AMD Zen 4.

Furthemore i wonder what difference DDR4 vs DDR5 makes in the phoronix benchmarks, as DDR5 should theoretically have a lower latency which affects performance a lot, especially for benchmarks with larger datasets.

[birdie]

If I'm not mistaken, the benchmarks that have problems with the E-cores are largely the same ones that have problems with cpufreq governors. But unlike switching to "performance", there's no way to work around it without leaving a lot of performance on the table (disabling E-cores), or onerous per-application configuration (taskset).

I'm hoping that Intel comes up with a solution for this soon, and that whatever it is, it also benefits schedutil.

Intel Thread Director is not even scheduled for 5.16 which means Linux is unlikely to get full support for ADL CPUs in the next 6-9 months (!) considering that most distros, sans Arch and Fedora, don't upgrade to the mainline kernel right away.

[sophisticles]

It turns out AVX-512 can be enabled in BIOS on Alder Lake P-cores, which disables E-cores.

Now that is a horse of a different color and can potentially change the landscape for both Win 10 and Linux.

[Myownfriend]

And here's Linux, sorry Windows 10 without Intel Thread Director support:

Just because those applications only used the E-cores under Windows 10, it doesn't mean they're only using the E-cores under Linux.

[birdie]

Just because those applications only used the E-cores under Windows 10, it doesn't mean they're only using the E-cores under Linux.

Correct but since the Linux kernel scheduler is not aware which cores/threads are which it moves tasks around indiscriminately which obviously negatively affects game scores. If Michael pinned games to P-cores, I guess the results would be completely different but he didn't mention anything like that. I wonder why he didn't but since he ignores me completely we'll never get the answer and the only website on the net where Ryzen 5000 continues to be faster than ADL in games will be Phoronix. It would be funny if it wasn't so sad. Linux fans who ignore other reviewers will get a completely skewed picture of ADL performance.

[perpetually high]

Wow, that's freaking amazing. Any benchmarks for AVX-512? What's the source?

Anandtech claimed AVX-512 cannot be enabled.

I was just reading about this a few minutes:

I have to say a side word about AVX-512 support, because we found it. If you’re prepared to disable the E-cores, and use specific motherboards, it works. After Intel spent time saying it was fused off, we dug into the story and found it still works for those that need it. It’s going to be interesting to hear how this feature will be discussed by Intel in future.

Overall though, it’s no denying that Intel is now in the thick of it, or if I were to argue, the market leader. The nuances of the hybrid architecture are still nascent, so it will take time to discover where benefits will come, especially when we get to the laptop variants of Alder Lake. At a retail price of around $650, the Core i9-12900K ends up being competitive between the two Ryzen 9 processors, each with their good points. The only serious downside for Intel though is cost of switching to DDR5, and users learning Windows 11. That’s not necessarily on Intel, but it’s a few more hoops than we regularly jump through.

Source: Anandtech (last paragraph)

[sophisticles]

There have been numerous reports that Intel Thread Directory will be Win 11 exclusively, meaning no Linux and no Win 10. But, if the other poster is correct and you can enable AVX-512 on Alder Lake in the bios by disabling the E cores, that does change things considerably.

[sophisticles]

I can't find it right now but I remember reading that supposedly 2 E cores are faster than 1 P core + HT but consume 40% less power and supposedly Intel could fit 4 E cores in the same space as 1 P core.

If this is in fact true, then the obvious question becomes why not release a 16 E core cpu that is faster than an 8C/16T P core cpu that consumes 40% less power and is physically smaller meaning Intel can produce more cpu's from the same materials.

Maybe Intel is saving such a processor for data centers.

[birdie]

There have been numerous reports that Intel Thread Directory will be Win 11 exclusively, meaning no Linux and no Win 10. But, if the other poster is correct and you can enable AVX-512 on Alder Lake in the bios by disabling the E cores, that does change things considerably.

That cannot be possibly true considering Windows 10 LTSC will be supported until 2029. I guess Microsoft just wants to take it slow as Windows 11 is a more "beta" sort of Windows than Windows 10.

Also from Operating Systems Support - 12th Generation Intel® Core™ Processors Datasheet, Volume 1 of 2
Operating Systems Support

Processor Line	Windows* 11 / Windows 20H2	Linux* OS	Chrome* OS
S-Processor Line	Yes	Yes	No

As for Chrome OS it's understandable considering it's running a relatively old Linux kernel version.