Linux 5.16 Has A Nice Performance Gift For AMD Ryzen Laptops With Radeon Graphics

[aht0]

Does alleged perf.improvement includes discrete Vega cards?

[chithanh]

Interestingly, the improvements were also in one benchmark where in the Windows 11 vs. Linux benchmarks the Windows performance was ahead. Not enough to reach parity though.


Unfortunately there are not many benchmarks in common between this article and the Windows vs. Linux article.

[make_adobe_on_Linux!]

Doesn't the last BIOS update solve it?
It seems the last bios has a Linux new config..

Not for many. Actually there is no guarantee any future BIOS does so far... But the intention is for firmware + 5.16rc to have a fix for most of these sleep issues.

[tuxd3v]

The most exciting part about 5.16+ is the fixes for this laptops sleep system. So many people are suffering from these bugs (a lot of power usage in s3, no ability to use s0ix):
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Other-L...ms/m-p/5098254
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Other-L...ts/m-p/5098252
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Ubuntu/...x/m-p/4247014?

Doesn't the last BIOS update solve it?
It seems the last bios has a Linux new config..

[gfunk]

That's not how Linux works. A distribution can't be "designed" for a specific kernel version. Pop OS may not provide prebuilt kernel packages for the latest kernel version, but there is literally nothing stopping you from compiling and installing your own from vanilla sources. Provided you do this correctly it would work absolutely fine

I know, but Pop uses kernelstub, it might have changed recently but its not great for using extra kernels. I might switch to fedora if I hit any limitations

[ryad]

The most exciting part about 5.16+ is the fixes for this laptops sleep system. So many people are suffering from these bugs (a lot of power usage in s3, no ability to use s0ix):
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Other-L...ms/m-p/5098254
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Other-L...ts/m-p/5098252
https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/Ubuntu/...x/m-p/4247014?

That's awesome news, I have issues like these for a while now on my system. Building a mainline kernel right now and hope for the best Thanks!

Update: Can confirm that the performance has increased in CS:GO. Whereas I had slightly below 60 fps on average with kernel 5.15, mesa 21.3 and the new Vulkan option at 1080p in fps_benchmark.bsp, it now goes up to about 80 fps on average with the 5.16 RC6 kernel. Haven't tried mesa 22 though.

[partcyborg]

I have a T14, I play games and I have sleep and battery drain issues.. So happy to see these improvements! I'm on pop OS though which is not really designed for using newer kernels

That's not how Linux works. A distribution can't be "designed" for a specific kernel version. Pop OS may not provide prebuilt kernel packages for the latest kernel version, but there is literally nothing stopping you from compiling and installing your own from vanilla sources. Provided you do this correctly it would work absolutely fine

[Girolamo_Cavazzoni]

I did run some benchmarks on a completely different laptop featuring a Ryzen 5 5500U. That Zen 3 laptop too is seeing nice uplift on Linux 5.16 across various graphics tests

As far as I know Ryzen 5 5500 is a Zen 2 APU. Just for clarification. Let's hope there are some improvements with Zen and Zen+, too.

[gfunk]

The most exciting part about 5.16+ is the fixes for this laptops sleep system. So many people are suffering from these bugs (a lot of power usage in s3, no ability to use s0ix):

I have a T14, I play games and I have sleep and battery drain issues.. So happy to see these improvements! I'm on pop OS though which is not really designed for using newer kernels

[perpetually high]

didn't this kernel include some work on AMD's cpu governor?

5.16 does include the amd-pstate governor, but it's disabled by default on Ubuntu, for example. YMMV on your distro.

You can check if your config contains CONFIG_X86_AMD_PSTATE

If you are running 5.16 with amd-pstate enabled, you can add the following to your GRUB:

amd_pstate.enable=1 amd_pstate.shared_mem=1

Update grub, reboot, and verify:

$ dmesg | grep -i pstate
[ 3.789677] powernow_k8: WTF driver: amd-pstate

$ cpufreq-info | grep 'amd-pstate'
driver: amd-pstate

5.16 does include the new futex patches and it's enabled by default (relevant config entries are CONFIG_FUTEX=y and CONFIG_FUTEX_PI=y)

I also notcied when looking at a steam log, that the previous futex2 patches on 5.15.x are no longer valid and turned off by Steam:

fsync: old futex2 patches detected, disabling.
esync: up and running.

With the new futex in 5.16, you should see this now:

fsync: up and running.

So be on the lookout for those on your system.