CachyOS Experimenting With x86-64-v4 Repository For AVX-512 Optimized Packages

[phoronix]

Phoronix: CachyOS Experimenting With x86-64-v4 Repository For AVX-512 Optimized Packages

While a number of Linux distributions are experimenting with x86-64-v2 baselines or offering x86-64-v3 optimized packages for assuming AVX/AVX2 support by default for their packages, the CachyOS Linux distribution has been experimenting with offering x86-64-v4 packages for those running on Intel or AMD systems with AVX-512 support...

https://www.phoronix.com/news/CachyOS-x86-64-v4-Experiment

[ptr1337]

Thanks Michael for posting the news.

I really look forward into the benchmarks!

[darkbasic]

v2 base + v4 optional repository sounds good to me.

[Chugworth]

I've been an Arch user for quite a while now. However, CachyOS is starting to look tempting given that Arch does not provide any v4 or even v3 packages. I would have expected Arch to be a bit more cutting-edge.

[dayone]

Switched yesterday to CachyOS, performance out of the box is very good.

[sobrus]

There is no need to switch distro. I've been running Manjaro Unstable with cachyos v3 repos and kernel for about a month now - with no issues.

I think all these arch based distros can be mixed as long as their base repos don't diverge too much in time (like manjaro stable) and CachyOS provides instructions how to use their repo to augument existing instance. In fact, I've got far too many issues with pure CachyOS to use it as standalone OS, but of course it will improve over time.
To be honest, difference in performance is rather negligible, but their kernel rocks - it has amd preferred cores enabled by default!

Arch is doing phenomenal work anyway, they don't need to do everything.

[Noitatsidem]

I've been an Arch user for quite a while now. However, CachyOS is starting to look tempting given that Arch does not provide any v4 or even v3 packages. I would have expected Arch to be a bit more cutting-edge.

Gone are the days of fast and optimized i686 (vs i386, or maybe i486 packages in other distros) packages for Arch. Arch these days is about up to date software, not getting the most out of your hardware. I don't think this shift in focus was intentional, just a classic case of getting stuck in your own ways.

[ms178]

Switched yesterday to CachyOS, performance out of the box is very good.

If you want it to be even better and don't care about power-efficiency, you could compile the CachyOS Kernel but change the cpu governor to performance (which is the default with Clear Linux but could hurt laptop users as it consumes more energy). On my older Haswell-Xeon it makes quite a difference with the stock Kernel vs. my own (tested in Company of Heroes 2, which went up with the custom Kernel from 36 fps avg to 92 fps avg due to the inverted turbo boost behavior). I hope CachyOS will implement a solution like https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/upowe...6b47db9f80cb3e which allows to please users with both use cases.

[ms178]

There are lots of interesting benchmark opportunities with CachyOS on AVX512 hardware. One could test v3 vs v4 vs baseline. Or how different CPUs behave with v3 and v4 (vs. baseline) to assess the quality of their AVX implementations.

[raystriker]

Would be interested to see if running the V4 packages on laptops does register a hit to the battery life. For now it would be only AMD SKUs, but I still think it could be interesting as AMD has 3 different flavours-> Zen4 monolithic, Zen4 (chiplets) and Zen4+4c hybrid monoliths.