Linux 6.11 Kernel Performance On The AMD Ryzen 9 9000 Series

If you are picking up one of the new AMD Ryzen 9000 series desktop processors soon for Linux use, you may be wondering whether it's worthwhile or even necessary moving to the latest Linux kernel code compared to the likes of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS that are shipping a Linux 6.8 derived kernel. Here are some quick benchmarks in looking at that question.

The AMD Ryzen 9600X / 9700X / 9900X / 9950X can work out fine using the stock Linux 6.8 based kernel on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. As mentioned in my earlier Linux reviews of these new AMD "Granite Ridge" CPUs, the main caveats are around the CPU power consumption monitoring (RAPL / PowerCap) with a one-liner still missing for supporting the Family 1Ah processors. There have been some other AMD Family 1Ah additions in the 6.9 through 6.11 kernels, but mostly for benefit on the AMD EPYC server processor side and for the Ryzen AI 300 series mobile/laptop processors. Using Linux 6.8 can work out just fine on the AMD Ryzen 9000 series desktops.

For those wondering if there are any performance gains to find if going for Linux 6.11 (currently in Git) versus the Linux 6.8 kernel on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, I ran some quick benchmarks to explore that area.

On the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X desktop I ran some benchmarks using the stock Ubuntu 24.04 LTS kernel and then repeated using the latest Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA daily image of the Linux 6.11 Git kernel.






In a few of the heavier workloads like renders and video encoding, there were some very slight advantages of using Linux 6.11 Git compared to the stock Linux 6.8 kernel on this current Ubuntu Long Term Support release. It was typically 2% or less difference but consistently with a very slight edge for Linux 6.11. But for lighter workloads and other cases there was no measurable difference at all. All those flat results not shown but here's the geo mean across the many different workloads tested:

Moving to Linux 6.11 (or 6.10 stable) can be worthwhile for enjoying other new kernel features, driver improvements like to the AMD Radeon graphics stack, or other areas, but as far as the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X performance there was no major difference over the stock Ubuntu 24.04 LTS kernel.