Windows 10 May 2020 vs. Ubuntu 20.04 Is A Surprisingly Heated Race On The Intel Core i9 10900K

When running 101 tests in total, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS won 60% of the tests to Windows 10 having a respectable 40% first place finishes. See all 101 benchmark results in full via this OpenBenchmarking.org result file.

If taking the geometric mean of those 101 tests, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on the Core i9 10900K was faster than Windows 10 May 2020 by just about 2%... Much closer results than we have seen out of past Intel comparisons with largely similar tests being run or even the recent Threadripper tests with largely overlapping tests being run where it was a 20% difference.

As for why the Core i9 10900K is running so competitive between Windows 10 May 2020 and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS is a good question. Whether it's due to recent Intel optimizations to Windows 10 and/or (Ubuntu) Linux performing subpar for the latest generation Comet Lake processors remains to be determined. Given the aggressive Turbo Boost handling with the Core i9 10900K for being able to hit up to 5.3GHz, it wouldn't surprise me the least if Windows at the moment is offering better handling for Turbo Boost Max / Thermal Velocity Boost handling than Linux. There has also been a lot of recent Intel power management Linux work in flux at the moment as well around migrating P-State to the Schedutil frequency governor and other changes. As time allows and depending upon interest from premium readers, I may dig deeper into exploring the current Windows/Linux behavior of the i9-10900K and seeing in comparison how the Windows 10 May 2020 vs. Ubuntu 20.04 LTS performance stacks up for older Intel CPUs to see if the more competitive Intel Windows performance is a new phenomenon or indeed just limited to newer Comet Lake processors. Stay tuned.