Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris i7-3960X Scaling Performance

Starting with the test profile that times the compilation of ImageMagick, there are results from Scientific Linux 6.1 (the popular Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.1 derivative), Debian GNU/kFreeBSD testing with the FreeBSD 9.0 kernel, and then normal Debian Linux testing. Between one and four CPU cores for the i7-3960X the performance between the three operating systems is the same relative to the single-core time. However, when increasing the core count higher, Scientific Linux 6.1 begins to pull ahead while at 12 threads (6 cores + Hyper Threading) Debian with the FreeBSD-9 kernel was not scaling quite as well as the Linux environments.

With timing the MPlayer build process, the three operating systems were scaling close to the same until hitting four cores and above. This time though the Debian GNU/kFreeBSD scaling was going quite well but when turning on Intel Hyper Threading it lost out to Scientific Linux 6.1 that returned to being the frontrunner.

With the C-Ray ray-tracing benchmark we finally have a Solaris-compatible test profile. For this intense multi-threaded ray-tracer the performance of the Linux, FreeBSD, and Solaris operating systems were the same until having all cores turned on with Hyper Threading also enabled. When Hyper Threading was switched on in the last configuration, the Linux and FreeBSD configurations did not see their performance go up at all but actually recessed a bit in their ray-tracing performance. The setbacks are similar to what we have seen in some other tests in the past when toggling Hyper Threading. However, what is interesting is the result for Solaris 11 11/11, which did the best in this twelve-thread configuration.