Linux 6.2 Performance Option Helps Extend The Longevity Of Intel Skylake Era PCs

Written by Michael Larabel in Computers on 31 January 2023 at 11:00 AM EST. Page 2 of 6. 20 Comments.

PostMark benchmark with settings of Disk Transaction Performance. mitigations=off was the fastest.

Sockperf benchmark with settings of Test: Throughput. mitigations=off was the fastest.

Sockperf benchmark with settings of Test: Latency Ping Pong. mitigations=off was the fastest.

As expected and similar to the prior Xeon E3 v5 testing, the Core i7 8700K enjoyed immediate performance benefits when booting the Linux 6.2 kernel with retbleed=stuff rather than the default kernel configuration relying on IBRS for this Coffee Lake system. However, even with the performance uplift out of Call Depth Tracking, all of the other CPU mitigations still active mean a lot of lost performance still as shown by the mitigations=off run.

OSBench benchmark with settings of Test: Create Files. mitigations=off was the fastest.

OSBench benchmark with settings of Test: Launch Programs. mitigations=off was the fastest.

OSBench benchmark with settings of Test: Create Processes. mitigations=off was the fastest.

OSBench benchmark with settings of Test: Memory Allocations. mitigations=off was the fastest.

For the operations involving the kernel, booting with retbleed=stuff is an easy way to help recover some lost performance when using Linux 6.2+ on Skylake/Skylake-derived systems without going full bore and running with mitigations=off.

OpenRadioss benchmark with settings of Model: Bumper Beam. mitigations=off was the fastest.

OpenRadioss benchmark with settings of Model: Rubber O-Ring Seal Installation. mitigations=off was the fastest.

DaCapo Benchmark benchmark with settings of Java Test: Tradesoap. mitigations=off was the fastest.

DaCapo Benchmark benchmark with settings of Java Test: Tradebeans. mitigations=off was the fastest.

Renaissance benchmark with settings of Test: ALS Movie Lens. mitigations=off was the fastest.

Renaissance benchmark with settings of Test: Apache Spark ALS. mitigations=off was the fastest.

Renaissance benchmark with settings of Test: Savina Reactors.IO. mitigations=off was the fastest.

Renaissance benchmark with settings of Test: Apache Spark PageRank. mitigations=off was the fastest.

Renaissance benchmark with settings of Test: Finagle HTTP Requests. mitigations=off was the fastest.

Whether you are running a laptop, desktop, or server with a Skylake-era processor, switching over to Call Depth Tracking with retbleed=stuff is an easy way to still keep your Linux PC secure while enjoying better performance than is otherwise seen out-of-the-box.

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